Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. 2) Provide corporate management with near real-time divisional sales reports and budgets that indicated when they deviated from plan. billion in sales in today’s dollars).

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

Steve Blank

AUGUST 23, 2010

We’re Not Here for a Sales Call. Disabusing the audience of the notion that the visit is a sales call is vital to the customer discovery mission. Short-circuiting that process is a major “foul” that often leads to premature business models and suboptimal sales results.). But we are not here for a sales call.&#.

Customer Development 235

Customer Development Developer Customer South America 235

OnlyOnce

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

In most startups, the founder is the first salesperson and while it may be difficult to let that go you’ll eventually scale, add sales reps, or maybe some form of a Sales Manager once there are more than a couple of reps. If your board asks you if you’re ready to step on the gas and scale your revenue engine (e.g.,

Revenue 62

Revenue Hiring Forecast Early Stage 62

Up and Running

APRIL 24, 2014

So for me, what makes a sales forecast credible? I want to see a sales forecast with drivers. Specifically, if you’re an app or an website for example, your drivers are going to have to do with search engine optimization, keywords, paper click, conversion rates. Sales and Marketing Writing a Business Plan'

Forecast 85

Forecast Hockey Stick Sales Business Plan 85

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

This person can do budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, legal, HR, office moves, etc. Still, I’ll bet that functionally you divide areas of competence like sales & marketing, product, engineering, biz dev, etc. But they aren’t the COO.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Sustainable growth: Prioritise sales efficiency over growth at all costs. For more about forecasting growth in these uncertain times, check out Sequoia’s “ Adapting to Endure ” presentations published in May 2022. A good way to think about valuation in seed/pre-seed is to reverse engineer the next round.

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

By now you have many smart people around your board but probably people who don’t totally understand the nuances of your employees, customers, sales reps, marketing messages, technology challenges, competitors and strategic choices. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. how to evolve our management team.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 3, 2015

by Eliot Burdett, co-founder and CEO of Peak Sales Recruiting. Fears over technology stealing sales jobs is nothing new, it happened following the advent of both the phone and Internet. Job Forecast Study ranks sales jobs as the number one job employers are currently looking to fill, ranking 10% higher than technical positions.

B2B 100

B2B Technology Cofounder Technical Cofounder 100

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2015

I am here to talk about LivePlan and give you some big picture information on business planning, forecasting, how to really kick your business off in the best possible way. What is revenue going to look like? When Google came onto the market in ’99, ’00, there was already 15 other search engines. Good morning.

Forecast 60

Forecast Video Business Plan United States 60

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2022

Power Recommendation Engines. Engineers can input design goals into AI-driven generative design software , along with parameters such as performance or spatial requirements, materials, manufacturing methods, and cost constraints. Examples here , here and here. An example application is Dall-E. Generative Design of Physical Products.

Artificial Inteligence 417

Artificial Inteligence Software Review Algorithm Technical Review 417

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. Circle back and create a more detailed forecast.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 23, 2020

You always ask about stuff like; ”How to protect your revenue?” Every investment has its unique way to start and search engine optimization (SEO) is not just a system, but it’s the greatest investment that you can bring towards your company. Revenue Forecast. It’s a hard question to answer. Keyword Search.

SEO 259

SEO Forecast Search Campaign 259

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Between January 2015 and January 2016, we grew our platform Slidebean from $1K to $20K in monthly recurring revenue. Getting the first tracks of revenue is one of the toughest processes of building a startup. Aug-15: Head of Sales (growth team). Apr-15: Head of Marketing (growth team). Jun-15: Community Manager (growth team).

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

OnlyOnce

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

But as startups scale they add sales reps or maybe some form of a Sales Manager once there are more than a couple of reps. But how do you know when to bring on a senior sales leader? Too soon and you have a very expensive employee, too late and your sales reps are creating their own processes and approaches.

Sales 62

Sales Startup Framework Forecast 62

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 22, 2009

Building Your SaaS Sales Compensation Plan. Compensating the sales force is a difficult task and the key is usually to keep things simple, so that each sales rep knows what he needs to optimize to make more money at the end of the quarter. 1 of MRR generates $12 of annual revenue, so $1 commission equals 1/12=8.3%

Software Review 91

Software Review Clawback Sales Salary 91

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

Your revenues are declining or you don’t have any revenue at all! Revenues don’t appear overnight; even the greatest success stories had to work hard to start getting traction and growth. Yet if revenues start to decline, or after a few months customers are still leaving you for other solutions, then you may have an issue.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Architecture Revenue Channel 157

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Search engine marketing is simply buying advertising for your business from Google or another search engine company. Popular keywords have higher costs.

Search 225

Search Engineer SEM Widget 225

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Inbound marketing increased the burden on marketing to resolve middle- and bottom-of-funnel concerns previously handled by sales departments. Content creation, the engine of inbound marketing, creates the draw (i.e. Leads in a demand generation strategy, we’re told, should actually generate sales. But sales hates the “leads.”

Demand 132

Demand Vertical Campaign Channel 132

ConversionXL

MARCH 6, 2019

The growth also outpaced their forecast from the prior year, which suggested that video would reach 17% of digital ad spend by 2021.). Cisco’s VNI forecast estimates that 82% of all Internet traffic will be video in 2022. The strategy, according to Google, improves ad recall (and, undoubtedly, YouTube revenues). Image source ).

