Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

They can iterate and evolve their business idea with a low burn rate and minimal dependencies. There is no substitute for knowing your customers first hand, and iterating on a minimum viable product to find the most marketable solution. You’ve built a successful startup before, and plan to use the same investors.

Business Plan 316

Business Plan Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence 316

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re running a startup or small business, your first priority (after your family) is keeping your employees and customers safe. The questions every startup or small business CEO needs to ask now are: What’s my Burn Rate and Runway? Burn Rate and Runway. This math works in a normal market….

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

I was driving home from the BIO conference in San Diego last month and had lots of time for a phone call with Dave, an ex student and now a founder who wanted to update me on his Customer Discovery progress. Customer Discovery. He worked hard to deeply understand the customer problems of these two customer segments.

Cofounder 336

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Coder 336

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 20, 2019

Specifically, there are five challenges that emerging business typically put on the backburner between funding rounds: Seed to Series A: Customer Testing. Hypotheses should be tested extensively and disproven, which is where customer testing plays a central role for seed-stage startups. Series A to B: Identifying Company Blindspots.

Technical Cofounder 113

Technical Cofounder Burn Rate Seed Stage Cofounder 113

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Three to six months after first customer ship, if Sales starts missing its numbers, the board gets concerned.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

For start-ups in hot markets, the problem also manifests itself in fundraising. For first time entrepreneurs or new entrants in a market, most initial problems start with failing to meet revenue projections — when product roll out is delayed, for example, or when it takes longer than expected to get revenue traction.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2022

Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. In reality, your customers care more about your product and service, so feedback on product shortcomings or service glitches are meant to help your business, not hurt you. You have no idea how to pivot with the latest market trends.

Burn Rate 329

Burn Rate Differentiation Salary Entrepreneur 329

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Project based on your market size how many widgets you will sell in every channel. That’s no fun for you, your investors or your customers.

Forecast 290

Forecast Burn Rate Widget Business Plan 290

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2022

My conclusion either way is that they have no market, or haven’t looked. Visionary entrepreneurs tend to identify and map strategic new opportunities, rather than grow existing current ones, based on market insights emerging technology. Embrace the risk of proactive marketing. Look at marketing as an investment, not an expense.

Burn Rate 382

Burn Rate Angel Investor Operations Demand 382

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly? Market downturn – We all know that investors move in herds. Short answer – yes. The most obvious reason downturns affect investors is psychology.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Are startup burn rates out of control? The 3 Myths Most Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves About Marketing | by Dharmesh Shah – crowdspring.co/1uyrQ4U.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

Like a teenager with a million-dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a startup with too much capital and no product-market fit will become capable of making larger mistakes. These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

This means being really conservative with your cash burn early on until you have clearly found product/market fit. As a first time founder, having a few million dollars in the bank after a successful seed raise may seem like a huge amount of capital, and it’s easy to lose discipline around your burn rate.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. These steps alone can reduce your monthly burn rate by at least $10K. Social media facilitates marketing and sales.

Cost 405

Cost Entrepreneur Burn Rate Social Media 405

YoungUpstarts

MAY 12, 2020

Analyze your ongoing burn-rate in both normal scenarios and ‘bear-bones’ scenarios. Think about excess marketing, rent, the size of your company, and other expenses that may be reducible without affecting your standards. Consider where you can optimize your burn rate.

Burn Rate 264

Burn Rate Bandwidth Lean Business Model 264

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

The last couple of years has also seen the huge initial success of Ycombinator, the Lean Startup and many other product driven approaches to going to market. Broadly speaking this last trend has been healthy as it has brought an increase focus on launching products that you can test with the market and on capital efficiency.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

However, there are a number of metrics that every business owner should know, including cash flow, accounts payable, accounts receivable, direct costs, operating margin, net profit, and cash burn rate. Accounts receivable is money that is owed to you by your customers for products or services that you’ve sold.

Metrics 60

Metrics Burn Rate .Net Churn Rate 60

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

If you don’t have a destination, don’t waste your money trying to get there, and don’t expect anyone to support you along the way Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Quantify overhead costs.

Forecast 369

Forecast Burn Rate Startup Widget 369

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They can iterate and evolve their business idea with a low burn rate and minimal dependencies. There is no substitute for knowing your customers first hand, and iterating on a minimum viable product to find the most marketable solution. You’ve built a successful startup before, and plan to use the same investors.

Business Plan 274

Business Plan Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence 274

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

“There’s only one thing that entrepreneurs have complete control over, and that’s picking the market they want to operate in.” Jeff was pointing out there are a host of attributes tied to the market you’re deciding to operate in and you should be thoughtful about that selection. Founder pain! Just Survive.

