Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Today’s ultracompetitive global environment demands that you make alliances early. They sell into multiple verticals, or pursue multiple revenue streams, such that they can’t develop a repeatable, scalable sales process, and don’t do anything well. A startup must form partnerships and alliances within its ecosystem.

Early Stage 379

Early Stage Vertical Sales Global 379

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. Finally, GM created the notion of perpetual demand within brands by continually obsoleting their own products with new models rolled out every year.

Michigan 275

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 275

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 7, 2019

In short, they’re offering Certainty on Demand— a term coined by Michele Serro, the founder of Doorsteps. These platforms enable automation to solve higher order problems effectively, driving above market revenues for lower cost tasks. Wethos will add more verticals of work. Noken will add more countries.

Demand 96

Demand India Vertical PR 96

Where to Play

AUGUST 18, 2020

Most of their business growth was vertical by focusing on food, tentage, and decoration for marrying couples and their families. Recently, the epicenter of marriage organization in Pakistani culture is shifting towards marriage halls and marquee and the demand for traditional catering and tentage business has been falling.

Pakistan 62

Pakistan Sales Cycle Marketing Technical Review 62

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 25, 2018

It’s also the same one we apply to demand generation. You (supposedly) do demand generation—or you would if you just ran LinkedIn ads, too. But demand generation isn’t a pile of tactics. It’s hard to do, which is why most demand generation advice merely advocates adding another channel or tool to the heap. You email them.

Demand 132

Demand Vertical Campaign Channel 132

Up and Running

OCTOBER 7, 2019

A data-driven approach can help you make accurate and timely business decisions to meet market demands and improve cost-efficiency. Revenue growth rate: measures the month-over-month percentage increase in revenue and is the most common and important metric for startups. “What gets measured gets done.” . Sales KPIs.

Founder 71

Founder Retention Metrics Technical Review 71

Transformify

APRIL 21, 2017

The demand for top talent is monumental, and the process of finding and hiring the best workers can be excruciating. Our most recent addition is Toptal Finance, which connects companies with seasoned finance, investment banking, and fundraising experts on-demand. And we’ll be expanding into more business verticals soon.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Cofounder 40

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. would look in each of the verticals. Marketing – How do you create end user demand? Business and Revenue Model – How do we organize to make money?

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 14, 2021

5000 list , which lists private American companies based on three-year revenue growth between 2016 and 2019. From our industry perspective, on-demand accounting services platforms will continue disrupting the professional services industry while helping to define the future of work. Last year, Taxfyle ranked No. Magazine’ Inc.

CPA 138

CPA Founder Vertical Cofounder 138

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

And it was going to mention the two words that SuperMac marketing needed to live and breathe: revenue and profit. To do that we will create end-user demand and drive it into the sales channel, educate the channel and customers about why our products are superior, and help Engineering understand customer needs and desires.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 263

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

You must also organically aggregate demand. Aggregating demand is much harder and more critical. Another repeated mistake is attacking verticals where a satisfactory supplier “match” end’s the customer’s need to re-enter the market in search of an alternative. Size of the Market Opportunity.

Aggregator 101

Aggregator Marketing Software Review North America 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

Today’s ultracompetitive global environment demands that you make alliances early. They sell into multiple verticals, or pursue multiple revenue streams, such that they can’t develop a repeatable, scalable sales process, and don’t do anything well. A startup must form partnerships and alliances within its ecosystem.

Startup 242

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 242

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

New media platforms are enabling a new creator type: Digitally Native Vertical Creators , Eric Feng. New media platforms are enabling a new creator type: Digitally Native Vertical Creator s, Eric Feng. ” Eric Feng. ” Eric Feng. Creators Platform Dependency. Take Twitch for example.

Aggregator 207

Aggregator Vertical Audience Seed Stage 207

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

We’re hitting record revenue months, weeks, and margins. Don’t be afraid to pivot The collapse of SVB spurred us to do a deep evaluation of how we’re generating revenue and value for customers. So instead of throwing dollars and time at a revamp, we’re doubling down on what we already know is the best value and revenue generator.

Early Stage 112

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 112

Growthink Blog

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

What is the future of Pay-Per-View/Video-on-Demand (PPV and VOD)? Video-on-demand alone is estimated to grow from a $1.1 revenues from internet video services spanning user-generated content to television shows and movies will exceed $7 billion this year. How about Internet Video? Annual U.S. Annual U.S.

Los Angeles 85

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Technical Review Distribution 85

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Instead of a Sales team and organized to sell with a consistent and successful sales roadmap generating revenue, it is a disorganized and unhappy organization burning lots of cash. Because the company based its headcount and expenses on the expectation that the Sales organization will bring in revenue according to plan.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 228

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

But if you want to build a scalable startup you need to be asking how you can you get enough customers/users/payers to build a business that can grow revenues past several $100M/year. Creating a vertically oriented regional ecosystem is a pretty amazing accomplishment for any country or industry. With 317 million people the U.S.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

ConversionXL

JULY 3, 2020

But, historically, they’ve undermined monetization—requiring crawler access that savvy users exploit and demanding free clicks for searchers. News is an especially challenging vertical since no site owns a newsworthy event. News sites have long been at the forefront, but plenty of speciality sites (e.g., But it’s not easy.

