Tim Keane

DECEMBER 14, 2009

  A low burn rate is a pearl of great price.    It provides lots of options that high burn rates take away.    A low burn rate is a pearl of great price.    It provides lots of options that high burn rates take away.    Absolutely.

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Angel Groups Seed Stage Startup 60

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Managing the Business.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In reality, they need a separate pitch about the business, carrying over only a slide or two about the solution. Remember, investors are buying into the business, not the product.

Product 120

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Burn Rate 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2013

Eighty percent of new entrepreneurs used this approach, with only six percent using investor funding. The remaining entrepreneurs borrowed from family and friends, or acquired a loan. Count on several months of effort and costly assistance to court investors, with less than a 10% success rate.

Startup 264

Startup Burn Rate Bootstrapping Valuation 264

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. What is the entrepreneur supposed to be doing?

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. What is the entrepreneur supposed to be doing?

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2015

Too many entrepreneurs tackle starting a business as a random walk into a business minefield, and they count on their street smarts, thick skin and pure determination to get them to their destinations alive. Some entrepreneurs run with passion into the minefield, only to find it’s harder to recover than to plan ahead.

Elevator Pitch 120

Elevator Pitch Burn Rate Startup Metrics 120

pandodaily.com

JULY 18, 2012

Next → Why Content Favors the Old (Entrepreneur). And getting to know entrepreneurs for fifteen years– seeing what worked or didn’t for them– has certainly been helpful too. It’s funny: Many people argue young entrepreneurs are so effective because they can blow up industries. Get Tickets.

Entrepreneur 45

Entrepreneur San Francisco Silicon Valley Technical Review 45

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 9, 2017

One of the most important factors in becoming a successful entrepreneur is managing finances. This will also prepare your business for filing taxes. Estimate your monthly “burn rate.” Define Your Business Model. There are numerous types and will determine how you grow and run your business.

Burn Rate 100

Burn Rate B2C Finance Later Stage 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Explain how you will make money and who pays you (real customer).

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Tags: entrepreneur startup investor presentation business. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

This partnership speaks to a core philosophy of the program where we encourage entrepreneurs to get as much customer validation as possible before raising too much money, use other people's channels if you can get to them, don't burn too much cash, and all that good fiscal conservative stuff. LetsGiftIt.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Explain how you will make money and who pays you (real customer).

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

One question that keeps coming up when speaking with early stage entrepreneurs when it comes to funding, is what metrics the company needs to hit to raise seed/series A/B etc: What’s a good conversion rate? Is my churn rate below the category average? Benchmarks are typically specific to stage/business model/geo.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Explain how you will make money and who pays you (real customer).

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

However, I have seen some blog posts posing the question about whether the same principles of valuing baseball players could be applied to entrepreneurs. I encourage entrepreneurs to give it a shot and let me know what you think. According to Dan, the consensus "seems that this sort of technique is possible. Steve Bennet.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. The process, which Blank detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," uses customer feedback to refine and improve a product before scaling a business.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

This will also serve as a good pointer for all the entrepreneurs who ask why I am not interested in their company led convertible note financing round. Ive seen a number of entrepreneurs, angels and VCs fall into the trap of providing debt in small pieces. In a convertible note structure, Im penalized for increasing your valuation.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Professor VC

MARCH 10, 2009

We dont know the end of the story, but they have built a real business with hundres of machines sold to gyms all over the world along with government contracts for military purchases. I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases.

Bootstrapping 28

Bootstrapping San Jose Silicon Valley Software Review 28

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

was part of a Dow Jones VentureWire webinar last week titled Negotiating An Angel Deal: What Angels, Entrepreneurs & VCs Need to Know. I let him know that he just accomplished two things - left a bad taste with the entrepreneur and opened the door for the next investor to ask for a multiple preference that is senior to yours.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2008

In addition to the case study analysis, the students also have the opportunity to develop a business model and financial model for a new concept, which always proves a lot more challenging. Im going to continue to follow the paths of entrepreneurs turned VCs turned entrepreneurs again and see how it evolves.

San Jose 28

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Venture Capital 28

Professor VC

DECEMBER 18, 2008

The NIF (in its 5th year), is essentially a science fair for entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurial programs feature a business plan competition, which is a great exercise. At SJSU, we also have a business plan competition in the spring, which ideally allows the students to build a viable business model around their NIF projects.

