Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). 2009 has been the worst year for M&A in a decade.

Technical Review 241

Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . I use Google Drive to host my conference presentations , which are all embedded at teten.com. I previously posted a detailed presentation with sales technology tools useful for B2B sales.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

It will be the 105th deal out of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the firm I started back in September 2012, and it will be the last deal I’ll be making out of my third fund. It will also be my last venture capital deal. For me, I don’t mind sharing how I think about it. This is how Fred Wilson described me back in 2010.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

Austin Startup

JUNE 27, 2017

Austin-Based Venture Capital Firms There are a eleven venture capital firms based in Austin that are actively investing today, six of which are first funds. VC Firms Actively investing in Austin Companies Finally, there are a group of venture capital firms that are not based in Austin that are active investors here.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

This post describes how companies using the Customer Development model can increase their credibility, valuation and probability of getting a first round of funding by presenting their results in a “Lesson Learned&# venture pitch. Tons of advice is available on how to pitch , present and market your company.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

The video below was my presentation to the group. A link to it at Amazon: [link] Reply Labnotes » Customer Development: Past, Present, Future , on November 24, 2009 at 4:07 pm Said: [.] Customer Development: Past, Present, Future [.] Customer Development: Past, Present, Future [.] Order Here.

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Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 212

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Don’t take my word for it – in the roundup of venture capital predictions for 2017 , I found it to be the top recurring theme. Many large companies will be built (Michael Wolfe, Point Nine Capital). Venture Capital investments in AI, Europe 2016 (Source: Dealroom ). Billion in VC funding.

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Startup 122

VC Cafe

JULY 7, 2023

To put things in context, global venture funding in Q2 2023 reached $65 billion, an 18% decline quarter over quarter, and a 49% drop compared to the second quarter of 2022, when startup investors spent $127 billion, according to Crunchbase. I tried to consolidate my thoughts as well as other perspectives from leading venture capital funds.

Generative AI 88

Generative AI ChatGPT Startup 88

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Finally, for those of you who need some additional infusion of courage, please study the story of Ryan Allis in North Carolina who bootstrapped his company iContact to $1 million in revenue and THEN raised venture capital to get to $40 million. In that case, the verticals of choice could be manufacturing, wholesale and retail.

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North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Generative AI will really become magic when it moves from 'playful' to 'useful' – we will use multiple generative AI tools at work in the future, like we use grammarly and canned responses today… AI will become more vertical, and specific per role — Eze Vidra (@ediggs) November 5, 2022.

Generative AI 195

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence API Vertical 195

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.) The Customer Development Venture Pitch At this point I often hear entrepreneurs say, “We don’t have the money to scale. How do we raise the big bucks?”

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

David Teten

APRIL 23, 2014

For fun, I did an on-stage vertical pushup at the end of the interview (skip to 44:00). Active Living ff Venture Capital HBS Alumni Angels Media Coverage New York Presentations and Conferences Startup Venture Capital' Last month I did an on-stage interview with Peter Crysdale of Startup Grind.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital New York Startup Vertical 114

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 8, 2019

This focus has helped me recruit the best and the brightest in the field, build a world-class operation, and most of all, with all the knowledge in a specific vertical, help build a leading agency for food & beverage manufacturers that are looking to build a direct to consumer channel. Thanks to Mac Fadra, MAXiM Hair Restoration ! #12-

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 117

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

To an entrepreneur, being asked to join a venture firm with an Entrepreneur-in-Residence title means you have been tapped on the shoulder by the VC gods. The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. I was going to find out why this wasn’t a good idea.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

Next Julie Acevedo presented Juju Band , a newborn navel protection band to cover the umbilical cord for about eight weeks from birth. Yosh presented Ancient Tomorrow , a concept for a TV show drawing upon ancient wisdom to unearth alternative energy innovations used by ancient cultures. Ancient Tomorrow.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

Ben's Blog

MARCH 1, 2011

In my career, I have never seen a position in any industry with more varying criteria than General Partner at a venture capital firm. When we started Andreessen Horowitz, our vision was to build the kind of venture capital firm that we would have wanted to take money from. One night on my knees, here it comes, the prayer.

Partner 78

Partner Technical Review Venture Capital Cofounder 78

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

The Accel 2021 Euroscape was unveiled earlier today at SaaStock EMEA and you can view the full presentation here. * We’ll also see the emergence of more low code / no code platforms that address specific vertical needs. The European and Israeli cloud ecosystem is accelerating as never before.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

The venture capital industry is so heavily skewed to Northern California, which the remains spilled over Boston, New York & Southern California. So it was wonderful to hear from a leading venture capital firm based in Washington DC. A contemporary analog to this type of vertical integration is Comcast/NBC-U.

