Steve Blank

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. Strategy and Operations roles: These roles help make sure vision, resources (budgets and people), and the market opportunity are aligned. For me, personally : People in the senior ranks at startups usually call themselves operators. Below is the second of her three-part series.

Government 225

Government Advisory Board Salary Sales Cycle 225

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 1, 2014

For many start-up companies, the dream is to one day become the other half in a merger or acquisition with a larger, more developed organisation. If you want to turn your start-up into an attractive acquisition target, there are a few key tips that all small companies should remember: Fine Tune your Management.

Acquisition 193

Acquisition Merger Europe Technical Review 193

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 3, 2021

Growing a business is always challenging, but it’s often the hardest in the earliest stages of development. You’ll be operating with limited resources, limited knowledge, and quite possibly, a business model poised to change in the immediate future. Most of the strategies on this list prioritize customer acquisition, and rightly so.

Early Stage 125

Early Stage PPC Retention Churn Rate 125

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2020

If you’re a startup founder, you’re probably looking at Google in some way, maybe in terms of partnership or acquisition, but maybe some level of suspicion and fear. Gradient Ventures – an early stage fund backed by Alphabet, investing exclusively in AI first companies. M&A – Acquisitions.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Startup Early Stage Cloud 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

This strategy is called “organic growth,” yet it alone may yield only a fraction of the potential you could achieve, unless you add the additional strategies of partnerships and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). Actively pursue mergers and acquisitions. Overreliance on acquisitions drains resources and de-motivates internal teams.

CTO Hire 229

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Merger Non-Compete 229

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Companies like Warehouse Now have developed digital platforms leveraging AI to help warehousing and supply chain businesses streamline their capital-expenditure (capex) intensive, highly underutilized real estate warehouse assets to operational expenditure (opex) based, just-in-time, highly efficient supply chain management assets.

Artificial Inteligence 167

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Global Technology 167

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. Those who do, often believe they can hire from the open market without the hassle of an acquisition.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Reasons for funding. ? Scale up your operations. One of the most prominent reasons for funding is to scale up your operations, for expansion and achieve economies of scale. Now you may want to scale up your operations or expand your presence. The third reason is to fund your short term operational expenses or working capital.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 8, 2021

They want to snowball their customer acquisition, attracting thousands of new people to the brand, and reach diverse new audiences in new locations. You’ll need money to get all the initial equipment, space, and people required to begin operations. In the early stages of your business’s development, you’re going to notice dead weight.

Startup 127

Startup Retention Acquisition Agile 127

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

At times this means startups operate at speeds so fast they appear to be a blur to government agencies. It’s not that these companies are smarter than Defense Department employees, but they operate with different philosophies, different product development methodologies, and with different constraints.

Government 312

Government Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley North Korea 312

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

A lot of startups fail within the first few months due to some commonly acknowledged culprits – picking a bad time to scale, running out of operating capital, lack of a steady customer base, high customer acquisition cost, and low to nonexistent repeat business. Refine Your Sales Process. Hone Your Communication Skills.

Sales 171

Sales Widget Sales Cycle Software Review 171

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2020

They aren’t operating on big bankrolls of venture capital (at least initially), and they don’t have trust funds to fall back on if the business fails. As a self-directed business owner, you have full control over what the business does next as well as how it operates and how it grows. If they don’t come through, who will?

Entrepreneur 205

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Silicon Valley Bandwidth 205

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2023

None normally work for or provide funds for early-stage startups. Officially, the investment banks mission is to raise money for companies by issuing and selling securities in the capital markets, and providing advice on transactions such as mergers and acquisitions. Many investment banks even call themselves “boutiques.”

Early Stage 182

Early Stage Silicon Valley Private Equity Initial Public Offering 182

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Toronto’s Mark Attanasio has spent some 20 years advising businesses at various stages in their development on what it takes to position themselves for growth – whether it’s through traditional transactional activities like management buyouts and mergers and acquisitions or via a public listing on a Canadian stock exchange.

Partner 113

Partner Technical Review Management Due Diligence 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

500k had come through the last acquisition. For some reason the industry of bankers who try to buy or sell businesses work in what is called the “M&A (mergers & acquisitions) Industry.&# I’ve never understood this. There’s really no such thing as a merger – only acquisitions. million uniques.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

The key to being able to run a business that isn’t yet profitable (on operating margin) is availability of capital to finance losses and preferably at a cost that isn’t too punitive to the founders and employees. CAC is often measured incorrectly and doesn’t often doesn’t capture the true costs of acquisition. The first input is CAC.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Our clients have more efficient operations, higher profits/value and streamlined processes after they work with us. The ever-changing reality is that companies operate internationally even if they do not think they do. As you have a history of building early stage companies, what is the most important thing you tell startup founders?

Technical Review 99

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 99

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2020

Joe Felter , Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Acquisition, Primes, Requirements and the DoD. Today’s topic was Midterms with Congressman Mike Gallagher.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Technology China Taiwan 257

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Our clients have more efficient operations, higher profits/value and streamlined processes after they work with us. The ever-changing reality is that companies operate internationally even if they do not think they do. As you have a history of building early stage companies, what is the most important thing you tell startup founders?

