Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class.

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Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Now with a new infusion of $8 million dollars of venture capital, SuperMac had been resurrected from the dead and was attempting to restart. Yet two smart VC firms, Sigma and Matrix Partners, realized that somewhere in this mess there was value. Their guess was that they would find value in the high margin graphics business.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I was consulting for the two venture capital firms who between them put $12 million into my last failed startup. (My Yet when I talked to my venture capital friends, they said, “Well, that’s just how startups work. My mother kept asking if they were going to make me pay the money back.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

Part 2: Early-stage Regional Venture Funds. This “small business” mindset is a holdover of how capital starved early stage startups are/were in Oregon. It is critical to understand the types of startups and entrepreneurs in your region and for venture funding. Seek out the truly scalable startups.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 312

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Venture Capital Issues. Early stage Venture Capital for medical device startups has dried up. The amount of capital being invested in new device companies is at an 11 year low. Venture Capital.

Startup 294

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 294

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Brendan McManus said: “Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch [link] #startup #advice [.] Reply Dan Hodgins , on November 13, 2009 at 1:12 am Said: Hi Steve, Just listened to your “Retooling Early Stage Development&# for about the 10th time tonight as I was cleaning my room.

Venture Capital 209

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Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Yet for every founder there are 10-20 other employees who take the near-equivalent risks in joining an early-stage company. If you’re not a founder (by choice, timing or temperament,) you may be an early employee or a later stage startup employee. This means you still need to have a resilient personality, and be agile.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage. Have they heard about Customer Development ?

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Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old. Rather than invent a new form of corporate governance, venture investors adopted the traditional board meeting structure from large corporations. Early stage board meetings are often clones of large company board meetings.

Silicon Valley 290

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Steve Blank

JUNE 2, 2011

Yet even with all these tools, early stage startups still need to physically meet with advisors and investors. We propose that early stage startups communicate in a way that didn’t exist in the 20 th century – online – collaboratively through blogs. That’s great if you can get it.

Silicon Valley 281

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Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old. Rather than invent a new form of corporate governance, venture investors adopted the traditional board meeting structure from large corporations. Early stage board meetings are often clones of large company board meetings.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero. And how much are variable expenses (salaries, consultants, commission, travel, AWS/Azure charges, supplies, etc.?). Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one. Since I wasn’t an engineer, my contribution was around the team-building and fund raising. I was an idiot.

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 179

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building.

Customer Development 124

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 124

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2018

And why funding from families and friends is a dominant source of financing for early-stage ventures (because friends and family know an entrepreneur’s ability better than any resume can convey). tax rate for individuals making over $100,000 was 70% and 90% (taxes on capital gains fluctuated between 20% and 25%.)

Entrepreneur 336

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Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2014

While the posts were theory I was a bit surprised when John Selep , an early-stage investor, approached me and said he was actually using the Investment Readiness Level (IRL) in practice. Filed under: Customer Development Manifesto , Investment Readiness Level , Venture Capital. Here’s John’s story.

Sacramento 306

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 306

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

The life sciences community is still warming-up to the value of customer development in the early stages of building new ventures”, says David Schonthal , MATTER Co-founder and Clinical Assistant Professor of entrepreneurship & innovation at the Kellogg School of Management. It Takes a Village. It has density,” he said.

San Diego 261

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 261

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

are much softer and much, much harder to measure (or believe) in a very early stage startup. We’ll talk about how to reduce risk in each type of market in the next post. It’s something VC’s can ask about, rationally analyze and feel comfortable if you can articulate a defensible technical and patent strategy.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation. Filed under: Venture Capital. This tech bubble is unfolding just like all the other bubbles before it.

Silicon Valley 327

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Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2010

They also know that most founding CEO’s don’t scale past the early stage. Filed under: Venture Capital. Tags: Venture Capital. And that they’ll emerge from this fog of war with a scalable business model. That’s the source of the trouble. It’s My Idea and Hard Work.

Vesting 251

Vesting Liquidity Event Venture Capital Founder Vesting 251

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

For a startup Speed and Tempo need to be an integral part of your corporate DNA. Great startups have a tempo of 10x a large company.

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

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

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

I think Customer Development (iterative model) helps by putting a strong thought in the mind (at a very early stage) that you could be wrong unless the customer agrees; this helps the mind to be more receptive.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (..)

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (..)

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Yet the processes that early-stage companies were using were identical to that of large corporations. In hindsight it appeared clear that startups that survive the first few tough years do not follow the traditional product-centric launch model espoused by product managers or the venture capital community.

Silicon Valley 127

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

And even more importantly, was there any way to reduce risk in early stage ventures? This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley. So much so that after I started teaching I’d ask, “Can anybody recognize this model of startups? Is there any way to predict success or failure?

Product Development 143

Product Development Developer Silicon Valley Product 143

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) Part 3, the next post describes the rise of Chinese venture capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Programming 278

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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.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Eighty some pages later I realized that a) I had some great war stories as a good marketeer and failed CEO, b) I’d have to pay my wife and kids to read them, c) the three of them were probably the entire total available market, and d) when I looked at what I had done and what other entrepreneurs had done at their startups, that there was a pattern.

Redemption 126

Redemption Silicon Valley RSS California 126

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Scalable startups require risk capital to fund their search for a business model, and they attract investment from equally crazy financial investors – venture capitalists. When they find it, their focus on scale requires even more venture capital to fuel rapid expansion. They hire the best and the brightest.

Government 335

Government Silicon Valley Startup Venture Capital 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) Part 3, the next post describes the rise of Chinese venture capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Programming 170

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 170

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Write it down and keep it in a tradeshow handbook for those who will follow. Go to trade shows like it matters.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

That’s why early stage companies aren’t run by accountants with spreadsheets. weeks ago, positioning it as a tool designed to help small businesses effectively manage their social media efforts. Reply steveblank , on August 21, 2009 at 10:20 pm Said: David, No advice is applicable in all cases.

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

David Lerner became the director of Entrepreneurship at Columbia University after seven years running Columbia’s Venture Lab. He is also an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School , and an angel investor hailed as one of New York City’s top 100 early-stage investors. I’m surprised you went there.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2009

Every potential startup founder should think about their level of comfort operating in chaos and uncertainty. It may not be for you.

Silicon Valley 170

Silicon Valley Iraq RSS Vietnam 170

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

And venture capital and entrepreneurship has made life even tougher for the modern corporation. Over the last 35 years venture capital has funded nimble new entrants (on a scale never imagined by Schumpeter ) who exist to exploit discontinuities in technology or customer behavior.

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