Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

He illustrated his talk with regulatory horror stories in the telecom market , electronic health records , and Covid antigen tests. Unfortunately, for startups entering a regulated market following this advice this might not be the optimum path. But regulated markets are different. Regulation What’s regulatory capture?

Washington 303

Washington Government Marketing Silicon Valley 303

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

Still, if you’re a business leader and your developers haven’t asked you these questions, look for a Fractional CTO to help navigate the critical early stage of development. How will you be taking this to market? Often this ties to marketing support. How can we leverage AI to get our product to market faster?

Developer 520

Developer Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 520

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup. Reducing Startup Risk.

Technical Cofounder 362

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 362

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

I will tell you brief details about seed stage funding, and deal sourcing on this page, so read the conclusion until the end. The following is a condensed explanation of seed funding: Seed money is a form of early-stage financing that new businesses receive from investors in exchange for a share of ownership in the company.

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

We’re calling them NextView Operator Guilds. . The concept our Guilds is simple: We want to bring together small groups of Product and Go-to-Market experts to lend their time to support our portfolio company founders and key operators. Go-to-Market Guild. Jessica Meher, VP, Marketing at Notarize.

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. “I need somebody to run operations.&# I never said you shouldn’t have a VP of Operations. I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

In this exploration, we’re diving deep into how venture capital firms like Steve Streit’s SWS Venture Capital are broadening their horizons, not just dabbling but deeply investing in both early and late-stage opportunities. The strategic importance of late-stage investments cannot be overstated.

Venture Capital 148

Venture Capital Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage 148

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. In a business development role you’re out shaping the perception of your company in the market (networking), determining leads, and contacting leads. For me, personally : People in the senior ranks at startups usually call themselves operators. Read part one here. They need you.

Government 229

Government Advisory Board Salary Sales Cycle 229

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 13, 2017

Issues such as lack of managerial experience, and a weak marketing strategy – or bad timing – are often identified as reasons for failure. The entrepreneur must have a clear vision & focus, must operate in an optimized environment and, most importantly, must work with good people who share the vision.

Early Stage 87

Early Stage Silicon Valley Thailand Incubator 87

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1 So what does an early-stage company do to avoid the doom and gloom plaguing the world of startups? Be honest with yourself VCs are now going to be looking closer at margins, cost structures and true sales, and product market fit. That includes us.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 146

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. This happens because many CEOs are passionate, market-driven people who are constantly trying to launch new products, win contracts, get press, hire staff and woo VCs.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

As a globally focused LP in early stage VC funds, we at Blue Future Partners have observed a growing trend of firms investing substantially in software tools, whether developing proprietary solutions or adopting off the shelf tools. But what tools are they using themselves to automate their own processes?

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In addition to locking in his leadership position in electric vehicles, he has also used his patents to negotiate faster growth in his market. Planning for the future must be a regular activity, not just an early-stage or once-a-year event. Even the best solutions require marketing to survive.

Intellectual Property 432

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor 432

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 3, 2021

Growing a business is always challenging, but it’s often the hardest in the earliest stages of development. You’ll be operating with limited resources, limited knowledge, and quite possibly, a business model poised to change in the immediate future. In some situations, that renders the marketing budget exhausted from the start.

Early Stage 125

Early Stage PPC Retention Churn Rate 125

ConversionXL

APRIL 28, 2021

We stopped requiring users to provide an email address upon signing up—which ultimately meant that we ditched our email marketing efforts altogether. In the time since we decided to stop our email marketing, our business has grown exponentially. If I’m being honest, our user base was growing rapidly with email marketing.

Email 151

Email Product Marketing Cofounder 151

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2019

In the first post , we drilled down into the often-overlooked notion of “market-engineering” and why it’s so critical. Go-to-Market. But when it comes to that crucial second phase – go-to-market – entrepreneurs find themselves devoid of help and support. In other words, they need go-to-market traction. Go-to-Product.

Cleveland 150

Cleveland Framework Marketing Early Stage 150

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 26, 2022

There are several elements that go into hardware product design that taps an unaddressed customer need, has the customer WOW factor, and succeeds long term in the market. Safety and regulatory standards are different for each market and there are variations you must consider for each Country. By: Kevin Bailey, CEO at Design 1st.

Design 166

Design Development Team Review Product Technical Review 166

Up and Running

OCTOBER 13, 2021

During the last few years, marketers have turned toward more personalized experiences to win customers over. What is personalized marketing? Personalized marketing is when a business delivers individualized content to current and prospective customers. Why is personalized marketing effective?

