Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Venture Capitalists who are serious about turning their firms into more than one-fund wonders may want to have their associates actually start and run a company for a year. Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience – (working in bus dev, sales or marketing.) Here’s why. ——-.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Building an Advisory Board In my travels outside the building I kept my eyes out for articulate and visionary scientists and engineers who had expertise we lacked, and were willing to help in an advisory capacity. Context here.) I set up an advisory board as a vehicle to get these industry experts engaged with the company and product.

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2014

Kathryn has been the founding VP of Marketing of Oracle , a successful recruiter, a world class Venture Capitalist, a co-founder of a Venture Capital firm, a great board member, one of my mentors and most importantly a wonderful friend. The answer of course, was Venture Capital, but that was not in the cards—as yet.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Chicago Cofounder 333

Cracking the Code

MAY 2, 2019

Recruiting and retaining top talent is even more challenging for software engineers. To get an insight into how successful start-ups approach team building, we spoke to Sylvain Utard, employee number 1 and VP of Engineering at Algolia, an Accel portfolio company. Team building is top of mind for any start-up founder or exec.

Part-Time VPE 48

Part-Time VPE Engineer Retention API 48

YoungUpstarts

JULY 16, 2019

According to tech recruiters , 2019 has brought a handful of tech jobs to the forefront, such as cyber security engineering, AI/machine learning and data scientists, to name a few. These are software engineers, business analysts, project managers, graphic designers, and web developers. million in venture capital to move.

Canada 167

Canada Hiring Artificial Inteligence Software Developers 167

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

—— I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. Startup Accelerators: Startup Sauna and Vigo which includes Lifeline Ventures , KoppiCatch , and Veturi. 9-to-5 Venture Capital. Startup Blog: Arctic Startup.

Finland 324

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 324

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too. What’s up with that? So what changed? Upfront seemed to fit the bill.

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2021

The important thing is to gain experience with how fast-paced companies operate, the relationships you need to be successful, and all the different hats you’ll have to wear. Angel investors, venture capital firms, accelerators, and (maybe) the newer equity crowdfunding will look to see if you have previous experience in startups.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Lean Colorado Engineer 132

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

6/ Venture Capital In Expansion Phase. Public investors, cross-over investors, and even traditional private equity firms have taken notice, further blurring the lines of what constitutes true venture capital. That will take a long time to settle. In the meantime, we have what we have today. 3/ Crypto Hibernation.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. The constraint between good ideas and growth operates in both directions. After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital!

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I’m not even talking about your 12-page Powerpoint presentation that you need to raise venture capital or to talk with potential biz dev partners. 66% Net Operating Margins?

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

On the infrastructure side, Epic owns ‘Unreal Engine’ the second most popular 3D graphic engine, and creator of MetaHumans, a digital twin rendering software that can be used to create hyper realistic characters to ‘populate’ the Metaverse. The largest and most popular 3D engine has big plans for the Metaverse.

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2021

In his classic book on building a business, “ Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business ,” Gino Wickman, a similar experienced business consultant and developer of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), outlines five common frustrations that we both hear from entrepreneurs, as follows: You are the boss, but you don’t have control.

Entrepreneur 436

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Operations Social Media 436

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2011

He hired an operating exec as the CEO a few years ago. At the last board meeting our VP of engineering explained that the root of our problems was ‘our code has accumulated a ton of “technical debt,’ it’s really ugly code, and it’s not the way we would have done it today. In reality this is a fools choice.

Part-Time VPE 318

Part-Time VPE Agile Engineer Startup 318

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 1, 2014

So, too, is the level of competence required to engineer a product. In other words, even an engineering nobody can start a company. Engineers, however, were relatively cheap. Sure, there will still be a need for “10x engineers,” those superwomen and supermen that are “still needed to build the foundation [e.g.,

Engineer 60

Engineer Database Open Source Acquisition 60

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

Understanding the left-side of the mission model canvas ( activities, resources , partners , and costs) forces all teams to ask, “Are we building a product for a DOD/IC customer only or do we have a “dual-use” product that could be sold commercially and get funded by venture capital?”. This post is a continuation of the series.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley San Diego Technical Review Incubator 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. Brad’s start in Venture Capital. Venture Capital in Boulder and other smaller communities. “So National Venture Capital Group endorsed it. was starting.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2023

The story starts with a company you probably never heard of – Engineering Research Associates. In January 1946, they founded Engineering Research Associates (ERA). Norris became the VP of Engineering, Engstrom the VP of Research, and Meader VP of Manufacturing. Parker agreed to invest. The company hit the ground running.