Marketing 119

Marketing Burn Rate Angel Investor Early Stage 119

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Early customer development talks are going great which keeps the team really excited. Three months in, the burn is now at $70k/month. Soundbites from potential customers are encouraging. This is all a part of the normal product and customer development process,” the CEO tells the team.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Up and Running

APRIL 27, 2020

Recessions, or even a volatile market like we’re currently experiencing due to COVID-19 , are difficult times. Current businesses are finding ways to pivot their business models, revisiting their budgets, and developing new forecasts to minimize their burn rate and maximize their available cash runway. More room for competition.

Software Review 113

Software Review Lean Forecast Business Plan 113

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. In reality, your customers care more about your product and service, so feedback on product shortcomings or service glitches are meant to help your business, not hurt you. You have no idea how to pivot with the latest market trends.

Burn Rate 249

Burn Rate Entrepreneur Differentiation Salary 249

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

A while back I wrote a bunch of posts on Sales & Marketing and have been meaning to get back to that theme for a while. I see way too many startup founders who don’t have experience in selling and probably don’t feel that comfortable going to customers and asking for orders. I only found out through customer meetings.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2019

Attracting new customers to grow any online business can be tough. But for small businesses, like startups, carrying out an effective marketing strategy is critical to their very survival. It is a sobering truth that nine out of ten startups will fail , and marketing success can often be the key element for any startup’s viability.

Marketing 147

Marketing Startup Burn Rate Advertising 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

My conclusion either way is that they have no market, or haven’t looked. Visionary entrepreneurs tend to identify and map strategic new opportunities, rather than grow existing current ones, based on market insights emerging technology. Embrace the risk of proactive marketing. Look at marketing as an investment, not an expense.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Angel Investor Operations 267

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2022

With the markets down significantly, financings (at least at the later stages) slowing down, and inflation and interest rates on the rise, perhaps now is a good time to talk about your burn rate. Hopefully, you took advantage of the robust financing markets of the past few years to put some money on your balance sheet.

Balance Sheet 121

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Metrics 121

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

.&# They know instinctually how customers buy and how to excite them. Because they’re street smart, most great entrepreneurs tend to prefer getting out and talking with real customers rather than sitting in a cubicle all day doing beautiful PowerPoint slides. He told me that when the markets soured they were no longer hot.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Up and Running

OCTOBER 7, 2019

A data-driven approach can help you make accurate and timely business decisions to meet market demands and improve cost-efficiency. Activation rate: measures how many visitors are engaging with your website or app. Customer churn rate: shows the percentage of customers lost in a given period (e.g.,

Founder 71

Founder Retention Metrics Technical Review 71

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

At the turn of the century after the dotcom crash, startup valuations plummeted, burn rates were unsustainable, and startups were quickly running out of cash. This article previously appeared in TechCrunch. Cram downs are back – and I’m keeping a list. But now with the economic conditions changing, that’s no longer true.

Cram Down 404

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. This happens because many CEOs are passionate, market-driven people who are constantly trying to launch new products, win contracts, get press, hire staff and woo VCs.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

This means that your cash spending is less than the amount of cash you received from your customers, new loans or investment in your business, or sales of assets that you owned. Businesses spend cash on expenses like payroll, marketing, rent, insurance, and other services. The key to successful cash flow management.

Burn Rate 83

Burn Rate Forecast Cash Position Employee 83

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2017

From my perspective, projecting financial returns is part of the homework every business person needs to do in sizing customer opportunity, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value, before expending their own resources in a highly risky venture. Set a target growth and market penetration rate.

Burn Rate 144

Burn Rate Forecast Angel Investor Revenue 144

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Therefore, if you want to bring an MVP ( Minimum Viable Product ) to market, Werdelin approximates that you’ll need $50,000 to $250,000 , depending on the skill sets of the developers and designers you hire. It becomes increasingly difficult when you’re trying to scale your business both from engineering perspective and market penetration.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

Waste in a startup is any activity that burns resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. For market changing products, build first a minimally viable product (MVP), and never build products for sale until you have real orders in hand. Then always measure customer results, not work.

Startup 404

Startup Lean Metrics Matching 404

Up and Running

JULY 27, 2020

This is due to the simple fact that most businesses need to wait for customers to pay while at the same time needing to purchase more inventory, pay payroll, or fulfill other obligations. You’ll understand your cash burn rate and runway which is a critical prediction of how long your cash will last.

Forecast 83

Forecast Management Cash Position Software Review 83

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. In reality, your customers care more about your product and service, so feedback on product shortcomings or service glitches are meant to help your business, not hurt you. You have no idea how to pivot with the latest market trends.

Burn Rate 275

Burn Rate Entrepreneur Differentiation Salary 275