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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. It’s the antithesis of the Lean Startup.

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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

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What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

Both Sides of the Table

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Pitchbook estimates that there is about $290 billion of VC “overhang” (money waiting to be deployed into tech startups) in the US alone and that’s up more than 4x in just the past decade.

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M&A or IPO?

Reid Hoffman

The fundamental choice that venture-backed entrepreneurs face is simple: M&A or IPO? This strategic value-oriented approach is one of the things that gives Silicon Valley its crazy reputation among traditional investors, who live and die by financial metrics. That focus on short-term financial metrics is shortsighted.

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The Killer IPOs That Are Making Tech Startups Look Like Amateurs

ReadWriteStart

The tech industry is witnessing a monumental shift in the dynamics of startup success. While venture-backed startups struggle to find relief amidst a backlog of richly priced ventures, some tech companies are defying expectations and going public with resounding triumphs.

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6 Key Rules To Stay Competitive In The Digital World

Startup Professionals Musings

Simple metrics and your personal knowledge of the industry can’t keep up with all the relevant competitive forces. That means that many companies are now forgoing the rush to go public (IPO), in favor of major equity investments from specialized venture capital funds, such as Japan’s SoftBank. You need to be part of a larger ecosystem.

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Why vanity metrics are dangerous

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why vanity metrics are dangerous In a previous post, I defined two kinds of metrics: vanity metrics and actionable metrics. In this post, Id like to talk about the perils of vanity metrics. My personal favorite vanity metrics is "hits."

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