Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2014

Most modern investors still look for a business model that embodies a gross margin over 50 percent and a net margin in the 20 percent range. A healthy business, ready to scale, has been doing this for a year or more, with an existing customer set generating a non-trivial and growing revenue stream.

Revenue 246

Revenue Entrepreneur Valuation Viral 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2016

Most modern investors still look for a business model that embodies a gross margin over 50%, and a net margin in the 20% range. A healthy business, ready to scale, has been doing this for a year or more, with an existing customer set generating a non-trivial and growing revenue stream.

Revenue 145

Revenue Valuation Startup Viral 145

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Very simply, your cost to acquire a customer needs to be lower than the value of that customer (lifetime value). As always, there are exceptions: if you build a viral consumer product (such as an Instagram) where people are just coming to your site / app in droves at no cost to you, then you’ve got a great business.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Very simply, your cost to acquire a customer needs to be lower than the value of that customer (lifetime value). As always, there are exceptions: if you build a viral consumer product (such as an Instagram) where people are just coming to your site / app in droves at no cost to you, then you’ve got a great business.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

And, as the industrial revolution showed us, there are some real costs to scale. What makes this tricky is that markets evolve, and an innovative technology or business model can transform a normal market into a Glengarry Glen Ross market. To blitzscale successfully, you need a successful business model.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Note that if you’re familiar with the business model canvas, Steps 1-4 below are equivalent to a visual map of the choices a founder makes as they develop a business model canvas. In other words, you prove retention. With both growth and retention, you earn the right to build more. Chip platforms.

Product 436

Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

High infrastructure companies Traditionally, software investors have loved being in the software industry because the capital costs are low and also because you can get something into the market quickly. Do you have virality built into the product? You don’t see a lot of “self-taught” folks in this category.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) Most importantly, they have lots of data about the unit economics of their business.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 14, 2009 Business ecology and the four customer currencies Lately, I’ve been rethinking the concept of “business model&# for startups, in favor of something I call “business ecology.&# Constructing a working business model is a form of ecosystem design.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

ConversionXL

JUNE 24, 2014

More detailed and reliable data allows you to tailor your business model, monitor trends and measure how they might impact future demand. Not only do you lower your costs to acquire customers (CAC), it also increases your return on investment (ROI). Knowing who your users are means knowing what they do and don’t want.

Social Network 130

Social Network Viral Social Media B2C 130

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

More detailed and reliable data allows you to tailor your business model, monitor trends, and measure how they might impact future demand. Not only do you lower your costs to acquire customers (CAC), it also increases your return on investment (ROI). Knowing who your users are means knowing what they do and don’t want.

Social Network 73

Social Network Viral Social Media B2C 73

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For a Series A round you want to prove you have built a repeatable and scalable sales/revenue model and understand all parts of the business model. Series B is about proving your net revenue model (can you be profitable?). Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market. Business Model.

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

Finally, we’ll zoom out and assess the big picture: how various categories of company may be impacted long-term, how this crisis compares to 2008 (and what that means for early-stage founders), and the industries and business models that are now prime for growth. And I think ultimately, both strategies can work.

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

What if you are a tiny local business in a narrow niche, should you use the same approach as Betabrand? Always adapt to what’s most important and sensible for you (and remember that nothing is free, every measurement decision you make has a cost!). The site has tons and tons of content, almost haphazardly so. Make tough choices.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

andrewchenblog.com

JANUARY 28, 2010

To become profitable using a freemium business model, this simple equation must hold true: Lifetime value > Cost per acquisition + Cost of service (paying & free) Said in plain english, the lifetime value of your paying customers needs to be greater than the cost it took to acquire them, plus, the cost servicing all users (free or paying).

CPA 51

CPA Retention Viral Acquisition 51