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Technical Review Angel Investor 28

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2013

Many entrepreneurs actually refuse to do financial projections beyond the first year, insisting that no one can predict the future. In reality, you need to set these projections as goals for your own use, to convince employees as well as investors that you have a business which is challenging, but achievable. Cash flow is king.

Forecast 238

Forecast Business Plan Burn Rate .Net 238

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

I think the title of this post is a TV show, but fitting as there has been much debate in the venture community as to the whether angel investors are good or bad for entrepreneurs and VCs. While currently free to angel groups, their business model revolves around aggregating the angel investment data. Touched by an Angel.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 9, 2012

Many entrepreneurs actually refuse to do financial projections beyond the first year, insisting that no one can predict the future. In reality, you need to set these projections as goals for your own use, to convince employees as well as investors that you have a business which is challenging, but achievable. Cash flow is king.

Forecast 238

Forecast Burn Rate .Net Business Model 238

Professor VC

MAY 29, 2008

An entrepreneur will pitch their business plan to what they think is a group of angel investors and will get a number of follow-up calls afterwards, but they are pitches for services not investment interest. I think this sentiment has given angel groups a bad name. Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? ► October. (1). ► July. (1).

Angel Investor 28

Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor San Jose 28

Professor VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

At a high level, I definitely agree that being an entrepreneur and being in school dont necessarily mix. Most of us know of Exhibits 1 ( Bill Gates ) and 2 ( Mark Zuckerberg ) from Harvard, but I have met dozens of other successful entrepreneurs who felt a greater need to get going on an opportunity than to wait around to complete a degree.

San Jose 43

San Jose Silicon Valley Las Vegas Venture Capital 43

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2008

Do you have the right make-up to be an entrepreneur? You need to be true to yourself and many people arent cut out to take the personal and professional risk associated with being an entrepreneur. I was glad to see he didnt try and upstage Mr. Hogan by adding another one. Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? ► October. (1).

Technical Review 28

Technical Review San Jose Angel Investor Silicon Valley 28

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

If you can’t find enough paying customers in the Customer Validation step, the model returns you to Customer Discovery to rediscover what you failed to hear or understand the first time through the loop. Even more surprising, while the Customer Development model may sound like a new idea for entrepreneurs, it shares many features with a U.S.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 15, 2020

Actually keeping the company in business, having it have a sustainable business model, having it pull in the funds that it needs to keep going, that's actually not a greedy thing to do. Maybe it's this entrepreneur. Maybe it's any of the hundreds of entrepreneurs I may work with. Oh, no question. Maybe it's you.

Dallas 68

Dallas Employee Government Social Media 68

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2011

Many entrepreneurs actually refuse to do financial projections beyond the first year, insisting that no one can predict the future. In reality, you need to set these projections as goals for your own use, to convince employees as well as investors that you have a business which is challenging, but achievable. Cash flow is king.

Forecast 230

Forecast Burn Rate Startup .Net 230

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

While spending time with the entrepreneurs and championing the deal through the group, you tend to become emotionally attached. In most cases, the entrepreneur hasnt hidden anything, it is just buyers remorse kicking in and the realization that the hard work is beginning. Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? ► October. (1).

San Jose 31

San Jose Technical Review Venture Capital Angel Investor 31

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

I have to build a financial model? I get asked this question a lot by entrepreneurs (and students). Is the model consistent with the business plan? Does the business model make sense? Do you understand the business and market? ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley. Friday, August 26, 2011.

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2010

Many entrepreneurs actually refuse to do financial projections beyond the first year, insisting that no one can predict the future. In reality, you need to set these projections as goals for your own use, to convince employees as well as investors that you have a business which is challenging, but achievable. Cash flow is king.

Forecast 151

Forecast Startup Burn Rate .Net 151

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. Before the $52M Series D , the $23M Series C , the $15.5M ► October. (1).

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

I spent most of the time with the reporter talking about Sand Hill Angels and how we add value to the start-ups and entrepreneurs that we partner with, which is why I just have a small mention in the article. As I am quoted in the article, it is easy to pick holes in a business plan. Does the business model pass the smell test?

Angel Groups 28

Angel Groups San Jose Early Stage Angel Investor 28

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

For firms that dont have access to the most successful entrepreneurs, trying to predict an individual or individual teams success rate based on experience, personal attributes, intellect, etc. might very well be a good way to find some promising first time entrepreneurs. Steve Bennet. at 1:42 PM. Email This BlogThis! Newer Post.

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Venture Capital Angel Investor 28