Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

What makes an individual a great startup founder (versus an employee) has been something I had been thinking about since I retired. A Day in the Life of A Founder For those of you who’ve never started a company, let me assure you that it never happens like the pleasant articles you read in business magazines or in case studies.

Founder 302

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 302

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 177

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 177

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Following is his advice to early stage entrepreneurs for creating structure in their company. Here’s the punchline: if you run your company as if you have closed a VC equity financing round even though you actually closed a convertible debt round, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to raise your Series A financing.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. Like a teenager with a million-dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a startup with too much capital and no product-market fit will become capable of making larger mistakes. How do you know you have it? It’s an art.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 156

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 156

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Alternative Capital. “

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. It consists of a highly intelligent and opinionated founder – Nick Halstead. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 136

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 136

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking? Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

ithacaVC

MARCH 14, 2011

At the early stages of a startup, the founding team is probably the most important variable of success. As a company matures, the concept of “founding team” is replaced by “management team”, which may and hopefully includes the founders. Company XT has a tech founder and business founder.

Early Stage 45

Early Stage Founder Burn Rate Cofounder 45

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

mashable.com

JUNE 11, 2013

Perhaps the team is working on a product that really isnt that great or useful. Or maybe the co-founders have a poisonous relationship that will hinder the companys growth. Maybe they never thought about product-market fit. Check out the tips below from founders, CEOs and investors alike. Leave it in the comments.

Cofounder 111

Cofounder Technical Review Startup Software Review 111

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most startups don’t have the luxury of hiring an experienced PM early in their journey. Many founders have to turn to brute force to figure it out, even when they themselves don’t have practitioner product management experience. they can range from customer acquisition, product engagement/stickiness, or business model.

Hiring 120

Hiring Bandwidth Product Early Stage 120

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

Some believe in the all-in approach to product development: build an advanced app. Early stage idea validation can be accomplished without building an application. In other words, if the proposed solution has no proof of adoption, neither the customer, founder, co-founders or investors will benefit from the venture.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. Let’s start with a simple question: why do early-stage startups want revenue? But all things are never equal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Early stage startups have to survive one day at a time and are often presented with limited choices of the moment that enable them to continue. At early stages you probably don’t have an assembly line and can’t clearly define any particular job. Kalanick, former investor BFF turned highly disappointed by founder behavior.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

I’m now in my second founder/CEO role, having raised more than $18.5 million in venture financing. No doubt early-stage companies can be started on a shoestring by low-paid entrepreneurs, but when financing a scalable, sustainable product, a free application server won’t make much of a difference.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

VC Financings: 1. The investment will be used for product development initiatives. ShoeDazzle has Kim Kardashian as a co-founder / company as a spokesperson as well as Brian Lee who was a co-founder at Legal Zoom. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories. Add this new model to the mix.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

“If you can fix a problem for someone and do it better, quicker, and/or cheaper than your competitor, you’re off to a good start.” – Gabriel Kuperman, founder and CEO of CuePin. We created UpKeep to fill this void—a cloud-based solution that was affordable for any size business.” – Ryan Chan, founder of UpKeep.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Market Risk vs. Invention Risk - Click to Enlarge For companies building web-based products, product development may be difficult, but with enough time and iteration engineering will eventually converge on a solution and ship a functional product - i t’s engineering, not invention.

Vertical 147

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 147

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

2- Business and Finance. I run an early stage-startup called Smarthome NX that helps consumers discover Smart home technologies through content, collaborative partnerships and commerce. I am the CEO of Venyou and the founder of Money Therapy, my side hustle. Thanks to Chloe Spilotro, Sparkle Couture by Chloe ! #2-

Entrepreneur 72

Entrepreneur Technical Review SEO New York City 72

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2014

By Elton Rivas, co-founder of KYN. It started with an entrepreneur with an idea for a new product or service gathering funds from personal savings, obtaining money from a friends and family round and soliciting help from anyone and everyone to get the idea off the ground. Starting a company a few years ago was a lonely enterprise.

Cofounder 171

Cofounder Incubator Programming IPO 171

Early Growth Financial Services

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

I’ve met so many founders and early-stage teams who spend too much time worrying about the wrong things. These misguided concerns are a time-suck and not productive. You don’t need to have financing to build a strong company, at least not in the early stages. Startups worry about funding.

Early Stage 53

Early Stage Startup Finance Business Plan 53

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

The five main stages include the following: 1. Early Stage Investment (Series A & B) 4. Later Stage Investment (Series C, D, and so on) 5. Mezzanine Financing Most companies that raise equity capital and are eventually acquired or go public receive multiple rounds of financing first. Pre-Seed Funding 2.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. ” Hackernews list of “Tools of the Trade” for startups - includes over 150 SaaS tools used by startups, and over 150 comments with interesting insights from founders. Great for visualizing work of product development.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Team Configuration 500 Startups Guerilla Marketing Organizations Entrepreneurship Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Startups Startup Incubators and Seed Programs Seedcamp Y Combinator TechStars Lean Startups What is the perfect startup team? Lakshman Prasad • Nov 16, 2010.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

Up and Running

JANUARY 30, 2014

Accelerators focus on early-stage startups, while incubators are geared toward later-stage startups. Some accelerators have themes or focus on certain business sectors such as education, healthcare, or finance. Those founders all have different experiences and backgrounds. Accelators.

Incubator 105

Incubator New York City Venture Capital Startup 105

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing “product development” eg new social media website project? Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. He needs to generate enough profit so that he can grow organically and build his business systematically, and without expecting a lot of outside financing. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. He needs to generate enough profit so that he can grow organically and build his business systematically, and without expecting a lot of outside financing. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

Some VCs prefer investing at the earliest stages and then cycle off the board of directors. Others prefer to come in at the later stages, post product-market fit, and not have to deal with the risk and roller coaster of the early stages. Financing: holy crap - we are running out of money in 6 months!

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20