Version One Ventures

JANUARY 2, 2019

Each week we like share our thoughts on a range of topics from vertical markets to general startup advice and our reflections on investing. Changing the narrative on distributed teams in Silicon Valley”. Among our Silicon Valley-based portfolio companies, every company past “A” has a distributed team. Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 144

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Distribution Artificial Inteligence 144

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. For example, How does sales differ from one market to another? Others you need to know when you execute the plan.

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

That’s a bit of a cautionary tale to VC investors today who might think it’s inevitable that the private value they are enjoying in their portfolios will certainly translate to distributions in the near future. Was this a lost decade for venture capital? The power-law curve is when the distribution of returns is heavily skewed.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

Entertainment is more than newspapers, more than Hollywood, and more than the sum of specific verticals jousting for consumer eyeballs. The large investment flows into entertainment fuel advanced in technology to produce, to distribute and monetise content that educates us, relax us, entertains us, and so on.

Vertical 113

Vertical Artificial Inteligence Distribution IPO 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Yes an online video startup in ‘99 that helped large media companies encode and distribute their videos through portals. He was introduced through mutual friends to Highland Capital. At the time consumer internet venture capital was still suffering from the collapse of the Tech Bubble. Startup after Iron Planet? (6:00

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). Network of vertical focused sites: BeachMint, BeachMint, WineMint, etc.;

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto , Market Types « “Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch Closure » 21 Responses Tweets that mention Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development « Steve Blank -- Topsy.com , on November 16, 2009 at 7:20 am Said: [.]

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

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. This second point negatively impacts many vertical service provider markets (such as pediatricians) where customers are actually prefer a monogamous relationship.

Aggregator 101

Aggregator Marketing Software Review North America 101

Mucker Lab

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Most brilliant “Internet of Things” ideas are quicksand for capital unless you have the branding, vertical integration and customer lock-in that Apple achieved. 20 years ago, a majority of “Sand Hill” venture capital went into enterprise-focused startups. The iPod model will separate IoT platforms from fads.

Vertical 60

Vertical Widget Distribution China 60

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should have a chance to walk the floor looking for deals, technology, distribution, customers, etc. Partnership Opportunities At any show you are attending there has to be tons of opportunity for business to business relationships you hadn’t thought about. These two posts were amazing. Anyways, here’s one question I have.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

thebarefootvc

JUNE 6, 2013

Data on its own is meaningless, and can create more challenges than benefits, unless it can be quickly be parsed, analyzed and distributed to relevant entities. Entrepreneurship Mobile Startups Technology Venture Capital interpretative intelligence Social Entrepreneurship technology'

Venture Capital 88

Venture Capital Mobile Vertical Algorithm 88

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

customers aren’t buying it, the cost of distribution is too high, etc.) Because it isn’t until after first customer ship that a startup discovers that their initial hypotheses were simply wrong (i.e.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. Faith-based Entrepreneurship At first, entrepreneurship is a Faith-based initiative. There is no certainty about a startup on day-one.

Silicon Valley 212

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

The Next Web

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Distribution and cashflow pose challenges in China. Jenny Lee, a partner at venture capital firm GGV Capital which has a presence in both the US and China, also observes that in the US, the willingness to pay for an app is pretty high — especially for a utility tool, which is what CooTek’s TouchPal X Keyboard essentially is.

China 122

China Developer Intellectual Property Mobile 122

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Andy is a global thought leader in remote work, telecommuting, and distributed workforces having served as CEO of Crossover and Sococo and on the board of Texas Central, our new bullet train. Working with Joe, he founded RideAustin to provide ridesharing to Austin when Uber and Lyft were driven out by city council.

Austin 110

Austin Texas Cofounder Los Angeles 110

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . Fund/SPV management services specifically are provided by Assure Services and Proteus Capital. ff Venture Capital hired two full-time engineers to build out Totem.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I responded to their RFP by proposing that Ardent build the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center a distributed supercomputing environment with hundreds of Ardent personal supercomputers rather than a monolithic Cray supercomputer. And where are we today…distributed computing. Love it… Great closure.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 185

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 17, 2013

eBay recently launched an aggressive campaign attacking Amazon’s rate table on a vertical-by-vertical basis ( those percentages can be found here ). The distribution power of their pervasive platform proved a remarkable vehicle for many companies; particularly games companies. Let’s start with Facebook.