Video 129

Video B2B Technical Review Campaign 129

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 4, 2018

In 2009, Netflix offered $1 million to anyone who could improve the quality of its recommendation engine by 10%. As it turned out , the enhanced algorithms “did not seem to justify the engineering effort needed to bring them into a production environment.”. the number of purchases or revenue that will occur in the future.

Analytics 131

Analytics Algorithm Artificial Inteligence Campaign 131

YoungUpstarts

MAY 17, 2019

But every year thousands of entrepreneurs become millionaires by buying and growing businesses without the startup headaches of venture capitalists, zero revenue, and no business processes. They make all the sales. Review the org chart for an ops manager and sales person who have been in the business a long time.

Due Diligence 185

Due Diligence Forecast Deal Structure Valuation 185

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2019

Go beyond standard sources of voice of customer data ; better options are: Interview founders (the original “customers”); Thank-you page surveys; Usertesting.com; Mine sales calls; Mine support tickets; Mine Facebook comments ; Mine online reviews. recommendation engines, chatbots, automated suggestions for collaboration).

Artificial Inteligence 114

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Metrics SEO 114

ConversionXL

APRIL 12, 2017

No, the first 2% is more valuable in terms of revenue. Create a revenue forecast before you even run the experiment. You can forecast what you think your forecast + seasonal curves will look like. Long copy” doesn’t mean “long form sales page”. There’s a time and place for long form sales pages.

San Antonio 86

San Antonio Metrics B2B Analytics 86

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2014

What a lot of companies or startups don’t realize is when you put up forecast together, it’s difficult if you’re a startup. If you’re in a really crowded area, let’s pretend one of you is selling flowers and competing in the online flower market, it’s going to be really hard to rank in search engines.

Metrics 84

Metrics Startup Churn Rate Forecast 84

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

They can be everywhere—between departments, such as the marketing and sales department, or within departments. The sales team may focus on closing sales. Whether it’s their lead-to-sale close rate, their lifetime value, or any other important number, knowing each makes a huge difference for business growth.

Metrics 132

Metrics Campaign Channel Advertising 132

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

That’s the sales forecast, the spending forecast and the cash flow. You want to show that, and investors need to see the scale of a business that have to do with your sales forecast. They’re going to look first at the sales forecast. That’s a lean business plan. It is not a document.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Jeff Clavier was the first tech investor I ever met; he was introduced to me years ago by some hip engineers in a bar as "one of the few cool VCs." Every company has a forecast for how it will get to an arbitrary $100 million in revenue and they all hit it on year five. Which problem are you solving in the market?

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

ConversionXL

AUGUST 1, 2019

There might be several scenarios where real experiments are not possible: sometimes management may be unwilling to risk short-term revenue losses by assigning sales to random customers. a sales team earning commission-based bonuses may rebel against the randomization of leads.

Analytics 118

Analytics Non-Compete HTML Conversion 118

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

Last week, I wrote about Akamai , a company with strong network effects that successfully transitioned from a single product to build a platform that garners over a billion dollars in revenue and is now a core part of the Internet’s fabric. TripAdvisor, in effect, was a model lean start-up with an engineering-driven, product-focused founder.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2013

What most people don’t realize is that, according to new research , 90% of search engine users rarely look at the paid results. Paid search engine ranking (PPC) is buying advertising for your business from Google or another search engine company. This is NOT the same as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Marty Zwilling.

Search 226

Search PPC Widget SEO 226

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

My colleagues Sebastian Soler , Steven Greenberg and I recently launched a new online community, PEVCTech.com , exclusively for PE/VC investors; engineers who work at PE/VC funds; and other technologists who specialize in working on this problem. I previously posted a detailed presentation with sales technology tools useful for B2B sales.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

Traditionally, engineering, sales, and marketing have all focused on the immovable launch date. The term “Sales” at an existing company refers to a team that repeatedly sells a known product to a well-understood group of customers with standard presentations, prices, terms, and conditions. Focusing on the launch date.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

K9 Ventures

JULY 21, 2016

In fact, in college I used to joke that Electrical and Computer Engineers could write better code that Computer Scientists (not something I would argue about as voraciously now). Forecasting production quantities, planning for how many parts you will need and when, accounting for the lead times on those parts is all a complicated endeavour.

Software Review 48

Software Review Forecast Portfolio Distribution 48

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 4, 2013

Taking the time to write down your mission, competitive analysis of the marketplace, marketing plans, budgets, forecast revenue, etc really is worth your while. Talk to your sales friends, read tips online, practice on your mom – this should be a priority. Your business will likely not succeed if no one knows about it.

San Francisco 69

San Francisco HTML Flash Forecast 69

Up and Running

MAY 9, 2016

Census Bureau, in 2014, the construction industry as a whole generated $960 billion in annual revenue, and according to the U.S. Infrastructure: also known as heavy engineering, heavy/highway, or heavy civil, and usually encompasses large-scale public works projects, highways, roads, bridges, dams, utilities, and water/wastewater systems.

SBA 60

SBA Demand Forecast Balance Sheet 60

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 15, 2018

In doing so, the holdout attempts to quantify “lift”—the increase in revenue compared to doing nothing. For example, a “10% off” coupon (delivered through a pop-up or email campaign) may generate 15% more sales than a current “$10 off a $100 purchase” coupon. To team priorities. The result? The initial 7% lift faded to 2.5%

Artificial Inteligence 101

Artificial Inteligence Algorithm Audience Campaign 101