Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. Indeed, Silicon Valley was born as a center for weapon systems development and its software and silicon helped end the Cold War. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems.

Government 312

Government Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley North Korea 312

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

It outlines four major growth strategies: market penetration , market development , product development , and diversification. The goal of market penetration is to leverage new tactics to increase product sales , including existing customers and new customers within existing markets. Product development.

Marketing 115

Marketing Framework Metrics Channel 115

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Two conditions that do matter to your startup’s out-year viability are the cost and length of its product development cycle. Startup founders counting the days until break-even or actively seeking outside capital must focus on streamlining their development cycles. Focus on Your Minimum Viable Product.

Cost 100

Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 1, 2020

With COVID, we’re getting into a world with tighter budgets and likely longer sales cycles. How can a product-led sales motion help in the current environment, and how important is a freemium model to drive product-led growth? million developers using our product. Today, we have around 1.5

Early Stage 62

Early Stage Open Source Development Team Review Security 62

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

Over my career as a serial entrepreneur I observed that since the late 1990s, no early-stage Silicon Valley investor had used business plans to screen investments. The disadvantage is that its methodology was based on the old waterfall model of product development and not the agile and lean methods that startups use today.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

His most recent company, Filtrbox, participated in the inaugural Techstars class (Techstars Boulder 2007) and was a win for all parties involved; Filtrbox was acquired in 2010 by Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE). Following is his advice to early stage entrepreneurs for creating structure in their company.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

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

Up and Running

MARCH 15, 2012

He writes, “This ensures that the product, development, marketing, partner, sales and management team all have full visibility of what is going on across the business (and what the people they’re working with actually look like!) Your expenses may be limited to a lap top, smartphone, and some software.

Software Review 79

Software Review Early Stage Employee Technical Review 79

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products.

Technology 141

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 141

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Some quick VC math : If a VC invests in ten early stage startups, on average, five will fail, three will return capital, and one or two will be “winners” and make most of the money for the VC fund. ——-. The Good News.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

The investment will be used for product development initiatives. Summit is a hugely respected firm in Silicon Valley and a long-term “institution&# but they’re better known as more of a “private equity&# investor meaning that they do later stage investments in much larger companies that are profitable.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

The same issues arose time and again: big company management styles versus entrepreneurs wanting to shoot from the hip, founders versus professional managers, engineering versus marketing, marketing versus sales, missed schedule issues, sales missing the plan, running out of money, raising new money. Would you mind sharing them?

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 128

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Since the term “cloud computing” was coined in 1996—at least as we have come to understand its meaning—the software as a service industry has exploded. If you use software like LivePlan, you can create this initial “lean plan” in under an hour and then spend your time where it really matters—on validating your idea. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

In addition, I’ve noted a few multi-product lending firms, e.g., Kapitus and United Capital Source , which provide RBI as one of many structural options to companies seeking capital. . We have a special program if you are pre-seed and need product development. Alternative Capital. “ You qualify if you have $5k+ MRR.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

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. Your Product Plan must fit into context of your overall business mission.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 29, 2019

Transcript of Bringing Marketing and Product Development Together written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Klaviyo is a platform that helps growth-focused eCommerce brands drive more sales with super-targeted, highly relevant email, Facebook and Instagram marketing. They’re focused on building product.

Product Development 31

Product Development Product Developer Marketing 31

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 29, 2024

How to Be an Entrepreneur in 2024: 15 Tactics Revealed written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Paul Cheek, a serial tech-preneur, educator, and software engineer. This is John Jantsh.

Entrepreneur 52

Entrepreneur Cofounder Early Stage Artificial Inteligence 52

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn't check out the sales podcast, where host Will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. That is the role of the CEO in an early stage company.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. 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.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 267

The Startup Magazine

JULY 16, 2018

Earlier this year at the FUND Conference in Austin, Texas, over 100 startups presented their early-stage companies in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. We call this device Pipsqueak and you’ll find it for sale on our website. When Pipsqueak inventory runs out, we don’t have plans to make more.