Customer 118

Customer Marketing Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 118

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. Those who do, often believe they can hire from the open market without the hassle of an acquisition. Not in today’s market conditions.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 15, 2022

Industry-specific domain experience becomes critical when identifying operational pain points ripe for transformation. This outside work provides a valuable source of revenue able to be used to fund operations. This provides both valuable experience and an understanding of the operational issues within each sector.

Incubator 188

Incubator Startup Software Developers Software Development 188

Up and Running

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Is there a well-defined, sustainable market for your product? And one question that many startups overlook at the early stages of formulating their business plans: do you have a well-reasoned, effective, and budget-savvy marketing plan? Marketing Is a distinct business function. Marketing is one such function.

Marketing 142

Marketing Technical Review SEO Hosting 142

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

The first post drilled down into the often-overlooked notion of “market-engineering” and why it’s so critical. Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors?

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Reasons for funding. ? Scale up your operations. One of the most prominent reasons for funding is to scale up your operations, for expansion and achieve economies of scale. Now you may want to scale up your operations or expand your presence. The third reason is to fund your short term operational expenses or working capital.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

ReadWriteStart

MAY 22, 2023

The Metaverse, a virtual universe where people can interact with each other in a 3D environment, is rapidly gaining traction as an emerging market, attracting businesses, investors, and talent from all over the world. The post Challenges and Opportunities for Europe’s Metaverse Market appeared first on ReadWrite.

Finland 187

Finland Europe Estonia Silicon Valley 187

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

The first post drilled down into the often-overlooked notion of “market-engineering” and why it’s so critical. Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors?

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. The common reason given is that this prevents any competitor from stealing their idea and beating them to market. Get competitors to surface early.

Stealth 263

Stealth Marketing Startup Early Stage 263

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Final startup grind from msuster. Limit the number of VCs.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

These five strategies are proven to work for early-stage companies in a variety of industries — including, perhaps, yours. Array your development operation in pursuit of a simple proposition: efficiently bringing a minimum viable product to market. A minimum viable product is market-ready, not a prototype.

Cost 100

Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Reviewing financial & operational performance. how to market our products and company. Mentorship. how to build an initial sales organization.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

YoungUpstarts

MAY 7, 2017

Jonmichael Moy (Jon Michael Moy) may be a seasoned veteran of Silicon Valley, but this accomplished, dedicated technology executive with more than seventeen years of experience in management and operations, product and business development and marketing has now brought his talents to Toronto.

Silicon Valley 183

Silicon Valley Technical Review Product Canada 183

View from Seed

JULY 5, 2022

Rachel Hodes (RH): What problem exists in the market that your business is trying to solve? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? As a first-time founder, the comfort in knowing that I can bounce ideas off of experienced operators and investors is huge. ” – Lee Hower.

DC 156

DC Software Review Government Boston 156

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2020

GV (formerly Google Ventures) – Started in 2009, GV is Alphabet’s venture capital fund, focused primarily on early stage in diverse fields: from life sciences and healthcare to robotics and entereprise tech. Gradient Ventures – an early stage fund backed by Alphabet, investing exclusively in AI first companies.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Startup Early Stage Cloud 131

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

Advertising and marketing tech. The journey of a startup is pretty adventurous, and the stages involved are as follows: 1) The ideation phase. 5) Managing the operations. As the seed funding has been raised by this time, the company starts its operations and gradually expands. Education tech. Financial tech. Retail tech.

Technical Review 167

Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 167

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 27, 2022

It seems like having a good combination of certain hard and soft skills is crucial for building a business and ensuring its operations are viable and sustainable. Running a business will likely mean simultaneously juggling between different projects, especially during the early stages. Digital marketing. Project planning.

Startup 151

Startup Australia Web Development Forecast 151

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience – (working in bus dev, sales or marketing.) Every potential early-stage Venture Capitalist should take a year and do it before he or she makes partner. Market/technology acuity (patterns of success, domain expertise). Here’s why.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 333

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2013

And with scarce resources it’s your job to decide which door this lead must go through – sales or marketing. ” Hand this deal over to marketing to nurture for you. But you have no choice since in the first few years everything you do is about showing results to justify financing to continue your operations.

Customer 324

Customer PR Marketing Technical Review 324

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

You have 5-10 years of professional experience as a technology operator, founder, and/or investor. You have an edge in the highly competitive world of early stage investing that comes from some combination of your experience, industry knowledge, and personal network. You act as an “ invited guest.”.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review North America Seed Stage Bandwidth 156