SEO 122

SEO HTML Technical Review Caching 122

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2017

Revenue multiples, profit multiples, premium over the previous financing — these are metrics used by sellers to help determine a minimum acceptable price. Even for startups, it takes years for a new product to become good enough to demand many millions of dollars in revenue.). Yet mobile advertising revenues were paltry.

Balance Sheet 242

Balance Sheet Vertical Acquisition Revenue 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2013

Today’s ultracompetitive global environment demands that you make alliances early. They sell into multiple verticals, or pursue multiple revenue streams, such that they can’t develop a repeatable, scalable sales process, and don’t do anything well. A startup must form partnerships and alliances within its ecosystem.

Startup 293

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 293

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

iCloud subscriptions) it’s about 6% of Apple’s revenue. To put that in perspective, all the chargers and other accessory stuff amounts to about 50% of the revenue Apple generates from content + software + services. 3) Vertically Integrate - Apple could also vertically integrate in more radical ways.

Hungary 168

Hungary Dividend Vertical Preferred Stock 168

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2013

Maintenance contracts are another great way to create a brand-new revenue stream. Instead of selling your services to everyone, expand your services “vertically” by targeting industries where you’ve already been successful. One of the best ways to achieve a stable cash flow is to offer prepaid retainers or ongoing payment plans.

Entrepreneur 234

Entrepreneur Vertical Reputation Valuation 234

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2012

Today’s ultracompetitive global environment demands that you make alliances early. They sell into multiple verticals, or pursue multiple revenue streams, such that they can’t develop a repeatable, scalable sales process, and don’t do anything well. A startup must form partnerships and alliances within its ecosystem.

Startup 247

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 247

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2012

Maintenance contracts are another great way to create a brand-new revenue stream. Instead of selling your services to everyone, expand your services “vertically” by targeting industries where you’ve already been successful. One of the best ways to achieve a stable cash flow is to offer prepaid retainers or ongoing payment plans.

Startup 236

Startup Vertical Reputation Valuation 236

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. The result?

Retention 115

Retention Customer Developer Programming 115

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. The result?

Retention 112

Retention Developer Customer Programming 112

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2016

Today’s ultracompetitive global environment demands that you make alliances early. They sell into multiple verticals, or pursue multiple revenue streams, such that they can’t develop a repeatable, scalable sales process, and don’t do anything well. A startup must form partnerships and alliances within its ecosystem.

Startup 120

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 120

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. The result?

Retention 105

Retention Customer Developer Programming 105

Hippoland

JULY 24, 2016

In short: Valuations for seed stage companies are fairly arbitrary and driven solely by supply and demand. Supply - amount of your round and Demand - investor demand. Your startup’s valuation is not based on a proforma of your revenue. Investor demand here is unfortunately not in your control.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Vertical Demand 48

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

As a result the young company is now saddled with an expensive, scaled-up sales organization frustrated trying to execute a losing sales strategy and a marketing organization desperately trying to create demand without a true understanding of customers’ needs. All of this is usually a bad idea. 3 , on August 31, 2009 at 12:48 pm Said: [.]

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. The result?

Retention 98

Retention Customer Developer Programming 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2011

Maintenance contracts are another great way to create a brand-new revenue stream. Instead of selling your services to everyone, expand your services “vertically” by targeting industries where you’ve already been successful. One of the best ways to achieve a stable cash flow is to offer prepaid retainers or ongoing payment plans.

Startup 230

Startup Vertical Reputation Valuation 230

ConversionXL

AUGUST 19, 2016

Marketers should also be looking at acquisition (visits, unique visitors, pageviews), behavior (pages per visit, time on site, bounce rate), and revenue (if you’re eCommerce). For example, according to Mona Elesseily , “conversions in the health vertical have the best ROI during work hours and into the evening on tablet devices.”.

Mobile 48

Mobile Technical Review Software Review Metrics 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Customers went into the store either looking for the SuperMac product by name (if our demand creation activities had been effective) or went in unsure of which brand of board to buy. Your design or ad agencies can impress you with their awards, but if you’re not moving product or creating demand, you’ve missed the point.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Unfortunately most startups learn this by going through the “Fire the first Sales VP&# drill: You start your company with a list of potential customers reading like a “who’s who&# of whatever vertical market you’re in (or the Fortune 1000 list.) Your board nods sagely at your target customer list. What happened?

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 133

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Once the product begins to ship, startup sales execs use orders and revenue as its marker of progress in understanding customers. Well, because the revenue plan we promised the investors shows us generating customer revenue from the day of first customer ship.” Freemium models have their own scorekeeping.)

Customer Development 220

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 220