Europe 101

Europe Social Network Technical Review IPO 101

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

After that there’s a discussion of how the product will reach the customer and the potential distribution channel. The distribution discussion leads to some conclusions about competition: who are they and how they differ. The distribution discussion also leads to some assumptions about pricing.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.)

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Do you know have they distribute their product? Some of the conversations went like this: Startup 1 Entrepreneur -“I’m competing against Company x and have been following the Customer Development process and I’ve talked to lots of customers.” Me – “Have you used Company x’s product? Do you know how they create demand?

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Unfortunately, either information asymmetry or physical distances and the resulting distribution costs can both cut against the economic advantages that would otherwise arise for all. In many cases, a deeper focus on a particular category or vertical allows these marketplaces to distinguish themselves from broader marketplaces like eBay.

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2009

In the end, the CEO couldn’t get his board to give us the cash in exchange for the Japanese distribution rights and some equity. I’m sure when he got back to the office he was handing out a personalized knife to the executive on his staff who had borrowed my slide.) We ended up raising money from Sega.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 149

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

So I got out out of the building to meet and understand our customers and distribution partners. Unfortunately, while I had gone through phases of video game addiction in my life, in no way could I be described as even a “moderate hard-core gamer,” which ruled me out as a domain expert.

Silicon Valley 139

Silicon Valley RSS California Video 139

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

Source: NVCA , “Startup Ecosystem Faces Capital Crunch over Coming Months” USA – SBA Loans and PPP. The $349 billion aid package issued by the US Government and distributed in the form of SBA loans was quickly gobbled up by a large number of applications, many of which were from venture-backed or PE-backed startups.

SBA 124

SBA Technical Review Startup 124

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

To an entrepreneur, being asked to join a venture firm with an Entrepreneur-in-Residence title means you have been tapped on the shoulder by the VC gods. The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. We understood none of this. More detail in future posts.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

Instead of arguing why Dallas might be better than Houston we should be talking about how we can work together to get our share of venture capital dollars more in line with our population size and startup activity by unlocking additional capital sources that have been previously inaccessible to tech.

Texas 97

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Top management was trying to coordinate all of the operating details (sales, manufacturing, distribution and marketing,) across all the divisions and the company almost went bankrupt that year when poor planning led to excess inventory (with unsold cars piling up at dealers and the company running out of cash.)

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure. Over scrambled eggs and diet coke, I listened to this seasoned startup veteran describe the excitement of his students who came to the U.S. to compete.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

We’ll also see the emergence of more low code / no code platforms that address specific vertical needs. The distributed workforce will continue to add impetus to the zero trust architecture imperative and infrastructure as code will lead to the convergence of code security, application security and cloud security.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Go spend some time outside the building talking to potential distribution partners. No, not really, but my partner owns the studio and tells me it’s spectacular and everyone will love it. Don’t bother him; he knows what he’s doing. Tell them how great it’s going to be and see how many pre-orders we can get.”

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207

thebarefootvc

MARCH 5, 2017

As a VC who has built a fund focused on distributed connectivity and data analytics as a thesis, I am realistic about the current status of investment opportunities in the sector. Some of the smartest fledgling teams have been acquired by Google, Apple, Uber and Facebook over the past few years.

Artificial Inteligence 84

Artificial Inteligence Algorithm Valuation Aggregator 84

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

and concentrated on a single part of the supply chain – importing, distribution, wholesale, retail. These growing national companies were challenged to figure out how to organize an organization of increased complexity that resulted from their large size, and geographic scale as well as their horizontal and vertical integration.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

thebarefootvc

JULY 5, 2017

As a VC who has built a fund focused on distributed connectivity and data analytics as a thesis, I am realistic about the current status of investment opportunities in the sector. Some of the smartest fledgling teams have been acquired by Google, Apple, Uber and Facebook over the past few years.

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Algorithm Valuation Aggregator 40

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Ampex’s first customer was Bing Crosby who wanted to record his radio programs for rebroadcast (and had exclusive distribution rights.) But by the 1960′s the tidal wave of semiconductor startups would find a valley with a growing number of SBIC backed venture firms and limited partnerships. More on this in the next post.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 125