Steve Blank

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Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 2

Steve Blank

If you’re really bold, join an early-stage company (seed stage, Series A), but have conviction about the team. Both are possible on the outside. How should you think about and mitigate risk if joining a startup? Know your appetite for risk. You may need to cover some portion of your own salary for a year.

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Why Startups are Agile and Opportunistic – Pivoting the Business Model

Steve Blank

At the seed stage, microcap funds/ superangels understand that companies are still searching for a business model – they get Pivots. Most startup business models are initially wrong. The process of iteration in search of the successful business model is called the Pivot. Pivots need to happen quickly, rapidly and often.

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Doubling Down On a Good Thing: The National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Lite

Steve Blank

The SBIR/STTR program made ~6,200 seed stage investments in 2014, dwarfing the seed investments made by venture capital. The SBIR/STTR program represents a critical source of seed funding for U.S. In fact, half of all seed stages in tech companies in the U.S. Eleven U.S. were funded by the SBIR program.

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The Next Bubble – Don’t Get Fooled Again

Steve Blank

Meanwhile, the bubble for “seed stage&# startups began when Ron Conway’s Silicon Valley Angels and DST guaranteed every startup out of a YCombinator $150,000. The Russian investment group, DST, is an example, with their $200 million investment in Facebook, at a $10 billion valuation, in 2009.

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The Leading Cause of Startup Death – Part 1: The Product.

Steve Blank

We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Concept and Seed Stage In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture their passion and vision for the new company and turn them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the proverbial napkin.

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Zhongguancun in Beijing – China’s Silicon Valley (Part 4 of 5)

Steve Blank

Several VC’s mentioned that there’s a funding gap for seed stage investments. The Angel/Seed network in Beijing feels fragmented and mostly inexperienced (as are a good number of the China VC’s). While Beijing has VC’s and Angel investors happy to write a check there aren’t as many angels/VCs in China versus US per capita.

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How to Raise Money – It’s a Journey Not An Event

Steve Blank

Pre-seed Round of Funding. In the pre-seed stage, a startup is searching for product/market fit. Funding: Startups typically raise anywhere from $100K to $750,000 in pre-seed. Goal/Time: By the end of the pre-seed stage the company ought to have evidence that it has found product/market fit.

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