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. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

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. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

We recently had Tim Berry, Palo Alto Software founder and business planning expert, present our Bplans audience with his latest advice on lean business planning. Start your lean business plan today: Download our Free Lean Plan Template one-page-pitch-download.pdf. I’m going to start with what’s a lean business plan.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

In January, we introduced a new graduate course at Stanford called the " target="_blank">Lean LaunchPad. Startups, are not about executing a plan where the product, customers, channel are known. The Lean LaunchPad class was scheduled to meet for three hours once a week. OK, somehow we got them interested. The First Class.

Lean 303

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 303

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

Pre-seed investing should be super simple, so any signs of pro-rata rights, tranched financings, charging the company for value-added services, etc. As an inexperienced founder, you are very likely to take at least two rounds of financing before a series A, so the round to try to skip is any sort of second seed. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Not because they’re all operating in stealth or pre-product – in fact some already are earning $1m+ in revenue per annum. Party rounds blew up on a number of startups who found it difficult to get ongoing operational support from investors who didn’t have time or inclination to lean in.

Technical Review 117

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 117

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 27, 2019

Unfortunately, such a high number does not translate to an equal level of revenues. An even more surprising statistic is that over 60% of all business-related revenues are collected by large corporations, the likes of which include Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and similar. Inventory Issues.

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Revenue Software Review Campaign 87

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 9, 2010

Of hundreds of startup pitches at Capital Factory , almost none had unearthed 10 people willing to say, "If you build this product, I'll give you $X.". You repeat these mantras at Lean Startup Meetings but you're not doing it.? Smart people agree: "Be a user of your own product. I say "find ten people who say they'll buy."

Software Review 312

Software Review Part-Time VPE Houston Cofounder 312

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

(Almost) everything you need to know (but are afraid to ask) before you wistfully ask a product manager to coffee so they will help you find a job. TL;DR Product management is a unique and poorly understood discipline, especially as it applies to software and other tech-related companies.

Management 85

Management Product Technical Review Software Review 85

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

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. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

“Lean” is great in the early days but if you discover an attractive market opportunity you need to get “fat” really quickly or somebody else will. And the “stay lean” argument isn’t only good for entrepreneurs, it can be good for VCs, too. In revenue terms our first two years of sales were $2.1

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. Since then, Brant and Patrick have been tireless advocates for the whole Lean Startup movement. Illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. You can pre-order it starting today.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. For VCs, early-stage means customer revenue is less than $10M.

Early Stage 253

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 253

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 6, 2022

(This is the second post in the series…… the first one on When to Hire your First Chief Revenue Officer is here. ). But the geat CROs are the first ones to thank their fellow executives in marketing, in product, in finance, for collaboration and successes. The worst thing a CRO can do?

Revenue 62

Revenue Sales Hiring Framework 62

View from Seed

MAY 21, 2020

Most startups have hit a patch where they’re figuring things out, not linearly (or geometrically) progressing forward, facing challenging external circumstances, or refactoring a product or go-to-market approach. We founded the company four years ago, but we consider 16 months ago when we launched our product to [x]”. “We

Seed Stage 274

Seed Stage Finance Lean Revenue 274

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 21, 2014

Post by Lean Startup Conference co-hosts Sarah Milstein & Eric Ries We’re excited to announce this year’s Lean Startup Conference , December 8 – 12 in San Francisco. You can leave ideas in the comments or email Sarah Milstein , co-host for the conference and CEO of Lean Startups Productions.

Lean 165

Lean San Francisco Startup Metrics 165

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for T he Lean Startup Conference. We’ve posted the full program for The Lean Startup Conference , and it includes more than three days of events for Gold pass holders and six days of events for VIP pass holders. On the evening of December 8, Ignite Lean Startup kicks off the conference.

Continuous Deployment 162

Continuous Deployment Norway Lean Analytics 162

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

One of our Bplans writers described going into business in cannabis as a “ once-in-a-generation opportunity ,” with the product rapidly becoming legal for recreational as well as medical use in many states. In legal states, the markets have become so saturated that cannabis companies can end up with thousands of pounds of unsold product.

Business Plan 154

Business Plan Technical Review Forecast Software Review 154

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 243

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 243

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

You must have a prototype or a minimum viable product (MVP). The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. To fund the sudden spike in production, funds will be required for additional inventory and wages.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. What’s going on?

