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 Next Web

JUNE 8, 2014

The keys are maintaining capital efficiency, launching early versions to the SMB market and constantly applying customer development methods. However, we argue that in the long run, B2B companies can be more capital efficient than B2C companies, achieving maximum traction at minimal investment.

B2C 132

B2C B2B IP Technical Review 132

View from Seed

APRIL 8, 2020

He has experience in B2B, supply chain, robotics, SaaS, and IoT spaces. He helps early-stage startups with sales, marketing, and general “go to market” topics. Understand Your Customer and Their Timelines. If you’re early enough, you’ve still got options and you haven’t quite placed your bets yet.

B2B 156

B2B Angel Investor Vertical Early Stage 156

Version One Ventures

MAY 3, 2023

E-commerce (DTC and infrastructure), fin tech (lending, payments), healthcare and B2B marketplaces are some of the verticals that have seen tremendous growth. India for the world” has traditionally focused on outsourcing and leveraging cost advantages, from customer service to product development.

India 87

India LP Silicon Valley Vertical 87

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 tend to lose the battle early on by getting ahead of themselves. Congratulations.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 23, 2019

Early-stage startups might want to consider local opportunities first before plunging into national awards! Dedicated to early-stage companies, there were over 15 categories to choose from in the 2018 edition, including, inter alia: B2B Business of the Year, Crowdfunded Business of the Year and Export Business of the Year.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Startup Balance Sheet Early Stage 147

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Dispense is a B2B software company, focused on transaction software specifically designed for the cannabis industry. Dispense’s software helps large, multi-state cannabis operators manage online and offline ordering by granting these businesses greater control over customer interactions, in addition to streamlining their operations.

Cofounder 234

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 234

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

A crucial factor when completing the early stages of your strategy is to carry out enough research so that you have a deep understanding of your target audience. Potential customers – Identify exactly who your customers are, or will be, and establish what they want and need from your product or service.

Sales 113

Sales Argentina Technical Review B2B 113

SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2012

Many of the factors are not obvious and include building mystery to drive margin, why boring B2B companies often win but are challenging in other ways, how bootstrapping wins, integrating metrics from the start and many other similar lessons. What parts Agile addresses and the big problems with Agile for early-stage startups?

Fractional CTO 175

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Startup Social Network 175

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Dispense is a B2B software company, focused on transaction software specifically designed for the cannabis industry. Dispense’s software helps large, multi-state cannabis operators manage online and offline ordering by granting these businesses greater control over customer interactions, in addition to streamlining their operations.

Cofounder 202

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 202

ConversionXL

APRIL 28, 2021

In many cases, customers are more willing to give out their info when rewards are at stake, like discounts or sales. Stefan Thomke of MIT’s Sloan Management Review recently wrote that memorable experiences can drive customer decisions as much as price and functionality. Gamification isn’t the domain of B2C or gaming sites alone.

Email 151

Email Product Marketing Cofounder 151

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Dispense is a B2B software company, focused on transaction software specifically designed for the cannabis industry. Dispense’s software helps large, multi-state cannabis operators manage online and offline ordering by granting these businesses greater control over customer interactions, in addition to streamlining their operations.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 156

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 177

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 177

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

She is a go to person for me when I have questions around technology or early stage marketing and branding. We do a lot of B2B and also have an "Early Stage Branding" practice for technology startups. Oh, and I forget to mention in my introduction about B2B. I've known Farida for quite a while.

Early Stage 150

Early Stage Southern California Los Angeles Marketing 150

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 10, 2020

For a startup in the B2B market, that means there’s a reasonably steep hill to climb right from the beginning. Here is a startup guide to creating an ideal customer profile. In almost every case, the data that’s most useful to a startup in its early days is the information needed to build complete customer profiles.

Customer 180

Customer Startup Analytics B2B 180

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 156

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 156

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

If this happens, the risk of having an unpleasant experience is much higher, as an early stage startup cannot afford 7 months off the correct path. More metrics need to be identified such as product testing, market validation, and/or customer validation in order to show that a market opportunity exists. It was all hypothetical.

