Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

Big-bang hard launches make sense for large enterprises like Apple or Microsoft, who are building on existing revenue streams and have the resources for lavish events, Superbowl ads and large inventory buildups. Smart startups are already doing it on crowdfunding platforms. Maximum agility for required pivots. Proceed with caution.

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Hockey Stick Startup Stealth Agile 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” 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

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Favor profitability over revenue and user growth. Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion.

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Equity Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity 349

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to become the next unicorn. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Are you feeling the need yet in your own startup?

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Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 386

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2023

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to become the next unicorn. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Are you feeling the need yet in your own startup?

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Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 339

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Favor profitability over revenue and user growth. Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion.

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Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Up and Running

MARCH 14, 2018

I’ve raised close to $1 million from angel investors for my previous technology startups. Below is a format I’ve successfully used for my own ventures, and to help many other first-time startup CEOs raise investment capital. Your revenue or business model. Image via WOCinTechChat. Here’s how to get started. Your competition.

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Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Angel Investor 164

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?

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Hockey Stick Technical Review Due Diligence Seattle 114

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

The Japanese edition of The Startup Owner’s Manual hit the bookstores in Japan this week. Back in 1990’s, I was working for one of the leading sogo shohsa (trading company) in Japan, building data communications startups. The result: great success of my third startup, a load balancing technology for web servers back in the late 1990’s.

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Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 292

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. For starters it brings a mindset to startups that not all of them have innately.

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Technical Review SEM Hockey Stick Channel 384

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

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Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

You would think that would be enough to get wrong, but entrepreneurs and investors compound this problem by assuming that all startups grow and scale by executing the Revenue Plan. All discussion focused on “missing the revenue plan.”. Revenue Plan Needs to Match Market Type. They don’t. What went wrong?

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Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 230

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Usually, they are delivering only a fraction of the revenue they promised. 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.

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Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Are you feeling the need yet in your own startup?

Hockey Stick 278

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 278

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” 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

JANUARY 2, 2013

Your Revenue Model : Investors tend to care about this slide the most. Your Financial Projections : Show what you’re projecting in revenue (per product) over the next three to five years. If your financial chart shows “hockey-stick growth,” be sure to explain what happens to cause those inflection points.

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Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Due Diligence 164

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.

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San Francisco Customer Lean Hockey Stick 167

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. He has helped many companies with this problem, and as an advisor to startups, I see the same common themes leading to growth slow-downs. Marty Zwilling.

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Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 263

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

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. He has helped many companies with this problem, and as an advisor to startups, I see the same common themes leading to growth slow-downs.

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Hockey Stick Guerilla Startup Acquisition 120

The Equity Kicker

MAY 3, 2016

As you can see from the chart below Amazon has delivered on the proverbial hockey stick that startups put in their business plans, and they’ve done it at serious scale.

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Hockey Stick Revenue Stock Business Plan 60

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. He has helped many companies with this problem, and as an advisor to startups, I see the same common themes leading to growth slowdowns.

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Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 130

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

And there are others that people think are teeny little wannabes with a dozen or so employees…that have $25 million in highly profitable revenues with hockey stick growth and zero debt!

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Seed Stage Hockey Stick Cap Table Liquidation Preference 131

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

A lot of entrepreneurs think that their startup is the next big thing when in reality they’re just building a small business. How can you tell if your startup has the potential to be the next Google, Intel or Facebook? A first order filter is whether the founders are aiming for a scalable startup. The Scalable Startup.

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Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Favor profitability over revenue and user growth. Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Are you feeling the need yet in your own startup?

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

I’m planning on going to a Tech Coast Angels mixer tomorrow and the topic for me is whether there is angel funding out there for startups that don’t meet classic VC models. Remember my day job, I'm past Chairman of the Tech Coast Angels and I see a lot of pitches with revenue forecasts. But, this is not my experience with Angel groups.

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Hockey Stick NPV IRR Forecast 205

Up and Running

JUNE 26, 2013

An anonymous tech entrepreneur—who at his height in the startup world “hit the top of TechCrunch” and landed a prestigious spot in a startup accelerator—has predicted the demise of his fledgling business, and is blogging the collapse as it happens. Business Planning Finance business accelerator failure startup tech'

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Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Startup Bootstrapping 72

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Are you feeling the need yet in your own startup?

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 26, 2010

They’re more than doubling revenue every quarter and will soon be on track for a million dollar run rate. In thinking about helping startups build the skills necessary for building great customer acquisition strategies, I started thinking about the idea of a Customer Acquisition Meetup.

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Acquisition Hockey Stick Customer SEM 128

Berkonomics

MARCH 21, 2019

If you are a going business with a track record of revenues, then the importance of accurate current financial statements cannot be overstated. If there is no record of revenues, see the “The Berkus Method” available with any search query for valuing the business before revenues. Careful about “hockey stick” forecasts.

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Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Balance Sheet 63

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

Will this bubble also end in a blaze of glory with companies shutting down left and right in a massive startup apocalypse? Because companies today have way more revenues than the companies that went public or had huge up rounds back then. And, they aren''t necessarily revenues from other dot coms.

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Hockey Stick Valuation Startup Maryland 60

thebarefootvc

DECEMBER 16, 2011

Startups such as Shopkick offered real time deals when users were in stores and Shopsavvy and similar mobile price comparison tools from Amazon and Google empowered consumers to find the best deals. As of year-end, Foursquare had over 15 million users, with an exponential growth rate globally.

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Technical Review India Mobile Global 110

Ben's Blog

JULY 20, 2011

When I ran Opsware, we had the non-linear quarter problem also known affectionately as the hockey stick. The hockey stick refers to the shape of the revenue graph over the course of a quarter. Our hockey stick was so bad that one quarter, we booked 90% of our new bookings on the last day of the quarter.

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Hockey Stick Management Employee Retention 78

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. Or, there are some hardware companies, for example, that make money based on affiliate revenue.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. Or, there are some hardware companies, for example, that make money based on affiliate revenue.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Something has clearly changed within the last 5-6 years in terms of the speed with which monster startups are created in the software and internet space. Multi-billion dollar valuations for late stage startups like Dropbox, et al. Are Google-Scale Outcomes More Frequent?

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Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

RIM, the Blackberry and its network had more inventions per square inch than most startups. This results in a much slower adoption curve – the classic hockey stick. New Market Revenue Curve. The founders could have easily described the product as “the first packet-switched interactive messaging network.”

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Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 271