Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. There is no free lunch.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

To create this first year in business checklist, I turned to our in-house experts here at Palo Alto Software: Sabrina Parsons, CEO; Noah Parsons, COO; Josh Cochrane, Vice President of Product Development; and Josh Fegles, Academic and Government Channel Sales Director, and founder of gluten-free cookie company Jude’s Foods.

Forecast 60

Forecast Software Review Lean Finance 60

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. Of the NextView-backed founders have have tried to raise this round, over 70% have done so (compared to a mean success rate in the industry of around 27%, according to some sources ).

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

So, rather than try and fill time unnecessarily and create a lengthy deck just because you’re “supposed to,” Rob — and we’d guess many other VCs as well — will often suggest that a founder create a simple one-sheeter that might start small and build over time. Finance is mission critical, for instance – it just appears on a recurring basis.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

A couple years ago, my partner Lee penned a blog post about the milestone benchmarks for startups raising a Series A round of financing. The strategy here is to foster product development and marketing which creates overall (semi-)organic user momentum.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. There is no free lunch.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and Founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study , only 45% of Founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. There is no free lunch.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

I’ll start with all the questions I can think of, from many different perspectives: founders, LPs, the press, and even other VCs. This post is intended to be a dynamic document, and I will attempt to update it from time to time with new questions that may arise or as financing trends evolve. Q: Is Pre-Seed a Thing?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

But the most important metric has been the deep and lasting relationships that have been built with startups and also between senior executives. There were regular events where experts talked about: fund raising, term sheets, constructing a team, product development, establishing biz dev partners, M&A, dealing with the press, etc.

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Incubator Startup 287

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Board meeting gets scheduled Nobody thinks too much about it until a week or two before Management team has a last-minute scramble to pull materials together Management is super focused on its daily work of … winning customers, signing biz dev, shipping product … so this prep is a last minute “fire drill” and is seen as a slight distraction.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Your data will be ordered and structured into information based on specific niches like engineering and construction, finance, technology, and business. Thus, you must manage your available finances wisely. Product development also occurs in small iterations or changes. Implement the “lean startup” philosophy.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

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. Good luck, engineering manager. It was painful for a lot of people.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He’s personally led more than 50 financing rounds. Scott’s first big foray into industry-changing companies came with CarsDirect, an IdeaLab company where he was the initial founder & CEO. And finally, Scott demonstrated his internal management tool for managing the metrics of his business. It’s awesome.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

To address this problem, I found mentors who had been successful in my company’s area of commercial finance. As a founder, you will touch sales, marketing, product development, customer service, accounting, fundraising, and more. See Also: The 5 Metrics You Need to Track for Your Subscription (SaaS) Business to Succeed.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Acquisition B2B Partner 60

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

“If you can fix a problem for someone and do it better, quicker, and/or cheaper than your competitor, you’re off to a good start.” – Gabriel Kuperman, founder and CEO of CuePin. We created UpKeep to fill this void—a cloud-based solution that was affordable for any size business.” – Ryan Chan, founder of UpKeep.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

The finished book will come out on September 13, featuring an amazing cover designed by my IMVU co-founder Marcus Gosling and refined and tested by so many of you. How much of that investment is squandered because the funder is relying on vanity metrics for evaluation? She works every day financing the next generation of startups.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

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. The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Is there a profitable business model? Great post!

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2012

For this reason you should find out as quickly as possible if the product is indeed offering real value to your customers by looking at real data. The metrics that matter the most are returning customers (user retention), turnover per customer and viral growth (k-factor).

Bankruptcy 121

Bankruptcy Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence 121

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

This is why so many small businesses can be financed with simple bank loans; the level of risk and uncertainty is well enough understood that a reasonably intelligent loan officer can assess its prospects. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ▼ June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Hearpreneur

JULY 19, 2021

As a CEO and founder, I work with employees, contract individuals, and other business owners who are genuinely stellar, and I love being part of the small business dream. I never know if I will be wearing my marketing hat, my finance hat, my product development hat, or my lawyer hat. 27- The diversity it brings.

Entrepreneur 139

Entrepreneur Jordan Non-Compete Community 139

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Building Product 2. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. I first did it for the founder. What I mean by that is startups nowadays that raise money have absolutely ludicrous metrics.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Venture Chronicles

JULY 27, 2010

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Vincent Carbone, the COO and co-Founder of Brightidea. Brightidea calls this “innovation management&# … whatever we agree to call it we intuitively recognize that it is a process that every service and product company engages in.

Cofounder 42

Cofounder Demand Community Operations 42

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 11, 2008

Among those: plentiful financing and nerds , a culture that celebrates both failure and success, and an ethos of openness and sharing. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

Silicon Valley 68

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 68

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Many founders have to turn to brute force to figure it out, even when they themselves don’t have practitioner product management experience. However, managing product development correctly is incredibly important in the earliest days and can make or break your company. product engagement, retention metrics).

Hiring 120

Hiring Bandwidth Product Early Stage 120

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

In the case of an entrepreneur pitching for finance, its the same fear that has them putting on a facade and not comfortable in what they do and dont know that will see them a long way off getting funded. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Continuous Deployment 131

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 27, 2022

You know, we're seeing multiple companies use it for product development and they're, they're using what they're hearing in their communities to make their product better and have a, a continuous conversation with, with a customer. There is a founder called Priscilla side. And there's so many great examples of that.

Community 68

Community New York Small Business New York City 68

VC Cafe

APRIL 22, 2020

By Lihi Pinto-Fryman, co-founder and CRO and Gal Aga, VP of Sales at Syte.ai , a visual search startup and Remagine Ventures portfolio company. In the beginning, the founders gave demos all day. Product and customer support shared insights from development and existing customers. Do you plan to land and expand?

Sales 113

Sales Cofounder Channel Revenue 113

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

But lots of lawyers and finance kids in New York thought they had stable jobs that would make them rich. But lots of lawyers and finance kids in New York thought they had stable jobs that would make them rich. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 111

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 111

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

Because, unless you are working in an extremely static environment, your product development team is learning and getting better all the time. Compounding is not a process that most people find intuitive, and thats as true in engineering as it is in finance, so it requires a lot of encouragement in the early days to stay the course.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

mashable.com

MAY 24, 2011

May 23, 2011 by Christina Warren 20 Share on Tumblr email share Share on Tumblr email share The Mobile App Trends Series is supported by Sourcebits , a leading product developer for mobile platforms. Sourcebits offers design and development services for iOS, Android, Mobile and Web platforms.

Mobile 90

Mobile Web Social Media Software Review 90

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. Founder interviews can find the story, the value proposition , and the big idea.

Artificial Inteligence 114

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Metrics SEO 114

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

People: founder-run and trying to recruit amazing technical talent (the product development team is a huge priority at this stage) and integrate a few senior managers to help prepare the company for scale - which leads to cultural clashes and communication challenges. Financing: The "hopes and dreams" financing stage is over.

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20