Programming 124

Programming Chile B2B B2C 124

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

HOF Capital has stitched together our workflow across Google Suite , Slack , Airtable , Asana , Copper , and some other tools (leveraging Zapier for basic 3rd party integration, in addition to custom development for certain other integrations). If you have thoughts on additional topics I should cover, please contact me. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

HOF Capital has stitched together our workflow across Google Suite , Slack , Airtable , Asana , Copper , and some other tools (leveraging Zapier for basic 3rd party integration, in addition to custom development for certain other integrations). If you have thoughts on additional topics I should cover, please contact me. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

It affects even B2B companies because ultimately most must sell to companies who sell to consumers and if they suffer they cut back on suppliers. So I believe that now is the perfect time to build a company and the perfect time for early-stage investors to bet on innovation. Consumer spending is where I’m dubious.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 136

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 136

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Muun found a market need but failed to compete with bigger names that provided customers with authoritative content and resources. One neglected its positioning by failing to target the biggest pain point, and the other failed to build a brand that its customers could trust above the other major players.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

If your target customer is a business, rather than a consumer, I recommend you skip crowdfunding as poorly applicable. They don’t get excited by early stage research, development, or marketing hype. If your campaign is funded quickly and generously, this also sends a very positive message to customers.

Non-disclosure Agreement 299

Non-disclosure Agreement Angel Investor Bootstrapping SEC 299

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. Many tools designed for B2B marketing in general are also relevant to investors. 1) Market fund.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

View from Seed

JANUARY 21, 2022

After graduation, I spent the next 9 years working at a bank, an early-stage b2b fintech startup, and a growth-stage mortgage startup. In other industries, customers may be able to skip milestones in a funnel. The customer has to go through every step to get to the final milestone. Quality control.

B2B 120

B2B Germany Stock Engineer 120

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2019

All early stage venture firms essentially look at some weighting of team, market, product, and traction. JDCC stands for “Jaw-Dropping customer value through a Competition-Crushing business model.”. Like other investors, we at NextView have a number of frameworks which we use to evaluate decisions on making new investments.

Boston 149

Boston B2B Early Stage Portfolio 149

Rob Go

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 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

Your company is likely both one step removed from many brand name B2B customers and a step removed from reporters and press that are excited to tell your story. One approach that we’ve seen work with a number of B2B businesses is to spend a disproportionate amount of effort in telling a momentum story about your company.

San Francisco 243

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 243

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

You’re obviously not showing charts of user growth, number of customers, or revenue. But even as a concept stage company there are ways to show progress with your business. One of our portfolio investments, a B2B SaaS company, was a pre-product startup at the time of the seed round. B) Post-Product Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

With a focus on transforming raw data into actionable insights, Databox has carved out a niche for itself, offering unique solutions for businesses to visualize their metrics in a customized manner. 02:06] Can you share your experience starting with an early-stage company (Hubspot) that eventually went public? [07:11]

Metrics 75

Metrics Analytics Forecast Software Review 75

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

My first job out of school was at one of the early bioinformatics companies in Silicon Valley, working as the head of technical services. That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. After BITSource was successfully acquired, I moved to L.A.

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

The sales team was still figuring out who we should sell to and how, so they would call everybody in an effort to figure out how the sales process worked, who would close, and who would go on to become a happy customer. Is there a certain set of traits or even an ideal profile of a great early-stage startup marketer? .

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 31, 2013

If you’re fortunate enough to have built a really strong early stage company, you will find yourself in the position of being able to pick from a number of potential venture investors. Look for VC portfolios that have a lot of “like” companies (B2B, B2C, media, tech, etc.). They’ll get you customers.

Valuation 133

Valuation Term Sheet B2C Security 133

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

The average B2B buyer has 27 brand interactions before deciding. Marketers raise brand awareness to capture leads that are handed to sales teams to convert into customers. Only around 10–15% of B2B leads turn into paying customers, and it’s because tactics optimizing for the early stages of the funnel only cater to early-stage goals.

Demand 95

Demand Management B2B Campaign 95

Rob Go

JANUARY 12, 2015

As an early stage investor, should you pay up for team or traction? When you are thinking about joining an early stage company, how should you be evaluating the risk of the overall company? How should you be weighing the presence of a great founding team vs. early signs of traction? The Founders Perspective.

B2B 28

B2B Early Stage Distribution Software Review 28

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

It’s probably not too controversial to say that the median level of sophistication of early stage entrepreneurs in Los Angeles is lower than that of Bay Area. Oftentimes they see a market need and simply want to serve those customers. From my experience, it’s not necessarily about “quality,” but rather about “sophistication.”

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138