Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2011

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. So how do you go about proving the business model?

Business Model 234

Business Model Advisory Board Startup Angel Investor 234

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 25, 2017

They identify and support high impact startups that need access to customers, mentors, training, and capital. Endeavor Miami is also uniquely challenged in that Miami is a leading startup creator yet falls behind in their scaled business growth. They must scale their businesses. But not every startup has exponential scalability.

Miami 61

Miami Technical Review Software Review Artificial Inteligence 61

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2020

It’s easy for you to blame someone else in the organization, economic conditions outside, or even overly demanding customers, when things are not going well. It’s your job as a leader to be the model for accountability, and build it into your team culture through trust and rewards. A lack of openness to outside guidance and coaching.

Advisory Board 283

Advisory Board Due Diligence Retention Agile 283

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 5, 2010

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. So how do you go about proving the business model?

Business Model 120

Business Model Advisory Board Angel Investor Channel 120

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

But over time code/hardware written/built to validate hypotheses and find early customers can become unwieldy, difficult to maintain and incapable of scaling. Does customer communication need to change ? In the past any customer could talk to Tom or expected Tom to talk to them. Is that feasible?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

It was great to watch him embrace the spirit and practice of customer development. He was constantly in front of customers, listening, selling, installing and learning. It seemed like once a week Yuri would come back from a customer meeting brimming with new insights. And that’s where the problem was. A Pivot a Week.

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2017

You want to review all the different components of your business model. This description should basically be an elevator pitch for potential partners and business investors to get excited about what you’re offering and your unique location, philosophy, and approach. What is your business model? How will you grow?

Business Plan 93

Business Plan SBA Software Review Advisory Board 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

According to most experts , business traction is evidence that somebody really wants your product. It’s business momentum, independent of whether you have a product delivered, proven the business model, or significantly penetrated the opportunity. Build an inside advisory board of influencers and experts.

Metrics 143

Metrics Advisory Board Startup Lean 143

The Startup Magazine

MAY 28, 2019

Embargo is the brainchild of co-founders; Tsewang Wangkang, Nik von Solodkoff and Frederick Szydlowski which created quite a trio linking their finance, hospitality and IT background to solve a problem all three had experienced themselves – the huge disconnect between customers and venues in the bar, restaurant and coffee shop scene.

Advisory Board 91

Advisory Board Angel Investor Startup Cofounder 91

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 7, 2017

In creating a successful business, it is important that you assess your business idea in terms of its ability to make money. Business model viability, along with the capabilities of you and your team, are the key considerations for prospective investors in your company. Is the customer desperate to solve this problem?

Advisory Board 138

Advisory Board Revenue Vertical Business Model 138

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Just because your technology is exciting and potentially disruptive doesn’t mean you are ready to build a business. Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now. How does your business model make money? What is your specific solution and value proposition?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Up and Running

JUNE 16, 2014

Make no mistake, you will need to have a business model or a business plan that shows just where you sit in relation to your competitors. To demonstrate traction you might recruit a good management team, start making sales, build an advisory board or secure strategic partnerships. What makes you a game-changer?

Exit Strategy 91

Exit Strategy Advisory Board Business Plan Portfolio 91

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

The role of a founding CEO in a startup searching for a business model is radically different than a CEO building and growing a company. Do they “get&# Customer Development ? These VC’s are skilled in helping you search for the business model. Your potential business model? Lean Startups

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Explain the business model.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. You’ll realize you’re ready to exit the Search step when you have customer validation: You’ve found a sales channel that matches how the customer wants to buy and the costs of using that channel are understood.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. Another term often mentioned is “momentum,” or growing visibility and advocacy within your customer set.

Advisory Board 199

Advisory Board Technical Review Metrics Business Model 199

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Explain the business model.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 19, 2018

We enjoy visionary leadership, dedicated engineers working on their life ambitions, exceptional operational leadership, the A list of advisory board members, highly skilled assembly technicians, and energetic marketing and product team members. We have been fortunate to have a business model that made us revenue positive from day one.

Texas 74

Texas Advisory Board Startup Angel Investor 74

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Explain the business model.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

14:43] Getting your best customers who already evangelize your business even more engaged. [16:25] 16:25] Having special, exclusive offers for your best customers. So one of the real keys is that you stay top of mind by having some things that come into the home or come into the business on a regular basis.

Affiliate 96

Affiliate Advisory Board Networking Programming 96

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Explain the business model.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

And not keep investors informed about changes to your business model can have serious consequences. Brian Zuercher is the CEO and co-founder of Seen , a marketing software platform that is helping marketers tell the story of their brand and build relationships with their customers through consumer generated photos and videos.

Columbus 245

Columbus Entrepreneur Ohio Cofounder 245

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Unfortunately, customers hated that initial product. Unfortunately, we made two critically flawed assumptions: that customers would primarily consume first-party assets that we shipped to them on CD and that they would tend to congregate in a relatively uniform way. How likely will customers ultimately use that feature?

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Tim Keane

JANUARY 14, 2009

One big example of this is boards of advisers, a real important concept for almost every entrepreneurial business.    I am constantly impressed by the high quality of members of advisory boards on opportunities I get to see.  John Mullins: Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model.

Advisory Board 60

Advisory Board Wisconsin Bootstrapping Angel Investor 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

And not keep investors informed about changes to your business model can have serious consequences. Brian Zuercher is the CEO and co-founder of Seen , a marketing software platform that is helping marketers tell the story of their brand and build relationships with their customers through consumer generated photos and videos.

Columbus 120

Columbus Entrepreneur Ohio Cofounder 120

Austin Startup

MARCH 2, 2019

But that doesn’t mean they don’t work really hard to mitigate risk, including before they even start their new business. Speak with potential customers, speak with industry experts, speak with potential partners?—?validate Taking over an existing business is always the best bet; failed entrepreneurs prefer to start from scratch.

Advisory Board 51

Advisory Board Cofounder Greece Bootstrapping 51

thebarefootvc

JUNE 13, 2010

This is also how business models also evolve. If you don’t have a (large) ear to the ground, you will miss out on your customers’ needs or your competitors’ moves. This is why a good advisory board and board of directors is key to a success of a business.

Rwanda 79

Rwanda Entrepreneur Advisory Board New Jersey 79

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

Army Signal Corps advisory board, and the Army was going to acquire their first computer for research. For the first 25 years HP’s business model was static. Of course HP did ship new products and innovate, but their center of innovation was sustaining innovation , around the core of their existing business.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2018

In my experience with technical entrepreneurs, they work hard on creating an innovative and elegant solution, and assume that customers will flock to them (“if we build it, they will come”). The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and the perfect customer segment. Look for feedback on how to make it a better fit.

Product 137

Product Advisory Board Business Model Cofounder 137

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

(However, in some industries such as life sciences, founders may be tenured professors who are not going to give up their faculty positions, so they often become the head of a startup’s scientific advisory board, but aren’t part of the founding team.). Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

In this excerpt, authors Steve Blank and Bob Dorf continue to explain the Customer Discovery Philosophy (see Part One, " Is Your Startup a Valid Vision or Just a Hallucination? "). Customer discovery turns founders’ initial hypotheses about their market and customers into facts. We call these early adopters earlyvangelists.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Engineer Cofounder 119