Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 4, 2018

The Silicon Valley-oriented technology press outlets don’t cover us because we’re not in San Francisco, even though we’re more successful than most of the startups they cover. Every day, 5% of the entire online world visits a customer running on the WP Engine Digital Experience Platform. Period, full-stop.

Engineer 152

Engineer Revenue San Francisco Security 152

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Final startup grind from msuster. And the folks at Startup Grind have been kind enough to invite me to present this morning in Mountain View on the topic. PMs are a vital part of a tech startup. Engineering is critical but it is not everything. And what your views / tips for early-stage startup teams are.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2017

Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. Of course, there are always exceptions, but how much added risk do you need for your startup? Finance has homes in New York, Hong Kong, and London. The list goes on and on.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley Las Vegas Arizona Montana 149

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2013

Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. Of course, there are always exceptions, but how much added risk do you need for your startup? Finance has homes in New York, Hong Kong, and London. The list goes on and on.

Silicon Valley 256

Silicon Valley Las Vegas Phoenix Montana 256

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 24, 2023

The field of engineering has always been an exciting and dynamic career path, and as technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, the demand for engineers with new and specialized skills will only continue to grow.

Artificial Inteligence 137

Artificial Inteligence Engineer Demand Algorithm 137

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Most of the startups we’ve backed at Homebrew don’t rush to announce their funding. Contrast this to just a few years ago when it seemed every startup was jumping up and down to shout about their initial raise. YC companies use Hacker News to post jobs and have strong community groups, as does 500 Startups.

Technical Review 117

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 117

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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Feld Thoughts

JULY 22, 2011

Their suggestion was to write a series of posts that follows the development of an imaginary startup as the company navigates various events, focusing on how each event will impact not only the P&L, but also the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement. The more the merrier.&#. Our first substantive post will be up next Friday.

Finance 135

Finance Congo Chicago Cambodia 135

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 23, 2023

Every year, new startup entrepreneurs attempt to launch a business on the leanest budget possible. Whatever the case, you’ll need to make some big sacrifices and strategic managerial decisions if you want this lean startup budget to work — and it’s definitely possible. Consider a hybrid workplace. Focus on versatile picks.

Lean 158

Lean Technical Review Startup Acquisition 158

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

Building a startup business is not the same as corporate executive experience, so prior titles in a big business may actually be seen as a negative. On the other hand, having failed in an earlier startup may be an advantage, if positioned properly, and some learning is evident. Focus on prior results, not titles.

Sweat Equity 152

Sweat Equity Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Software Review 152

Steve Blank

APRIL 3, 2018

Others join startups to strike out on their own. Most great technology startups – Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla – were built by a team led by an entrepreneur. It’s what allows you to create a missionary zeal to recruit others, get customers to buy into a vision and gets VC’s to finance a set of slides.

Technical Review 334

Technical Review Entrepreneur Artificial Inteligence Cofounder 334

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. The first few people into a startup are on a spectrum of founder vs. early employee. I've talked about this topic before in How Investors Think About Valuation of Pre-Revenue Startups.

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2017

The CFO asked me to stay as one of the engineering directors came in for a meeting. The director had complained to his boss, the VP of Engineering, who admitted his hands were tied, as this was a “facilities matter,” and the VP of facilities reported to the CFO. The company is still one of the hottest places to work in tech.

Part-Time VPE 308

Part-Time VPE Liquidity Event Stock Engineer 308

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder. The post Pitch Deck Month: The “Where Are You Going?

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2015

Just before the holidays I had coffee with Anne, an ex MBA student running a fairly large product group at a search engine company, now out trying to raise money for her own startup. The Columbia Startup Lab is a visible symbol of how the university is making entrepreneurship an integral part of all colleges at the university.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley New York City New York Venture Capital 120

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 22, 2024

Even as technology evolves, old-fashioned social engineering will remain a favorite tool for fraudsters and a major risk for small businesses. Going Paperless Gains Efficiency What is Social Engineering Anyway? Certainly, these hackers exist, but in practice, many fraudsters skip code altogether and focus instead on social engineering.

