Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The two decades from 1979 when pension funds fueled the expansion of venture capital to 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst were the Golden Age for entrepreneurs and venture capital firms. Until 1995 startups going public typically had a track record of revenue and profits. Number of Venture Backed Liquidity Events 1991-2000.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). People buy companies for 3 primary reasons: 1) they want the management team / talent 2) they want the technology or 3) they want the market traction (revenue, customer base, profits, etc). they take time!!

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 17, 2017

John Imlay of MSA occasionally took me on road shows with analysts to talk about his new acquisition Peachtree Software. Hurricane Irma had a major negative revenue impact on one whose fall book of business was mostly in Florida. We just closed out in 2017 our 10-year early-stage venture fund started in 2000. I got the message.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Atlanta Software Review Early Stage 48

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 5, 2013

Of course incumbents cannot be expected to jeopardize their revenue streams or investments in CRM platforms with new concepts that wipe out the need for their current solutions. Too much was at stake, we couldn’t afford the risk of destabilizing everything and losing substantial revenue. Early results are exciting.

Programming 150

Programming Turkey Social Media Redemption 150

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

The HBR study contrasts Office Depot and Staples during the 2000 recession: Office Depot cut 6% of its workforce, but it couldn’t reduce operating costs significantly. Even less does it mean high transaction volume or revenue. You’re no longer in a growth and acquisition position, so KPIs based on revenue targets, etc.,

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

Reporting in the Harvard Business Review on a major study of growth stalls they conducted, Olson and his colleagues cite the case of the iconic brand Levi Strauss, which hit a historic high mark of sales in 1995, reaching revenue of $7 billion, but then, starting in 1996, saw a decline in sales so precipitous that by 2000, revenue was down to $4.6

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. In a 2000 study found 68% of customers stop doing business with a company due to feeling like the company was indifferent towards them.

Retention 115

Retention Customer Developer Programming 115

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. In a 2000 study found 68% of customers stop doing business with a company due to feeling like the company was indifferent towards them.

Retention 112

Retention Developer Customer Programming 112

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

Assuming your startup takes off, you will probably find that the fun is gone by the time you reach 50 employees, or a few million in revenue. So here are the most common exit strategies and considerations these days for planning purposes: Merger & Acquisition (M&A). Entrepreneurs love the art of the start.

Exit Strategy 241

Exit Strategy Initial Public Offering IPO Startup 241

K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

After the acquisition of SneakerLabs, he served as the Vice-President of Interactive Technologies for E.piphany. Direct Revenue, meaning no three-way business models and no advertising, media, or content. We grew it to just under 20 people and were acquired at the height of the bubble in 2000. Frighteningly Early.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Early Stage Portfolio Software Engineering 48

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. In a 2000 study found 68% of customers stop doing business with a company due to feeling like the company was indifferent towards them.

Retention 105

Retention Customer Developer Programming 105

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. In a 2000 study found 68% of customers stop doing business with a company due to feeling like the company was indifferent towards them.

Retention 98

Retention Customer Developer Programming 98

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. Online social networking is a concept still being evangelized even in Silicon Valley… Friendster is in private beta (wasn’t until Oct 2003 they received Google acquisition offer which they turned down for Kleiner/Benchmark round).

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Jumpstart was one of Grahams first clients; it signed on shortly after he founded Arizona Bay, in 2000. But with the help of Grahams company, which specializes in creating tech systems for start-ups, Jumpstart grew to more than $50 million in revenue--enough to make it an attractive acquisition for media conglomerate Hachette Filipacchi.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2011

Assuming your startup takes off, you will probably find that the fun is gone by the time you reach 50 employees, or a few million in revenue. So here are the most common exit strategies and considerations these days for planning purposes: Merger & Acquisition (M&A). Entrepreneurs love the art of the start.

Exit Strategy 231

Exit Strategy Initial Public Offering Startup IPO 231

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

In 1998 there were around 850 VC funds and by 2000 there were 2,300. By 2000 the total LP commitments had mushroomed to more than $100 billion. The numbers of potential buyers had decreased dramatically both because large companies were shedding jobs and because many past buyers simply lacked resources to make acquisitions.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

B2C sales and customer acquisition efforts are a different matter (and one I''ll perhaps address in a future blog), but for B2B, those three models are the most common pattern. customer acquisition cost or CAC). To achieve friction-free revenue (and who doesn''t want friction-free revenue?), 1) Enterprise Sales.

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

gigaom.com

JULY 10, 2012

Lingo licenses Watson’s core speech technology for its language servers (though that relationship will likely end after the Nuance acquisition closes), and Research in Motion’s QNX is working with Watson’s API to develop a conceptual connected car assistant. Watson, however, is likely much more powerful than these contexts let on.

API 50

API Technical Review Artificial Inteligence RSS 50

VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2011

Yair Goldfinger, co-founder and CTO of Dotomi and a prominent Israeli angel investor, founded Dotomi back in 2000, following the acquisition of ICQ by AOL. In the official press release , ValueClick reported that it expects Dotomi’s revenues to reach $80 million will compliment its own $125 million of annual revenue.