Cofounder 277

Cofounder Merger Founder Venture Capital 277

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

And since there was no Venture Capital in the 1950′s/’60′s where was the money coming from? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. What created this microwave startup culture in the 1950′s? Why was it occurring here?

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

To support sales, Marketing tries to “make up a better story,” and the web site and/or product presentation slides start changing (sometimes weekly or even daily). They try different customers, different customer contacts, different versions of the presentations, etc. The board raises a collective eyebrow.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure. Over scrambled eggs and diet coke, I listened to this seasoned startup veteran describe the excitement of his students who came to the U.S. to compete.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2018

When you submit a panel suggestion for SXSW, you must explain how the group represents diverse backgrounds, ethnicity, and perspectives and you must include at least one female in every group of 3 or more panelists or presenters. Stephen is a Capital Factory Mentor, serial entrepreneur and former General Partner at Austin Ventures.

Technical Cofounder 48

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 48

VC Cafe

DECEMBER 1, 2022

Main takeaways from “Into the Metaverse” The event opened with a presentation by Hamza Khan , a Partner at McKinsey & Company and author of the “ Value creation in the metaverse ” report shared it will take time for VR to become mainstream and enable “fully immersive 3D worlds” but there’s a ton of innovation happening in web 2.5

Generative AI 88

Generative AI Vertical Early Stage PR 88

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving Steve Filed under: Family/Career « Customer Development: Past, Present, Future Customer Development is Not a Focus Group » 8 Responses Tweets that mention Thanksgiving Day « Steve Blank -- Topsy.com , on November 26, 2009 at 6:28 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 137

Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 137

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

This being presented to another company’s proud engineering team who was being forced to buy product from us because they couldn’t build their own in time.) The customers didn’t act particularly excited about the product and how brilliantly I presented it. The result wasn’t what I expected. I do believe some actually rolled their eyes.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

I remember presenting our ideas for Marketing Automation to one VP of Marketing in a large Silicon Valley company. I should have been suspicious when he said, “I’d like to take a copy of your presentation to show him.” His enthusiastic response was, “This will revolutionize marketing departments!”

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Unfortunately most startups learn this by going through the “Fire the first Sales VP&# drill: You start your company with a list of potential customers reading like a “who’s who&# of whatever vertical market you’re in (or the Fortune 1000 list.) Your board nods sagely at your target customer list.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

VC Cafe

JANUARY 17, 2023

I believe there are a lot more coming (some currently choose to be in stealth) and that we will be seeing tools for automation enter every role in the company (coding, sales, marketing, design, etc) across many verticals. We are likely see more specialisation i.e. text for doctors/lawyers, design for commerce/gaming etc.

Generative AI 97

Generative AI API ChatGPT IP 97

Steve Blank

MARCH 20, 2009

First, I presented what I had learned. These analysts not only told us that the market had plenty of room to grow, they took an interest in us, since we were going to be a hardware company going after this growing market. You could sense the skepticism in my staff meeting as I described what I found.

Silicon Valley 134

Silicon Valley Customer RSS Philippines 134

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Present at the Creation It was early 1991 and Apple’s software development team was hard at work on QuickTime , the first multimedia framework for a computer. And I got to experience a type of customer buying behavior I had never seen before – the Novelty Effect.

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

www.businessinsider.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

According to Graham, Google Ventures, a venture-capital firm backed by the tech giant, has systematically been offering to make seed investments in recent Y Combinator graduates, but only on substantially more favorable terms than other investors received. Blackboard Home » Google Ventures. Its just not true.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup Valuation Venture Capital 54

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

As is the case in other countries with a relatively new, rapidly growing tech sector, e-commerce is Russia’s fastest growing vertical. These steps will help to increase transparency and ensure effective cooperation between entrepreneurs, investors, and state agencies in the field of venture capital investments in Russian online projects.

Russia 140

Russia Europe Government Vertical 140

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2009

I run a monthly meeting called the VCA that represents the majority of Southern California venture capital firms. This month’s presentation was truly mind boggling so I wanted to be sure to share the entire presentation with all of you. couponing, vertical social networks, Internet TV, etc.

Asia 188

Asia Southern California China Japan 188

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

My rule was no magazine could review our boards without us present. We provided customer references and testimonials supporting the key features we were promoting. Focused on winning these reviews, I left nothing to chance. The magazines’ rules were that no company could be in their labs when they reviewed the boards.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Haystack

JANUARY 12, 2020

3/ Industrial Atmosphere – I like to say that “tech” over the last decade went from being perceived as a vertical sector to now being horizontal, where tech has or will permeate most if not all industries. With any change, these forces present risks and opportunities.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Cram Down Early Stage Cofounder 106