Engineer 116

Engineer Artificial Inteligence Security Small Business 116

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 18, 2019

Besides the obvious reason of saving time, having an expert deal with your finances will give you more peace of mind. When looking for an accounting firm , make sure to choose one that has experience working with startups or small businesses. Accounting means more than just tax preparation and bookkeeping.

Software Developers 185

Software Developers Software Development Startup Affiliate 185

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups. I got a job at a bank, and I worked in their corporate finance group. You didn’t join startups then.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. But none of this matters if you run out of money.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

View from Seed

JANUARY 31, 2024

many if not most of these startups are unlikely to get to significant scale. Can these businesses be built more efficiently than ever before, and what does that mean for how they will be financed? And both founders and investors are grappling with similar questions that were top of mind during early Web 2.0: have to do with timing.

Web 168

Web Generative AI Houston Distribution 168

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2015

Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. Of course, there are always exceptions, but how much added risk do you need for your startup? Finance has homes in New York, Hong Kong, and London. The list goes on and on.

Las Vegas 120

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Phoenix Montana 120

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2021

Your startup becomes irrelevant. One way to do this before starting your own business is by working for a startup or small fast-paced company in your field. Work at a startup before building your own. It can be a small and nimble startup like Origin, or a company with 50 employees and hiring more every quarter.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Lean Colorado Engineer 132

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

I think I’ve read Paul Graham’s post on “ Startup = Growth ” three or four times now. “The growth of a successful startup usually has three phases: There’s an initial period of slow or no growth while the startup tries to figure out what it’s doing. I talked about some of that here.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. This engineering manager is a smart guy, and very experienced.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Hunter Walker

MARCH 21, 2022

We’ve sent hundreds of millions of dollars to startup bank accounts but none of those have gone to teams which don’t have at least one founder we consider to be ‘mission-driven.’ They’ve often been thinking about it deeply ahead of even understanding whether it could be a startup or would be an attractive, valuable issue to address.

Founder 117

Founder Startup LLC Software Engineering 117

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

None of that can compare with being the CEO of a startup facing a rapidly diminishing bank account, your best engineer quitting, working until 10pm and rushing to the airport and catching a redeye for a “ Hail Mary ” close of a customer, with your board demanding you do it faster. Startups are hard. Fund raising skills.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Aaron Wens , a marine engineer with 16 years’ experience, explains the life cycle of an ocean-going vessel. Marine engineers and naval architects have a broad skill set and are experienced in putting together the plans for a new ship for any intended purpose. Another important aspect of ship design is building the engine.

South Korea 82

South Korea United States Italy Spain 82

ReadWriteStart

JULY 26, 2022

In addition, it provides support services like integrated banking, finance, embedded logistics, and vetted suppliers. as startup funding for Carbanio. Additionally, it provides trade financing, intelligence, analytics, and ERP integration. Additionally, it provides trade financing, intelligence, analytics, and ERP integration.

Germany 175

Germany San Jose Technical Review India 175

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. This left an open playing field for Chinese software startups as they “copy to China” existing U.S. If you’re a software startup competing in China, the words that come to mind are “ruthless and relentless.”

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

In an effort to support startups looking for capital and mentorship, The Startup Magazine is supporting Volvo Financial Services in its launch of its iLabX global innovation program for technology entrepreneurs. We encourage all startups to consider applying to this rewarding startup accelerator. Apply Here Apply Here.

North Carolina 107

North Carolina Startup Technical Review Programming 107

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 7, 2016

With countless roadblocks along the way, it’s not uncommon for a startup to falter to the point of folding before it has ever reached even the simplest of business goals. The rub is that a startup likely has the ideas to take it straight to the top, but it’s also likely that the company lacks the business skills to make it truly successful.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Incubator Asia 100