Minnesota 281

Minnesota Engineer Minneapolis Silicon Valley 281

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. The Yin and Yang of Product and Engineering - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 22, 2010 For a tech company, product and engineering are the heart and soul of the business.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

John Berger, Director Operations & Impact Solutions, Toniic , observed that this has clear investor benefits: “ The grace period became a feature because it benefits investors in regions like the US where there can be tax differences between short and long term gains. We detail below the major categories of VC: VENTURE CAPITAL TYPOLOGY.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. It might be its most important. ———-. Cold War Spin Outs.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

AI is getting tremendous attention and significant venture capital, but AI tools frequently underwhelm in the trenches. At its core, GPT-3 is a text prediction engine. Algorithms that were designed with enormous datasets, depend upon such large datasets in operation.

Technical Review 246

Technical Review Connecticut Algorithm Warrant 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

There is a common belief in the angel and venture capital community that you put your money on the best team, rather than the best idea. Even if your product is a technological marvel, I look for balanced strength on the team in finance, marketing and operations. Solo entrepreneurs rarely find an investor.

Sweat Equity 152

Sweat Equity Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Software Review 152

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

And some of their best and brightest have ended up in the organizations like the 2nd Bureau, Unit 61398 tasked euphemistically for “Computer Network Operations.”. Though they’re familiar with technology in the valley, I picked up some important cultural difference from students and startup engineers I talked to. Fear of Failure.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

As a first time founder, having a few million dollars in the bank after a successful seed raise may seem like a huge amount of capital, and it’s easy to lose discipline around your burn rate. There are always exceptions, on both the positive and negative side, and many companies really shouldn’t be raising venture capital at all.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

In sharp contrast, start-ups operate in “search/ explore ” mode, seeking a repeatable and profitable business model. Most R&D budgets in established companies are spent on sustaining innovations that support existing products and operating divisions and the attendant processes and procedures, rigorous measurement, and controls.

Incubator 402

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 402

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 8, 2023

Automation, Chatbots, AR, and AI Reign: the Future is Already Here Read more: 5 Reasons Why AR is the Future of Online Shopping Automation makes business operations flow smoothly without encountering technical difficulties. It also improves employees’ productivity by allowing them to focus on vital business operations.

eCommerce 185

eCommerce Technical Review Software Review Analytics 185

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 22, 2018

For example, creating an experience management platform requires subject matter expertise, programmers, quality assurance, implementation specialists, professional services engineers, and a roadmap of future functionality requests.

Iowa 113

Iowa Investment Bankers Cloud Software Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

This week I sat down with Chris Dixon, co-founder / CEO of Hunch and Partner at Founder Collective in the most recent installment of This Week in Venture Capital. 2. Chris then discussed his time as founder and CEO of SiteAdvisor, his first venture-backed startup. Such that during that time, Chris “learned how to learn.”.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Cofounder API 281

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Reviewing financial & operational performance. Brett was formerly SVP of the Marketing Cloud at Salesforce with an enormous organization of sales, marketing, implementation, sales engineers, etc.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. It may surprise you to learn that LA graduates more engineers than anywhere else in the country. ”).

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Max entered Stanford in the fall of 2010 as a freshman, took as many of the engineering entrepreneurship classes as he could and independent study with me. (He Investors who provide hands-on help have little or no effect on the company’s operational performance. Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford's Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. 9-to-5 Venture Capital. Yet Tekes does that and is trying to act like a government-run Venture Capital firm. This is the first of two posts about Finland and entrepreneurship.

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

At NextView Ventures we have written many pieces about venture capital — how to raise it, build your business, engage with investors, iterate your product, navigate expanding industries, etc. I’ve Been in Venture Capital for Two Months. VCs sure do love writing. ” (David Beisel). Hiring Your Team.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

And some of their best and brightest have ended up in the organizations like the 2nd Bureau, Unit 61398 tasked euphemistically for “Computer Network Operations.”. Though they’re familiar with technology in the valley, I picked up some important cultural difference from students and startup engineers I talked to. Fear of Failure.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 28, 2014

The United States is not uniform in its friendliness toward small businesses, and some states make operating a business easier than others. For technologically inclined businesses, Texas has increased its STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce by 34,000 since 2009.

North Carolina 176

North Carolina America Utah Idaho 176

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Often you can't tell if something like a search engine or matching algorithm is really going to have better results until you use it. But it doesn't tell you how many people will do it in the long term and whether this can support the company (the people and operations within) that is behind it. Results of Algorithms.

Algorithm 264

Algorithm Metrics Viral Venture Capital 264