Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Your goal is that magical break even point and hockey-stick profit-growth curve. If your runway is less than a year, it’s time to either begin looking for a new cash infusion or defining and implementing a Plan B to assure survival. Raising money from professional investors, even friends and family, takes time.

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Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

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Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 304

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion. Investors seeking equity for cash typically want more control and cash-return quickly. Don’t assume you must plan for exponential growth. In fact, you don’t need exponential growth to give you a good return and be declared successful.

Equity 349

Equity Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity 349

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Present a “hockey-stick” financial growth model without sharing your numbers behind your numbers (a.k.a. If I had a nickel for every pitch I saw where the financial projections grow in the shape of a hockey stick, I could have funded my last startup! Are you pitching “hockey-stick” financial growth?

Hockey Stick 114

Hockey Stick Technical Review Due Diligence Seattle 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2023

Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale. Document processes and build online training videos so new people can come online quickly and consistently.

Hockey Stick 339

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 339

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Your goal is that magical breakeven point and hockey-stick profit-growth curve. If your runway is less than a year, it’s time to either begin looking for a new cash infusion or defining and implementing a Plan B to assure survival. Raising money from professional investors, even friends and family, takes time.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 265

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Startup 265

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion. Investors seeking equity for cash typically want more control and cash-return quickly. Don’t assume you must plan for exponential growth. In fact, you don’t need exponential growth to give you a good return and be declared successful.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 2, 2014

There is no champagne-popping, no hockey stick growth, and no overnight success. From the honeymoon period of “green field” development to the sleepless nights of database failures, Launch captures the real-life angst of building a startup. Only a couple years of hard work and uncertainty documented for your listening pleasure.

Audio 60

Audio Hockey Stick Database Green 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

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Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Virtually, every business plan that's ever been presented to the investor community, invariably, has that fabled "hockey stick growth" period where suddenly revenue jumps exponentially. So, while "hockey stick growth" might be something you're chasing, it may not be something you can manage. Don't just let it happen.

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Hockey Stick Bandwidth Entrepreneur Venture Capital 42

Up and Running

MARCH 14, 2018

If your financial chart shows “hockey-stick growth,” be sure to explain what happens to cause those inflection points. You’ll see investors taking out their smartphone calculators to make sure your numbers make sense, so give them the information they need to see that your calculations are accurate. Your competition.

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Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Angel Investor 164

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

All investors want to see real evidence that the dogs will eat the dogfood before they give any credibility to your hockey-stick projection curves. Small real revenue today is better than large later projections. Funding to support a rollout is much harder to procure than funding to support a scale up, after an initial hint of success.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Startup Stealth Agile 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale. Document processes and build online training videos so new people can come online quickly and consistently.

Hockey Stick 386

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 386

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

“Growth hacking perpetuates this myth that you can magically achieve hockey-stick growth by using short-term “hacks.” “ I have always encouraged teams to think about growth as daily blocking-and-tackling rather than a dark art. I laughed as I did at much of his rant. He even used some terminology near and dear to my heart.

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Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Maysee now enjoys hockey stick revenue growth. For example, Maysee , a business card cloud services startup, got out of the building and then developed an MVP, avoiding costly UI development that customers in fact found no need for.

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Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 292

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Why do entrepreneurs sometimes resort to the “hockey stick forecast,” especially when they pitch to investors? I first heard the term in the 1980s, at lunch with a venture capitalist friend, when he said he was “tired of all those hockey stick forecasts” he was getting from startups. Forecasting screenshot from LivePlan.

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Forecast Hockey Stick Angel Investor Sales 114

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Retention The scary reverse-hockey stick chart shows up in this report, too. Overall, MixPanel showed a big spread between top and bottom performers, with apps in the 90th percentile seeing 25% usage, and apps in the 50th percentile seeing 5–10%.

