Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2011

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. I support her assertion that a business model consists of at least the first seven of the following ten basic elements: Value proposition.

Business Model 246

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 246

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

The Next Web

DECEMBER 4, 2013

Locate your core customers, and prioritize your efforts to reach them where they are. As a startup, you’re working with limited resources and a lean business model. Back in 2009, Cloudera placed news of its Distribution for Hadoop launch in tech blogs and reputable news sources , and reached 1.5 Startup Example: Cloudera.

Social Media 158

Social Media Media Viral Startup 158

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2016

The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers. Don’t get caught in the myth that you shouldn’t worry about monetization until after you have a large customer base.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2021

A classic book by global business consultant Diana Rivenburgh, “ The New Corporate Facts of Life ,” highlights these challenges and opportunities to the corporate world, but I believe they need to be understood as well by every startup. This occurs when a new product, service, or business model renders the old way of doing business obsolete.

Marketing 339

Marketing Startup Global Viral 339

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2015

The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers. Don’t get caught in the myth that you shouldn’t worry about monetization until after you have a large customer base.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Viral Distribution 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Growth hacking is a practice that aims to acquire as many customers as possible while spending as little money as possible. The faster this process can be repeated, the more likely they’ll find scalable, repeatable ways to grow the business.”. Rather than run marketing campaigns to pull customers away from its rival, it experimented.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. Page 4: Business Model.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

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? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. They are gaining valuable customer data.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

Genuine VC

APRIL 30, 2008

After the crash at the end of the last decade, web startups clamped down to focus on their core value proposition and were forced out of necessity for survival to hone their revenue models. The old playbook six years ago was that the web distribution could be bought for a price with Google Adwords.

Distribution 103

Distribution Widget Viral Social Media 103

Genuine VC

APRIL 30, 2008

After the crash at the end of the last decade, web startups clamped down to focus on their core value proposition and were forced out of necessity for survival to hone their revenue models. The old playbook six years ago was that the web distribution could be bought for a price with Google Adwords.

Distribution 100

Distribution Widget Viral Social Media 100

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. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2013

Driven by the recent recession, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. Here are five key post-recession strategies that both of us recommend to all of you: Pursue repeat business. Examine every cost center in your business.

Startup 247

Startup Viral Revenue Distribution 247

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2013

A new book by global business consultant Diana Rivenburgh, “ The New Corporate Facts of Life ,” highlights these challenges and opportunities to the corporate world, but I believe they need to be understood as well by every startup. This occurs when a new product, service, or business model renders the old way of doing business obsolete.

Entrepreneur 257

Entrepreneur Global Viral Green 257

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2012

Driven by the recent recession, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. Here are five key recession recovery strategies that both of us recommend to all of you: Pursue repeat business. Examine every cost center in your business.

Entrepreneur 234

Entrepreneur Viral Revenue Distribution 234

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. They taught you about customers, markets and profits. Startups needed millions of dollars of funding just to get their first product out the door to customers.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

In many cases, I can break it down into: Customer Acquisition Cost – how will you reach prospects, how will you convert them and how much will it cost to convert them Customer Lifetime Value – how much will you make off of each converted customer This very simple model works for a surprising number of business models.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

But in today’s world, speed-to-scale entrepreneurship is what we need to improve society, transform industries, and create massive value for customers, employees, and investors. Customers value and benefit from the convenience, price, and selection of Amazon, which is why the company is, by a wide margin, America’s largest bookseller.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

In the Udemy course, Alistair and Ben expand these basics into a description of how to create empathy, stickiness, virality, revenue, and scale. Stickiness, Ben and Alistair say, is where people move on too quickly--they don’t make sure they really have a product that has the right features and functionality to meet their customers’ needs.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2010

Driven by the recent recession, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. As I mentioned in a previous article , it's far less expensive to nail down repeat business from your existing customers than it is to land new ones.

Startup 127

Startup Viral Revenue Distribution 127

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

There has never been a viral outbreak of such magnitude before. Additionally, “a startup is usually a company designed to effectively develop and validate a scalable business model. They are based on a combination of customer feedback and the startup’s core mission and aim. Attract customers through content marketing.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Rob Go

MARCH 2, 2017

The idea here is that we need to invest in companies that have value propositions that absolutely blow customers away. The kiss of death for many companies is that they offer a customer value proposition that is pretty good, but not good enough to achieve escape velocity. The second criteria is “Competition Crushing Business Models.”

Portfolio 28

Portfolio Distribution Business Model Viral 28

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

If the elements of your business aren't expertly developed and aligned, even the best dream will be in jeopardy. Such failures ignore the essential business elements investors look for before committing to a startup. Targeting multiple segments almost always weakens your business. A near-term customer value proposition.

Exit Strategy 120

Exit Strategy Technical Review Distribution Viral 120

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

For much of the past five years academics, journalists, bloggers, and assorted mass-media-tag-alongs have been heralding the “ death of newspapers ,” the downfall of the publishing industry and the collapse of information distribution as we know it. Lean Marketing: Public Relations strategies for small businesses and startups.

Small Business 88

Small Business Public Relations Social Media New York 88

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

What do you see as the challenges to that business model for most people that attempt to do it? I just think that if you want to get into this line of business, don't just [00:06:00] walk in and be like, okay. Like everything is custom here, this is fractional CMO work. And you know, not a fun business model to run.

Channel 66

Channel Acquisition Framework B2B 66

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 5, 2022

In order to better understand your customer's journey, technology can be utilized. In addition, you'll be able to provide your consumers with highly customized service as a result of this. In some cases, you may even be able to provide customers with products that are uniquely tailored to their specific needs. .

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Affiliate Green Cloud 107

Rob Go

JULY 11, 2013

As a seed fund, we tend to layer in “ capital efficient beginnings ” to the mix given our investing model and belief about the best way to build internet and software businesses. We tend to favor companies that have a “distribution advantage”. So what are some examples of distribution advantages?

Distribution 66

Distribution Vertical Viral B2B 66

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

You (think) you have product-market fit with real customers and real revenue and need money to grow and expand. 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. Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

BeyondVC

JANUARY 12, 2009

  From a business model perspective we had it nailed…or so we thought…buy the hardware device at cost and we would make money back by selling a monthly subscription service.    I learned a lot from that investment.    The first lesson I learned is that "pioneers get arrows in their backs." 

Mobile 60

Mobile SMS Venture Capital Web 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2018

In my experience with technical entrepreneurs, they work hard on creating an innovative and elegant solution, and assume that customers will flock to them (“if we build it, they will come”). The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and the perfect customer segment. Look for feedback on how to make it a better fit.

Product 137

Product Advisory Board Business Model Cofounder 137

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas. Your pitch is going to cover your strategy (what you’re going to do), your tactics (how you’re going to do it), your business model (how you will make money), and your schedule (who is doing what and when).

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

This provides us more time to develop meaningful relationships with prospects and customers. A number of analysts have particular focus on serving the customers of technology companies, e.g., Gartner and 451 Research , and their work is also relevant for investors. 3) Raise capital. 6) Due diligence.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

Let’s look at XX completely different types of business, and pick just six metrics (two each for A, B and O) that would be the very best ones to measure their digital success. The goal is for each company’s Google Data Studio to not look like a CDP (customized data puke), but to be a focused strategic dashboard with an emphasis on IABI.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141