Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

This required a repeatable and scalable sales process, which required a professional sales staff and a product stable enough that customers wouldn’t return it. This often is a way for founders and early employees to turn some of their stock into cash before an IPO or sale of company. Hire a CEO to Go Public.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

My engineers say our website is old school, and we need to be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, my VP of Sales says we’re wasting our marketing dollars not targeting the right people and my board keeps giving me their opinions of how we should describe our product and company. How do I sort out what to do?”. with a strategy.

Marketing 310

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 310

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Sales pipeline/forecast. Others are cutting their valuations. I listened in on a board call with an enterprise software company this week, and when the CEO said, “Our VP of sales assured me our pipeline won’t be affected.” Internal Assessment. Operating Numbers. Accounts receivable, accounts payable.

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

If you’re starting a software company, your exit is most likely a sale to a larger company. Being acquired has lots of math challenges about your valuation, amount of money raised, percent of founder ownership, type of investor, etc. What Does it Mean to an Entrepreneur? Lessons Learned. Advice that’s more than 5 years old is obsolete.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

(Not only did their sales curve look like a textbook case of a VC-friendly hockey stick, but their Lessons Learned funding presentation was an eye-opener.). In fact, Google’s offer for $15 Million was equal to the highest valuation from the venture firms.

Hockey Stick 276

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For a Series A round you want to prove you have built a repeatable and scalable sales/revenue model and understand all parts of the business model. The goal of the product at this stage is not a sale, but to test hypotheses about customer product/market fit. Series B is about proving your net revenue model (can you be profitable?).

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Just like catching a bug in development is cheaper than fixing it once it has been released, confirming lack of customer demand prior to ramping up a sales engine is cheaper than finding out once you have a paid sales team. Not just because we can command a 3-4x step up in valuation if we find product/market fit pre [.]

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 209

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.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

Their need to get into high-profile deals has driven late-stage valuations into unicorn territory. Everything a large company did, a startup should do – write a business plan; hire sales, marketing, engineering; spec all the product features on day one and build everything for a big first customer ship. We now understand that’s wrong.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222