Retention 48

Retention Conversion Hockey Stick eCommerce 48

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 2, 2014

There is no champagne-popping, no hockey stick growth, and no overnight success. From the honeymoon period of “green field” development to the sleepless nights of database failures, Launch captures the real-life angst of building a startup. Only a couple years of hard work and uncertainty documented for your listening pleasure.

Audio 27

Audio Hockey Stick Database Green 27

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

For a little while, the team can resort to the last defense of entrepreneurs in trouble: the promised hockey-stick. One thing that is often overlooked about the hockey-stick growth shape: its most distinctive characteristic is the long, flat part. Usually, they are delivering only a fraction of the revenue they promised.

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Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

We asked these companies to tell us the data backed story on how key decisions were made, which growth hacks led to the much loved hockey stick curve, and how this impacted their company. Today, Typeform’s Director of Growth Pedro Magriço shares the story of how Typeform built a Saas-tool that went viral.

Hockey Stick 145

Hockey Stick Netherlands Spain Sweden 145

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Hockey Stick 266

Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 266

Up and Running

OCTOBER 8, 2014

When you play unicycle hockey, you typically use a unicycle, an ice-hockey stick and a tennis ball. To cater to a unicycle hockey player’s needs, Unicycle.com, headquartered in the UK, has decided to stock ice-hockey sticks. James Shields uses an ice hockey stick during a serious unicycle hockey competition.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick South Africa Africa Cambodia 144

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 31, 2016

As an investor and former founder, I know that scalable growth (and the pretty hockey stick graph) is the holy grail for every startup. More than 75 marketplace founders and investors attended the event – coming from as far as South Africa and Nova Scotia. And Andrew understands growth strategy as well as anyone in the industry.

Software Review 60

Software Review South Africa Hockey Stick Viral 60

Up and Running

JANUARY 2, 2013

If your financial chart shows “hockey-stick growth,” be sure to explain what happens to cause those inflection points. You’ll see investors taking out their smartphone calculators to make sure your numbers make sense, so give them the information they need to see that your calculations are accurate.

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Due Diligence 164

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

We asked these companies to tell us the data backed story on how key decisions were made, which growth hacks led to the much loved hockey stick curve, and how this impacted their company. Today, Typeform’s Director of Growth Pedro Magriço shares the story of how Typeform built a Saas-tool that went viral.

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Netherlands Spain Sweden 113

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

When I asked the standard “How are you,” he answered: “If I see another hockey stick forecast this week, I’m going to throw something at somebody.”. That was so long ago that I had to ask him to explain the hockey stick metaphor. ” See Also: How to Forecast Sales.

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Forecast Hockey Stick Startup Sales 130

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 263

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 263

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

The Next Web

JANUARY 16, 2017

We asked these companies to tell us the data backed story on how key decisions were made, which growth hacks led to the much loved hockey stick curve, and how this impacted their company. Today, Blacklane Co-Founder and CEO Jens Wohltorf shares the story of how the Blacklane went from one city to over 250 round the world.…

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Netherlands Spain Sweden 60

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale. Document processes and build online training videos so new people can come online quickly and consistently.

Hockey Stick 278

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 278

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

We asked these companies to tell us the data backed story on how key decisions were made, which growth hacks led to the much loved hockey stick curve, and how this impacted their company. … This story continues at The Next Web.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Cofounder Mobile Web 60

Up and Running

APRIL 24, 2014

So if your numbers are here, going up in a hockey stick—and let’s just say this is your hockey stick—and your marketing expenses go up, and how do I do? When reading business plans, we can’t afford to believe that you’re this next huge breakthrough.

Forecast 85

Forecast Hockey Stick Sales Business Plan 85

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2018

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 130

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 130

The Next Web

APRIL 22, 2016

With the advent and proliferation of “growth hacking”, many products are launching with hopes of leveraging data, A/B tests, and viral loops to manufacture a hockey stick growth curve. It’s easy to think you can growth hack your way into an overnight success, but in practice it rarely works out that way.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Viral Engineer Web 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144