Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Yet it always amazes me that I can find two different startups, seemingly working on the same problem, with one having a burn rate several times higher than the other. They understand startup realities. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

There are several effective steps to launch a profitable custom software development startup. In today’s innovative digital ecosystem, you can establish a powerful software development company, even if you do not have a previous technical background. Hire A Team Of Software Developers. Conduct Market Research.

Software Developers 139

Software Developers Software Development Software Developer 139

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems. Indeed, Silicon Valley was born as a center for weapon systems development and its software and silicon helped end the Cold War.

Government 308

Government Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley North Korea 308

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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. We have a special program if you are pre-seed and need product development.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 6, 2024

Similarly, new product development with advanced features and specs is based largely on new research, making the old surveys redundant and useless. Streamlining Profits: Strategic management of production enables which methods and objectives better suit the nature of a business.

Operations 134

Operations Management Software Review Technical Review 134

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Yet it always amazes me that I can find two different startups, seemingly working on the same problem, with one having a burn rate several times higher than the other. They understand startup realities. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

Once upon a time every great organization was a scrappy startup willing to take risks – new ideas, new methods, new customers, targets, and mission. If they were a commercial company, they figured out product/market fit; or if a government organization, it focused on solution/mission fit. Companies Run on Process.

Government 315

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 315

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. Resist the urge to delegate accounting decisions, under the assumption that incoming revenue takes the pressure off.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

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. Many founders or startup teams gravitate toward sales or design. Often, founders have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Due Diligence 133

Due Diligence Startup Finance Leadership 133

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

Software Development Process via Wikipedia. Even when your startup is a one-man show and lots of fun, a “business” needs some discipline and controls to keep it from being defined as a hobby by investors, and assure some financial return. Product development process. Billing and revenue collection.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 13, 2010

In the end the revenue simply wasn’t enough to make a sustainable business and so we had to switch gears once more (in today’s parlance that would be a “Pivot”). We were a tiny web-conferencing startup in Pittsburgh called iMeet. Over the course of that relationship that lasted several years, we did over $1M in revenue just from HP.

Revenue 72

Revenue Developer Java Customer Development 72

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I believe the Maker Movement and hardware startups with limited resources are made for each other. In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find.

Startup 397

Startup Cofounder Incubator Early Stage 397

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2020

When it occurs, the consequences can be swift and devastating, wreaking potential havoc on a once steady stream of revenue. This is especially true for startups, which operate on the basis of customer traction to solidify expectations with investors or lending institutions. Work to win them back.

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Customer Development Team Review Advisory Board Private Equity 347

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2016

In fact, investors recognize that founders usually learn more from mistakes than from success, so a well-explained startup failure can improve their odds of funding the next time around. As an active angel investor and startup advisor, I’ve seen many of the same stumbling blocks repeated all too many times.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Forecast Angel Investor 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Yet it always amazes me that I can find two different startups, seemingly working on the same problem, with one having a burn rate several times higher than the other. They understand startup realities. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

by Arsalan Sajid, startup community manager at Cloudways. Life is not a box of chocolates and startups are not always easy to start. There is a complete process that governs the startup lifecycle including inception to exit. They make money by starting a product from scratch and then selling it in thousands of dollars.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

These investments are a tremendous help to your startup because they will serve as a stepping stone to reach your target eventually. It is necessary to cover the early stages of product development, thorough market research, and other processes during the initial step. Hence they will miss the finish line.

Seed Stage 127

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 127

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn how to build a marketing growth strategy to increase your market penetration, market share, and revenue. This philosophy comes from The Lean Startup methodology , which relies on testing hypotheses to better understand your customers’ pain points and goals. Product development. New channels.

Marketing 115

Marketing Framework Metrics Channel 115

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Launching your startup in a down economy doesn’t make it any less likely to last. Two conditions that do matter to your startup’s out-year viability are the cost and length of its product development cycle. Longer, costlier cycles drain cash on hand while delaying the onset of crucial revenue streams.

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Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

The number of startups rose in 2015 for the first time in five years, with the largest year-over-year increase in two decades. Who would not want to joint the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Successful startup teams today have a mix of remote employees, freelancers, and contractors.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

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

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

The Forrest Four-Cast: February 7, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Our team is experienced with over 150 years of research and software product development experience that includes five startups and an exit.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Technical Review Malta Startup 48

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 30, 2011

Blackbox , founded by entrepreneurs Bjoern Lasse Herrmann and Max Marmer, in June released its first Startup Genome Report — a 67-page in depth analysis on what makes Silicon Valley startups successful based on profiling over 650 startups. 74% of high growth internet startups fail due to premature scaling.

Silicon Valley 189

Silicon Valley Software Review Startup Cofounder 189

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 19, 2017

by Steve Owens, Founder and CTO of Finish Line Product Development Services. In this article we explore the unique challenges of a lean start-up and how Outsourced Product Development (OPD) can be used to overcome them. Reducing product turn time. Extending the runway. The Lean Start-Up Environment.

Product Development 153

Product Development Lean Developer Product 153

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Similarly, customers are more knowledgeable, aware, and conscious to choose from the variety out there, which slows down the company’s revenue and growth. Most industries have touched their peak, matured, and there is little room to improve in the world of homogenous products, similar marketing, and standardized, efficient processes.

Technical Review 153

Technical Review Forecast Analytics Social Media 153

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 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

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. Startup Advice'

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

As a startup co-founder with a growing team, here are the recruiting tips I’ve learnt over the last couple of years. You need to sell them on why your startup is the best. For example, if you run a tech startup , you will know how hard it is to find good software engineers. Not sales, product development, or fundraising.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

Austin Startup

APRIL 8, 2019

Success leaves clues; perhaps that is why some of the most successful entrepreneurs turned investors in my startups such as Brett Hurt & Mark Cuban both told me that they like weekly updates from the startups in which they invest. I’ve been writing weekly updates to my investors now across four startups for years.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Balance Sheet Startup Austin 48

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 8, 2008 The lean startup Ive been thinking for some time about a term that could encapsulate trends that are changing the startup landscape. After some trial and error, Ive settled on the Lean Startup. Of course, many startups are capital efficient and generally frugal.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Between January 2015 and January 2016, we grew our platform Slidebean from $1K to $20K in monthly recurring revenue. Getting the first tracks of revenue is one of the toughest processes of building a startup. One of the most commons problems I see with startups that I’ve come across is the lack of a “growth team.”.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Countless startup teams have already been spawned from these.

Technical Cofounder 153

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Wiki Cofounder 153

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

The Japanese edition of The Startup Owner’s Manual hit the bookstores in Japan this week. I asked Tsutsumi-san to write a guest post for my blog to describe his experience with Customer Development in Japan. I asked Tsutsumi-san to write a guest post for my blog to describe his experience with Customer Development in Japan.

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Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 292

YoungUpstarts

JULY 16, 2019

In 2018, Canada had a record-low unemployment rate and as a result we are seeing more companies, startups and online-based businesses dedicated to serving the niche-jobs industry. Positions for software development and data science continue to expand throughout the industry. This generated $16 billion in annual revenues in 2015.

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Canada Hiring Artificial Inteligence Software Developers 167