Growthink Blog

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

The dream of every entrepreneur is to build a company successful enough so as to one day be able to attract a buyer to and for it. And a boost toward a faster timeline and better probability of a business sale at an exciting price. So as to reap a financial harvest and windfall. This is really a simple and straightforward goal.

Harvest 48

Harvest IP Software Review Forecast 48

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

When you put together a business plan, you have to spend time thinking about things like your target market , your sales, and marketing strategy , the problem you solve for your customers, and who your key competitors are. Beyond understanding your business strategy, investors will also want to understand your financial forecasts.

Business Plan 138

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Exit Strategy 138

YoungUpstarts

MAY 16, 2018

Schramm, author of “ Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do “ If I asked you to describe the prototypical successful entrepreneur, you may share a story mythologized in our culture of a brilliant young man with an idea so good and so disruptive that he just can’t waste any time finishing college.

Silicon Valley 157

Silicon Valley Forecast Venture Capital Business Plan 157

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

It has less focus on financial forecasting and a greater focus on the big picture. Entrepreneurs are always thinking about the future. Successful entrepreneurs do actually predict the future — they know what customers are going to want and when they’re going to want it. Successful entrepreneurs are also often wrong.

Business Plan 83

Business Plan Lean Forecast Exit Strategy 83

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Last May, I shared the news that long-time Lean Startup advocates Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits were working on a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur featuring illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. The Embrace infant warmer was developed - by getting out of the country -- and how Rob Emrich learned and scaled his non-profit, Road of Life.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur Agile San Francisco 167

Up and Running

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Business advisors, experienced entrepreneurs, bankers, and investors generally agree that you should develop a business plan before you start a business. She might benefit from developing a simple sales and expense forecast , maybe even a profit and loss , so she can plan how to use and develop her resources.

Startup 114

Startup Forecast Lean Balance Sheet 114

Spencer Fry

MAY 2, 2014

Anyone who works in product development will know that ten months is an eternity. Unfortunately, it’s just the nature of product development — and especially so when you’re working with part-time people —that deadlines are missed and work takes much longer than you expected. I’m glad I held out, though.

Bootstrapping 57

Bootstrapping Revenue Product Development Forecast 57

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. In contrast, sales and marketing activities before first customer ship are adhoc, fuzzy, and don’t have measurable, concrete objectives. Freemium models have their own scorekeeping.)

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Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 225

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

Whether you’re an early-stage company or have been around for ten years, for entrepreneurs, leading and managing a small business, especially its growth, is never an easy task. We were going to miss our forecast by 25%. "The Entrepreneur's Yoda" knows these things. But unlike Lego, we did it differently.

Small Business 32

Small Business Leadership Salary Forecast 32

Up and Running

JANUARY 24, 2023

Payroll often makes up a large portion of a business’s expenses, so it’s important to spend some time working on this portion of your forecast. That’s OK and the exact reason why you should work on a personnel forecast. It’s OK for your personnel forecast to have a mix of teams and individuals.

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Forecast Cost Salary Employee 84

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 267

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

You can also use this space to keep track of innovators (R&D personnel) and rainmakers (sales & marketing personnel). Products: You obviously can’t create value without a viable product (or service) to sell. You should inventory your best accounts and prospects, as well as the status of any pending major sales.

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Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

To give you a better idea of what entrepreneurs in this industry are thinking about during each phase of the startup process, I interviewed SaaS entrepreneurs from all over the world, including our own COO Noah Parsons. Noah has been a key figure in the making of LivePlan, our own SaaS product. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Up and Running

MAY 22, 2013

According to a study by global consulting firm Accenture, “ Times are hard when it comes to new-product development. Half the companies in our survey experience budget overruns in new-product development. Launching the new product to the market will be a critical milestone for a small company or entrepreneur.

Product 75

Product Marketing Forecast B2B 75

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

1x hacker in charge of product/development. 1x hipster working with both product and growth. Aug-15: Head of Sales (growth team). Nov-15: Graphic Designer (growth/product). Nov-15: Graphic Designer (growth/product). Dec-15: Developer (product team). Apr-15: Head of Marketing (growth team).

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Up and Running

JULY 3, 2014

The back-of-the-napkin export business plan (suitable for born-global entrepreneurs). We will consult with our banker to provide payment options on all export sales.”. “We Conducting an Export Marketing and Sales Analysis. Figure out sales strategies. Write a detailed product or service description.

Business Plan 74

Business Plan Widget France Global 74

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan realized that the traditional centralized management structures (like General Motors had in 1920) were poor fits for the management of GM’s already diverse product lines. 2) Provide corporate management with near real-time divisional sales reports and budgets that indicated when they deviated from plan.

Silicon Valley 170

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 170

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2011

A year ago I wrote about a very special entrepreneur, Christian Gheorghe, who escaped Communist Romania, migrated to America, and—after starting here with $27 as a limo driver and construction worker—eventually became a computer scientist and an entrepreneur. —Lupe Fiasco, All Black Everything.

Romania 78

Romania Architecture Analytics Cloud 78

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

And others are from unusual folks we don't normally think of as entrepreneurs, from corporate managers to government agencies. Anyone who is trying to innovate without knowing what's going to happen is an entrepreneur, their venture is a startup. Luckily, pre-orders (no matter how early) count as sales towards that first week's total.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

A budget discussion with an entrepreneur. In other words, if you are forecasting 100 orders in the next quarter, at $10,000 each, I’d ask how many potential orders there are in the market, whether there is any existing competitive experience, and how you derived your timing. A budget discussion with an entrepreneur.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

Besides the general focus on customer and product development, an entrepreneur should foresee the next moves that will serve to guide him on the right path. When an entrepreneur can forecast his next moves, even his/her employees become part of the moves the business makes. Photo Credit: Chris Jones.

Forecast 131

Forecast Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Technical Review 131

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

The tips are based on advice JD solicited from great KPCB entrepreneurs. Get 18 months or more of cash (runway) in the business against a conservative forecast. This can take the form of a traditional sales pipeline or a registration-activation-revenue chart. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 3, 2012

Facebook and Google would be obvious choices for this, but so much has been written about each of them and they represent such special business models, I worried that it would be both hard for entrepreneurs to relate and hard for me to develop new insights. In 2012, analysts forecast the company will achieve nearly $1.5

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

Up and Running

OCTOBER 8, 2015

I fell victim to a trap that plenty of entrepreneurs fall into every day: I fell in love with a product idea. Back in the late 2000s, my team and I came up with what we thought was a great idea for a product. Instead, we built a product first (that’s expensive!) So, don’t be like most entrepreneurs (including me!)

Marketing 60

Marketing Forecast CTO Hire Finder 60

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2010

The good news is this team found a business model, product/market fit and a repeatable sales model. What lies ahead, however, is a different set of challenges: finding the new set of mainstream customers on the other side of the chasm and managing the sales growth curve. What’s Next.

Agile 120

Agile Development Team Review Leadership Merger 120

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

It seems like a common trend with first-time tech entrepreneurs—and even some more experienced entrepreneurs—to think of fundraising as a required step in the process of starting a technology company. Product development. It’s estimated that for experienced entrepreneurs, it can take up to three months of full-time work.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Startup Forecast Channel 60