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). Or worse yet they may never get financed.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 25, 2013

The Lean Startup methodology has its roots in the tech sector, where companies need to iterate quickly in order to survive. In fact, at last year’s Lean Startup conference we had speakers from a number other sectors, including government, transportation, education and public health. The FDA hosts Innovation Pathway 2.0,

Lean 167

Lean Ghana Startup Government 167

Up and Running

JUNE 21, 2013

You need to engage in Lean Planning. 60 percent of the small businesses that fail in America fail due to lack of cash, not lack of profits—using Lean Planning you can quickly understand if you have missed assumptions about your financials that will ultimately have an adverse effect on your cash. Offer only a certain service or product.

Small Business 153

Small Business Software Review Lean Advertising 153

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. When the product is early and still pivoting, these are kind of the same thing. Ready to start simplifying?

PR 160

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 160

Gust

JULY 8, 2012

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. For VCs, early-stage means customer revenue is less than $10M.

Early Stage 177

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 177

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

Now picture product prioritization meetings in such a company. If you never have, you can create your own using Google Finance. They were accustomed to measuring their progress primarily by gross revenue compared to their targets. Now picture product prioritization meetings in such a company. Those are the easy meetings.

Metrics 167

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Now that Dick and Jane have added a CTO to SayAhh’s founding team, they’ve turned their full attention to working on their product. Since SayAhh is in the pre-launch development stage, the company doesn’t have any revenue yet. This results in a gross margin of $0, where gross margin is revenue – cost of goods sold.

Balance Sheet 125

Balance Sheet Fractional CTO Burn Rate Salary 125

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Since 2005 startup accelerators have provided cohorts of startups with mentoring, pitch practice and product focus. a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance. Recently we ran a Lean LaunchPad for Life Sciences class with 26 teams of clinicians and researchers at UCSF.

Incubator 315

Incubator Intellectual Property Startup Lean 315

Up and Running

JANUARY 5, 2021

Create a Lean Business Plan. Establishing goals also opens the door to develop a Lean Business Plan. Writing a Lean Plan is the perfect process for those turning a hobby into an actual business. Since you already have a product or service offering, the Lean Plan helps you outline how that will function as a business.

Lean 146

Lean CPA Vesting Naming 146

The Startup Magazine

MAY 7, 2024

You no longer need to rely solely on traditional sources of finance like banks and venture capitalists. So if your campaign strongly leans towards social issues, Causes brings an exciting opportunity to leverage the power of passionate supporters. However, it collects a transaction fee of 4.9%

Campaign 148

Campaign Seed Capital Social Network Global 148

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 19, 2021

For any kind of business, you always have materials to work with in order to produce a product or provide a service, this is what we call inventory. The only way to make sure that your inventory is not hemorrhaging your finances is to have inventory management and control.

Stock 139

Stock Demand Lean Revenue 139

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Staying “lean&# is not an option. So angel and seed stage investors’ returns will be dependent on good times continuing or on the ability of their portfolio companies to get financed. Revenue must come from a primary source (as opposed to advertising or other third party sources). Price MUST be in a certain range.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

We’re hitting record revenue months, weeks, and margins. Be honest with yourself VCs are now going to be looking closer at margins, cost structures and true sales, and product market fit. Don’t be afraid to pivot The collapse of SVB spurred us to do a deep evaluation of how we’re generating revenue and value for customers.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 146

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

If you don’t have your personal spending under control and don’t know how to budget, it’s crucial that you educate yourself on personal finance and master the art of budgeting before you start a company. If you can’t handle your own finances, you’re not equipped to handle a company’s. Market research. Identify success stories.

Elevator Pitch 242

Elevator Pitch Due Diligence Networking Venture Capital 242

Up and Running

AUGUST 28, 2018

A Lean Business Plan might be a better fit if you simply need to think through all the different aspects of your business. A Lean Plan will be shorter, and it lends itself to quick revisions, but both types follow the same general outline. Your team can be more important than your product or service. Be specific.

Business Plan 72

Business Plan Technical Review Exit Strategy Oregon 72

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

The book has been described by a few CEOs who read it and commented early for me along the lines of “The Lean Startup movement is great, but this book starts where most of those books end and takes you through the ‘so you have a product that works in-market – now what?’ questions”. Chapter 27: Have You Learned Your Lesson?…The

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95