Startup 108

Startup Texas Angel Investor Mobile 108

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development.

Customer Development 251

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 251

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Just for reference, Slidebean is a SaaS presentation software where users can add content, and a finished presentation is designed automatically. 1x hacker in charge of product/development. 1x hipster working with both product and growth. Aug-15: Head of Sales (growth team). Dec-15: Developer (product team).

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

ConversionXL

JUNE 25, 2021

The typical product lifecycle can be broken down into four stages: Introduction: Your product may still be in development and your marketing goals focus on generating awareness and motivating users to sign up and purchase. Growth: A sharp increase in users and sales.

Product 96

Product Social Media Audience Software Review 96

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

Let’s see what else you can do using an MVP: Identify risks at an early stage at a relatively low cost. Optimize product development and marketing process. Understand how to monetize a product based on actual user needs. Let’s take a look at minimal viable products, developed by popular companies.

San Francisco 106

San Francisco Audience SMS Demand 106

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 257

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 257

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 4, 2015

This fertile crescent of B2B technology is an unbeatable homebase for a growing technology product’s sales, marketing, and success teams. A San Francisco office empowers “boots on the ground” B2B sales, marketing, and success teams. In the US, most software engineers enter the workforce following college.

B2B 100

B2B San Francisco Semantic 100

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

Teams were savvy enough to know that fully formed, completed descriptions of users are an impossibility at the early stages of design. Because they used the magic term ‘personas,‘ development teams were discouraged from developing their own, not realising that a market segment might contain multiple personas.

Software Review 115

Software Review Design Agile Analytics 115

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? This is the usual reason given for a marketing launch, but for most early stage startups, its a failure. My answer is almost always the same: dont.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

Yet, when it comes to product demos, many marketers and sales teams fall short in creating demos that convert. Despite the common misconception, the goal of a demo isn’t always to make a sale. A live demo is simply a one-on-one demo with a real person from the company’s sales team. Case study data collection.

Product 120

Product B2C B2B Email 120

ConversionXL

MARCH 7, 2017

Teams were savvy enough to know that fully formed, completed descriptions of users are an impossibility at the early stages of design. Because they used the magic term ‘personas’, development teams were discouraged from developing their own, not realising that a market segment might contain multiple personas.

Software Review 102

Software Review Design Agile Analytics 102

firstround.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

Ian Langworth started his career as an O’Reilly author and software engineer at Google. Not too long ago, I was a software engineer preparing to start my very first company. I was their first full-time engineering hire and I helped build out the team and set the agenda for product development. Author: Ian Langworth.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire Engineer Software Review Part-Time VPE 52

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

Nathan Hursts Blog Thoughts on Software, Technology, and Startups « Back to blog Im on the technical side of entrepreneurship in NYC. 2a] Has paying customers -10%: If the company already has paying customers, the non-technical cofounder has already eliminated a huge risk for the business; someone wants the product. [2b]

Technical Cofounder 43

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Or should I launch products and a startup for each of them, focusing on only 1 product at a time? I would focus on one product and set a goal to generate $1M in yearly revenue from it. Do that – nothing else but one product / company / focus and get to $1M in sales with atleast $15% net profit. do something else.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Scalable Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Marc Andreessen: So the computer industry started in 1950 and basically ran for 50 years with the same model, which was a model where all of the new computers, all the new technology, all the new software started out being sold for the highest prices to the biggest organizations. So originally the customer was the Department of Defense.

Software Review 22

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Stock 22

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 21, 2013

Matrix Partners' David Skok agrees with the 5% churn threshold, but only for early stage companies, and says that you have to see a clear path to getting churn below 2% if you want to scale significantly. “In In the early days of a SaaS business, churn really doesn’t matter that much. People will behave irrationally.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

It's my perspective as well and I'm not a software engineer let alone a rockstar. It is true however, that most of what goes on today involves software, and most of the people that write it are absolutely anonymous. I am talking about self-appointed 10x egostars, not real solid software engineers.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42