Angel Investor 87

Angel Investor Chicago Retention Cofounder 87

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

And even acquisitions painted as successes may look very different below the (typically confidential) surface. But during the year 2000, we went through three different CEOs, fraud nearly killed the company, our revenue was negligible and unproven, and at our worst point, the company was burning well over $10 million a month — A MONTH!

Cofounder 188

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 188

Up and Running

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Keep a cash cow: Your monthly revenue goal. Specify how much revenue you need to be generating from your startup for you to let go of other responsibilities (such as a part or full-time job) to be able to focus entirely on your new business. Is it $2000, $3000, five, six, or seven clients per month?

Cofounder 125

Cofounder Revenue Valuation Design 125

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

And in order to compete against the big guys, the Deloittes, the McKinseys, the Accentures, our niche became large scale change projects, anything from mergers and acquisitions to large scale system integration work. We started off with Gangbusters in 2000. So how do you bring the people along? Knock on wood.

Leadership 73

Leadership Developer Curation Hiring 73

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 14, 2020

by Andrew Sobel, author of “ It Starts With Clients: Your 100-Day Plan to Build Lifelong Relationships and Revenue “ You’re great at what you do. And people clearly value your expertise and domain knowledge. That’s as it should be: Knowing your stuff is your ticket to entry in a competitive business market.

Sales 136

Sales Conversion Forecast Framework 136

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

Back when we were all trying to figure out the real value of traffic on the web, we investors – and acquiring companies – got a bit crazy with metrics used to value acquisitions and investments. But, when the bubble burst in 2000, most of us quickly grew up. Email readers, continue here.]

Metrics 83

Metrics Revenue Advertising Internet 83

socialmatchbox.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The generally accepted hourly wage calculation used by the staffing industry is Annual Salary divided by 2000 Hours. If you sum up these costs and divide them by 2000 Hours then you are looking at $1.15 Adjust the annual average to what it should be on an hourly basis. So for someone making $70k that comes out to around $35/hr.

Part-Time VPE 41

Part-Time VPE Sweat Equity DC Washington 41

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

#tearsofpain One way of removing silos and focusing on the entire business is to leverage Acquisition, Behavior and Outcome metrics. A small change I’ll make in this post is that when I recommend the metrics, I’ll follow the Outcomes | Behavior | Acquisition structure throughout this post. Hence that’s the macro-outcome.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

But there are also problems / risks: - the funding environment might change dramatically – there may never be a next round (see: March 2000, September 11, 2001 and September 2008). - Your revenue will take longer to ramp then you think. .&# If it works you’re a hero. add a buffer. that is the correct amount to raise.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Silicon Valley Warrant 319

View from Seed

JANUARY 20, 2015

And even acquisitions painted as successes may look very different below the (typically confidential) surface. But during the year 2000, we went through three different CEOs, fraud nearly killed the company, our revenue was negligible and unproven, and at our worst point, the company was burning well over $10 million a month — A MONTH!

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Employee PR 120

Growthink Blog

MARCH 28, 2018

Combined with the passion and guts was an inherent foresight as to the overriding business importance of predictable customers and recurring revenue. A key to the success of AutoNation was Wayne learning to temper his “grow by super-fast acquisition” spirit that so drove the success of Waste management and Blockbuster. And to delegate.

Chicago 48

Chicago Business Model Acquisition Video 48

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

It took the NASDAQ fifteen years to get back to it''s March 2000 peak--and I think that it''s possible we''re looking ahead at the same kind of period, but one without the huge trough. Because companies today have way more revenues than the companies that went public or had huge up rounds back then.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Valuation Startup Maryland 60

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

Software Helps companies rapidly convert unstructured online data and content into structured data assets that can be used to create new products, revenue Streams, and enhance current online data sets. Founded in 2000 in New Brunswick, NJ. Potentially limits acquisition opportunities for independent ad networks. 406 Ventures.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

And even acquisitions painted as successes may look very different below the (typically confidential) surface. But during the year 2000, we went through three different CEOs, fraud nearly killed the company, our revenue was negligible and unproven, and at our worst point, the company was burning well over $10 million a month — A MONTH!

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 100

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 17, 2018

He is the president and founder of Revenue & Associates and the creator of The bullseye marketing framework and we’re going to talk about a book built on that called Bullseye Marketing: How to Grow Your Business Faster. In fact, keep listening, I’m gonna tell you how to get 50 percent off. I’d love to see it, If it does.

Marketing 56

Marketing Social Media Analytics Software 56

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 24, 2012

The reality is that we have been dealing with a market failure to provide liquidity to investors in late-stage companies for most of the time since the internet bubble burst in March 2000. The market thought it had found a solution to its failure. With its $1.5

IPO 101

IPO Valuation Silicon Valley Venture Capital 101

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

Being enterprise scale means that your representatives have regular dialogue at CXO or at least VP level with Global 2000 accounts are they are bringing in millions of revenue from those accounts every year. You have to do this; addressing real customer needs releases revenue dollars that you need to survive.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

Last week, I wrote about Akamai , a company with strong network effects that successfully transitioned from a single product to build a platform that garners over a billion dollars in revenue and is now a core part of the Internet’s fabric. Big Data meets travel…in 2000. Magical, really. TripAdvisor’s History: Two Big Pivots.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54