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 84

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. Today they released the first Startup Genome Report — a 67 page in-depth analysis on what makes early-stage Internet startups successful. They went to work gathering deep knowledege of what makes successful Internet startups.

Technical Cofounder 334

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 334

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

Billions of dollars are being poured into companies that have yet to clear the value chasm, as entrepreneurs use early traction that isn’t necessarily financially-oriented, but shows a certain level of uptick or success, to raise capital and convince early stage investors that their horse is the one to bet on.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 29, 2024

When I think about it, it's in the early stages of that entire co-founding team needs to be aligned on what these goals are and the fact that they do actually work toward that vision. We look at it at MIT as an order of operations, not of parentheses and then exponents, et cetera. (13:10): 08:56): We might run an experiment.

Entrepreneur 52

Entrepreneur Cofounder Early Stage Artificial Inteligence 52

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

As an early stage investor in the world of gaming and metaverse technology at Remagine Ventures, I find these companies have the potential to set the agenda, become the potential platforms for developers building in this space and future acquirers/consolidators of startups building the next generation of the Internet. Also, their $1.6

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2020

None normally work for or provide funds for early-stage startups. Officially, the investment banks mission is to raise money for companies by issuing and selling securities in the capital markets, and providing advice on transactions such as mergers and acquisitions. Many investment banks even call themselves “boutiques.”

Silicon Valley 362

Silicon Valley Private Equity Initial Public Offering Term Sheet 362

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

Governance Moreso than a lot of actual VCs, a lot of high-net-worth folks tend to ask for board representation—even in the super early stages of a company where boards tend to be a little less formal. I would be wary of an investor who tries to insert themselves into the company before watching it operate for a while.

.Net 89

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 89

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

Amazon Corporate Development – Notable acquisitions include Whole Foods ($13.7B), smart doorbell system Ring ($1.2B, 2018) and autonomous mobility technology Zoox ($1.2bn). Amazon AppStore – The Amazon Appstore (mobile/tablet) for Android and Fire OS operated by Amazon.com.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 29, 2021

Startup owners often think they need not go high-tech in the early stages of the business. It simplifies operations and lets you focus on growth strategies. A software solution like parsl can help you enhance your operations and generate growth. Referral programs can boost acquisitions.

Agile 167

Agile Early Stage Startup Programming 167

Board Effect

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Another vein of thought is that boards should primarily be involved in strategic planning when there is a major event such as a change in the CEO, a major investment opportunity, a looming acquisition, a decline in sales, or an unsolicited takeover bid. Takeovers, mergers, and acquisitions are sometimes an integral part of corporate strategy.

Management 64

Management Software Review Acquisition Merger 64

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

This is for the early-stage companies — the entrepreneurs with great ideas and tireless work ethics who feel like they’ve emailed half of the country’s news outlets with nothing but the rare “thanks, but not interested” reply to show for it. The operative word in “news” is “new.” The irony hurts. Pitch late.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

John Berger, Director Operations & Impact Solutions, Toniic , observed that this has clear investor benefits: “ The grace period became a feature because it benefits investors in regions like the US where there can be tax differences between short and long term gains. Growth stage and beyond: clear pathway to outcomes of over $1 billion.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Operations Plan Goal of the operations plan: Present the action plan for executing on your company’s vision. The operations plan transforms the business plan from concept into reality. And the operations plan proves that the management team can execute on your concept better than anybody else. Concept vs. reality.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

Hunter Walker

JULY 22, 2014

It’s a great discussion point to understand how you think of your business’ potential but as an operating plan? what sort of budget will be required to support the ongoing acquisition? Important to make sure your forecast and your operating plan match up! Yeah, that one. Throw it away post-funding. Let’s go!”.

Forecast 95

Forecast Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 95

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Outcome: Just sold to PayPal for $4B (PayPal’s largest acquisition to date). This was not our early-stage sweet spot and the $100M valuation felt rich. Early-stage investing is not easy and we make a wrong decision every day! Early-stage investors are more wrong than right. Eight years and $49.9B

Portfolio 201

Portfolio Cap Table Early Stage Valuation 201

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2021

billion in early funding. Dozens of outreach programs across the military now offer quick revenue to early-stage companies. Instead, their solutions must still compete for funding in a formal budgeting and acquisition process before being eligible for widespread adoption. Recently public enterprise-AI firm C3.ai

Artificial Inteligence 353

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Startup Silicon Valley 353

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We want money to make some acquisitions (investors would prefer to fund M&A if they know specific deals – not to encourage bad behavior. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company). We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Cracking the Code

JULY 5, 2016

If you wonder how to pick your next launch country first, see my earlier post here. ** One of the most important decisions any company of any size will make is how it will successfully launch operations in a new country (the following applies to launching in new cities or states within an existing country).

Italy 59

Italy Technical Review Germany Poland 59