The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Most startups view venture capital funding as a blessing from above — eager to take it as soon as they can get it. While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating. Typical startups take in multiple rounds of funding from multiple investors.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2011

There are unknowns at every turn, leading product development, attracting customers, managing cash, and dealing with human resources and office politics. Probably 80% of the startups I know have found human resource issues to be the most treacherous. Stretch” goals in early-stage are not advised.

Advisory Board 232

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 232

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2012

There are unknowns at every turn, leading product development, attracting customers, managing cash, and dealing with human resources and office politics. Probably 80% of the startups I know have found human resource issues to be the most treacherous. Stretch” goals in early-stage are not advised.

Advisory Board 240

Advisory Board Forecast Early Stage Product Development 240

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

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. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2010

There are unknowns at every turn, leading product development, attracting customers, managing cash, and dealing with human resources and office politics. Probably 80% of the startups I know have found human resource issues to be the most treacherous. Stretch” goals in early-stage are not advised.

Advisory Board 125

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 125

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. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

In September 2017, I spent 2 weeks in Austin, Texas to understand what makes this vibrant startup ecosystem tick. My primary mission was to learn from the impressive entrepreneurial ecosystem in Austin and draw lessons for developing the entrepreneurship education program for Beetroot Academy.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As a startup, you as the entrepreneur are the brand, the brand builder, and the major lead generator.

Marketing 283

Marketing Early Stage Lead Generation Hosting 283

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. Is the service scaleable?

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Building a new startup hub Last week, I had a unique opportunity to spend some time in Boulder at the behest of TechStars. It was a great experience to see a relatively new startup hub in action - and thriving. Their model looks like a key ingredient in the startup brew there.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Following is his advice to early stage entrepreneurs for creating structure in their company. So, I’ll explain my reasoning through the story of ASC, a fictitious company that has a combination of characteristics I’ve seen across a number of early stage companies. Seven months in, there is a beta product.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

You have a million things to get done at your startup, yet you only have a handful of people to do them. Who should you hire? What is the Minimum Viable Team, if you will, for a startup? I can break down all the things a startup needs to do into three ideal people. Let’s take sales and business development.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

As you probably know, Forward Partners bundles help from our startup team, our proven methodologies and office space with our cash investment so I will be talking my own book tomorrow and hence here. In the 1990s when companies needed £2-5m to get a product to market they had money to hire a team of people to help them.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

This was my time at a Wall Street firm that had hired me after I applied for their Junior Stockbroker position, a little while after I graduated from college. Austin, TX Fast forward 4 years later, here I am working for a startup at the South By South West Tech & Music festival in Austin, TX. I heard them but said nothing.

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2013

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As a startup, you as the entrepreneur are the brand, the brand builder, and the major lead generator.

Startup 291

Startup Early Stage Lead Generation Hosting 291

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. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

August 20, 2017: This is another in my series of posts all leading up to a book on Startup Decision Making. One of the most common mistakes I see in startups is making decisions that lose sight of the context , including the past, present, and future. Compensation decisions obviously affect hiring and retention.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. Don’t startups exist for the same reason?

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 30, 2009 Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder Im very excited to announce a pair of events that will kick off a very busy fall speaking tour. The event will include a talk from Eric on The Lean Startup over dinner, followed by moderated table discussion and then final Q&A with Eric.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2019

Image via Wikipedia As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. The other four are: new product development, writing, time management, and sales/marketing.

Early Stage 218

Early Stage Lead Generation Hosting Entrepreneur 218

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2017

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As a startup, you as the entrepreneur are the brand, the brand builder, and the major lead generator.

Early Stage 242

Early Stage Lead Generation Hosting Entrepreneur 242

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Steve is the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines. 3:49] How would you define the difference between a startup and somebody starting a business? [5:04]

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

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. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. The answer depends on your answer to two questions: which step in the Customer Development process are you on?

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

blog.wepay.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

» 6 Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup By Rich Aberman Despite the obvious look of shock and panic on the faces of my WePay teammates, I recently committed my first lines of production code. As the only non-developer at WePay, it’s pretty tempting to become technically helpless.

Engineer 53

Engineer Software Review Web Technical Review 53

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, June 9, 2009 The Lean Startup Tokyo edition I had a blast speaking at Startonomics Tokyo , which was organized to foster ties between the startup cultures in Japan and Silicon Valley. ericnakagawa : Show of hands how many in startup here? Startups need to spend time with these customers.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Japan Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, November 17, 2008 The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part one Ive written before about some of the advantages startups have when they are very small, like the benefits of having a pathetically small number of customers. A "startup within the startup" feeling is a good thing.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. It has become an integral part of startup culture. None of mine did.)

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

blog.wepay.com

APRIL 28, 2010

» 6 Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup By Rich Aberman Despite the obvious look of shock and panic on the faces of my WePay teammates, I recently committed my first lines of production code. As the only non-developer at WePay, it’s pretty tempting to become technically helpless.

Engineer 53

Engineer Software Review Web Technical Review 53

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As a startup, you as the entrepreneur are the brand, the brand builder, and the major lead generator.

Entrepreneur 315

Entrepreneur Early Stage Lead Generation Media 315

Hippoland

OCTOBER 9, 2016

I just passed my 2 year mark at 500 Startups. If you’re still in the early stages of your entrepreneur-education/journey, you may even think you need to protect your idea and not share it with anyone. This is one of my favorite startup presentations of all time by Mike Cassidy on going fast.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage CTO Hire Email Later Stage 48

View from Seed

JULY 26, 2022

RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? AD: I once heard someone say, “if you want the best personal development seminar on the planet, start a business” and that is one of the best summaries of what I find so intriguing and fulfilling about being a founder. And your least?

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Later Stage Early Stage Founder 156

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. Am I in a company with “invention risk?

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Public venture funding has become a valuable avenue for growth for early-stage businesses in the sector, helping to put Canada’s tech industry on the map for professionals both locally and abroad. Government-led programs like the Startup Visa Program and the Global Talent Stream are proving successful in attracting quality talent.

Canada 127

Canada Government Venture Capital Early Stage 127

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. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, June 5, 2009 It’s a startup, not a spreadsheet Some people, when they start to realize the power of using data to inform their decisions, become obsessed with optimization. Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. But this is wrong, too.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102