Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Funding process.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

Different sources define freemium as a business model or a pricing strategy. Solving the equation of value and revenue for your SaaS product is not easy. If you are a bootstrapped DIY solopreneur, you should estimate your chances and think twice before choosing your VC-funded, 200-employees-strong competitor’s pricing strategy.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Funding process.

Institutional Investors 230

Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping Database 230

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

Except I disagree with that definition of “success.” After I sold Smart Bear, that division has increased revenue and profit every year, for five years, even through the 2008/2009 economic disaster. GroupOn’s engine that turned capital into revenue growth was a form of force-feeding rather than building a product).

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Funding process.

Startup 255

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 255

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

John Jantsch (04:30): Yeah, I mean, did you have that like idea, uh, aha, you know, it's like this is what we need to start, Or was it really more the mentoring turned into somebody asking for help and you figured out how to get them that help and the business was born or. Carolyn Rodz (04:43): Definitely the latter. Business model.

Entrepreneur 77

Entrepreneur Technical Review Networking Community 77

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Funding process.

Startup 239

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 239

Tim Keane

OCTOBER 2, 2007

Is Business Model Analysis Important To You? Investors love entrepreneurs who understand their business model, and can describe it accurately. In my mind, a "business model" reveals the structure of the profit engine that underlies the venture. Is Business Model Analysis Important To You?

Business Model 60

Business Model Wisconsin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. And so the spreadsheet is built with conservative assumptions, including a final revenue target. No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

To avoid these extremes, there are several questions which we use at Subbly whenever someone is either considering a subscription business model or just getting started. Is your business idea focused mainly on product promotion, or the service through careful experience design? So, the planning stage can feel high stakes.

Curation 68

Curation Business Model SEO Social Media 68

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Diving in a bit more into some thoughts here: 1b) Ad-based revenue streams generally have terrible unit economics. A typical ad-based revenue stream on a media website is around $5 per 1000 eyeballs ($5m CPM and give or take $1-$20ish CPMs). You definitely can and there are many who do. 2) B2B startups have high margins.

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Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Diving in a bit more into some thoughts here: 1b) Ad-based revenue streams generally have terrible unit economics. A typical ad-based revenue stream on a media website is around $5 per 1000 eyeballs ($5m CPM and give or take $1-$20ish CPMs). You definitely can and there are many who do. 2) B2B startups have high margins.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

Essentially my definition for companies in this category is that the technology is so difficult to build that only a small subset of people in the world can build it. As a result, for these kinds of businesses, investors often don’t expect that companies can earn revenue right out of the gate, because they may not legally be able to.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

An entrepreneur starts a company in classic " bootstrap " fashion - with a combination of sweat equity and their own financial resources. With this capital, the company propels itself to $50 million+ in revenues, and to either a sale to a strategic acquirer or to an initial public offering.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

How many employees would a medium-sized business have in your definition? Some people have different definitions of that. Jason: For example, like in America, small business is up to 150. I mean they have these definitions. And that’s also true on the business level. Jason: Okay. Edwin: Yes.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

3]   However, if they are built bottom up, they demonstrate and make explicit a range of business model assumptions the entrepreneur is using to think about his business and its revenue model.   Pre-bubble Siliicon Valley deals were popularly valued at multiples of revenue.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

There’s a lot of questions about what do you actually need in terms of information, if you’re going to do your forecasting, and how does one put together a revenue forecast if you’ve never started a business or your business is brand new. You need an elevator speech perhaps, you need a summary memo definitely.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas. The business model. 4 Reasons to Brand Your Business.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Is there a profitable business model? The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 267

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

I took a look back at our original financial model we presented to VCs in 2004. The business model (OEM through broadband and home security companies for mass distribution) if not specific product functionality has remained largely the same. Bootstrapping 101. Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ► July. (1).

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. At a high level, business is simple! :) You bring revenue in and your costs send money out the door. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. At a high level, business is simple! :) You bring revenue in and your costs send money out the door. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

What CEOs, management teams and shareholders care about is growth —revenue growth, greater user adoption, increased market share, bigger margins, etc. For most big, established companies like us, our business models were developed years—even decades ago. At the time, we were definitely in the shallow-end.

Lean 329

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 329

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2017

If you are in the very beginning of a journey to your first million or just considering various business ideas, this is the crucial question you’d have to answer one day. Therefore, choosing a correct pricing model for your business determines the overall success of your startup in the future. Is the product unique?

Startup 173

Startup Viral Silicon Valley B2C 173

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

All you’ve proven is that you can make $200 a month in revenue off of some basic websites. Let’s just for now go with this Craigslist assumption, because at least it’s a business. The other stuff you’re talking about, to me – I still don’t understand the business model and the pain point.

API 220

API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220

Duct Tape Marketing

MARCH 1, 2018

John Jantsch: One of the challenges I see, and I’m strategizing with a startup right now that I think has a decent idea but no business model. I mean are you better off bootstrapping a company and building it to something and then maybe deciding, or are you better off going out and saying, “Here’s my great idea.

Lean 63

Lean Social Media Bootstrapping Business Model 63

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

These are the geniuses clogging up Craigslist’s “Computer Gigs&# with ads saying stuff like “Need iPhone Developer: Compensation: 30% of profits (when we get them)&# or “Ruby on Rails ROCKSTAR needed: $20/hr&# [link] Nils Noack Definitely a good read! Definitely looking forward to your next post. TechCrunch) [.]

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

There are also different definitions of failure. When youve bootstrapped a business where youre not drawing a salary and depleting whatever savings you have, thats one of the very difficult things to do," says Toby Stuart, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

That means the vast majority of privately held companies are still very dependent on venture money to stay in business. Respondents deemed between 12%-16% of companies generating revenues to be essentially “worthless” and deemed 20%-26% of their pre-revenue investments to be “worthless.” Add to this that 72.7% just my 2 cents.

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

sivers.org

JUNE 25, 2010

Some will definitely go bad. The programmer will probably not understand your business model, and therefore cant help you point out anything that doesnt make sense in the requirements. Id vote for establishing a strong business case and complete definition of “what” the site will do. Insightful. Thanks much.

CTO Hire 84

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 84