YoungUpstarts

MAY 23, 2018

Most startups do not fail because they had a bad idea that could not find a market, but rather because the founders and startup teams got overwhelmed or were missing key ingredients to success. Finances are a huge part of startup success or failure, but while a lack of funds is a significant problem, it’s usually not the biggest problem.

Due Diligence 133

Due Diligence Startup Finance Leadership 133

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

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

The Secret Sauce For Smarter Marketing Execution written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Clare Price. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Clare Price. Take The Marketing Assessment: Like this show? The answer: Smart execution.

Marketing 76

Marketing Differentiation Sacramento Small Business 76

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

Research and development is the process of creating innovations using scientific methods and data analysis practices. Investment in research and development, in turn, means allocating and using finances to support this process with technology solutions, scientific and tech talents, equipment, etc. Stay trends-aware.

Offshore 140

Offshore Demand Germany Global 140

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In his tenure as CEO of DataSift we have never missed a monthly revenue figure. He has grown our US operations from 1 employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90+% recurring) and more than 350% year-over-year growth. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 22, 2023

3- Social media Photo Credit: Tom Miller In my professional view, social media will continue to play a crucial role in the digital marketing strategies of successful businesses. In recent years, eCommerce companies have begun to increase revenue by selling products directly via social media networks. Facebook is here to stay.

Artificial Inteligence 124

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Social Media 124

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

Market dynamics also play a role, with some types of candidates in shorter supply than others. Not sales, product development, or fundraising. Your internal team creates your external results, such as new products and increased revenues. An additional layer of complexity is the time it takes to hire.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

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. Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance, and planning. Modern Corporation Marketing. auto market. car market.

Michigan 275

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 275

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

New product development business concept on device screen. Before you can start determining the tax treatment for your website development costs, you need to determine what you use your website for. To show this progress you have to add up all the sources of revenue and the subtract all the expenses related to that revenue.

Web Development 118

Web Development Balance Sheet Cost Developer 118

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. Switch your attention from product development to sales. There is no free lunch.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

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 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

Berkonomics

AUGUST 10, 2017

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. Ignoring cost of product for a moment to make a point, saving a month’s fixed overhead by making processes more efficient, could easily double profits for the year.

Silicon Valley 97

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 97

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. Outside investors are most interested in scaling a proven business model, not research and development. Most founders bootstrap product development. Fabulous solutions require great technology.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Customer/Market Risk Versus Invention Risk One day I was having lunch with a VC sharing what I learned from my students. Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. Markets with Customer/Market Risk are those where the unknown is whether customers will adopt the product.

Vertical 147

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 147

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Tesla Tesla invented a successful business model for bringing compelling electric cars to the market. Tesla has always put a huge emphasis on product development and technological advancement. From music to finance, airlines and now offering flights to the public into space. 5- Shiseido. Photo Credit: Rosi Ross.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review SEO 124

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. I also advised Andrew to greatly tighten his product and go-to-market strategy.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 26, 2022

The Paycheck Protection Program which was formed last year under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, received additional financing. Thanks to Nicholas Rubright, New Reach Marketing ! #4- Keep making arrangements for a rainy day because markets can flip in a matter of a few hours now. 4- Focus on empathy.

Software Review 123

Software Review Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur 123

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 6, 2017

This means that marketing or management research activities do not qualify. Typical indicators of qualified research include: Degreed engineers, scientists, or software developers on staff. Patentable products, software, or production methods. Manufacturing products. Developing software.

Indiana 113

Indiana Software Review Software Developers Software Development 113

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. In a way, you can think of BD as “sales when you don’t know what the product is yet.”

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. Switch your attention from product development to sales. There is no free lunch.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

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.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Up and Running

MAY 2, 2011

Be sure to note any unique challenges you faced and how you addressed them, as this will demonstrate your business acumen and your ability to adjust to changing market needs. How revenues are generated. Explain exactly how customers are served, how the product or service is delivered, and how money is collected.

Business Plan 92

Business Plan SBA Revenue Finance 92

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

So you’ve started a business: you’ve made a great product, achieved product-market fit and have an extraordinary road map laid out. But to build a scalable business you need more than just product-market fit. There’s more to your business’s success than how great your product is. Asset valuation.

Founder 118

Founder Valuation Dividend Startup 118

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. Foster product development and marketing which creates organic (or somewhat organic) user traction. Generate Real Revenue. They are: 1. Build Audience Momentum.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

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. Generate Real Revenue. Craft a Small-Scale Machine.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These tools brought clarity to corporate strategy, product line extension strategies, and made product management a repeatable process. For example, the Boston Consulting Group 2 x 2 growth-share matrix was an easy to understand strategy tool – a market selection matrix for companies looking for growth opportunities.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

Some believe in the all-in approach to product development: build an advanced app. The problem was that building out all the features in the premium version would take four to six months and many thousands of dollars in app development that I didn’t have. Such value is centered around market validation and growth potential.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

Berkonomics

MARCH 30, 2010

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. There is an art to efficient management of a process, whether that is the process of bringing a product to market from R&D to production or developing a new product’s launch program.

Silicon Valley 85

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 85

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

Customer Development 203

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 203

SVPG

JULY 24, 2011

If your company is one that still allocates product development funds based on approval of projects, then you still have the old “project-based funding model.” So you don’t know the revenue and you don’t know the required investment, so of course the ROI estimate is less than meaningful.

Portfolio 71

Portfolio Revenue Finance Product Development 71

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

2- Business and Finance. I blog about home and gardening topics and make money from product recommendations to my audience, mostly through Amazon associates program. I don’t feel comfortable sharing exact revenue numbers but it’s now making me more than $1,000 per month. 10- Freelance marketing and SEO audits.

Entrepreneur 74

Entrepreneur Technical Review SEO New York City 74

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Seed is about showing initial product market fit. A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”?

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. Switch your attention from product development to sales. There is no free lunch.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Examples of housekeeping include the following list, though not every item will appear every time: Finance: Cash out date, burn rate, 409A valuation, cap table, common/preferred stock dashboard. Finance is mission critical, for instance – it just appears on a recurring basis. Note that “housekeeping” doesn’t mean “not important.”

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. Switch your attention from product development to sales. There is no free lunch.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

As a subscription business, we knew that small repeatable wins could compound to earn us millions of dollars in additional revenue. Price and plan-mix are complex areas to test because they impact several areas of your business and product, so any changes need to be made carefully. But back in 2016, we had no trial model at all.

Revenue 121

Revenue Conversion Programming eCommerce 121

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing. Is that a $20 million market? $30

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114