Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. Here’s how I learned why they were critical to successful customer development. The whole role of customer discovery and validation outside your building is to inform your profound beliefs.

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Business Model Product Development Early Stage Customer Development 305

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Business commercialization.

Angel Investor 256

Angel Investor Early Stage Incubator Government 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2015

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Business commercialization.

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Product Development Developer Product Angel Investor 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

As I looked around at other schools, I saw pretty much the same landscape – business plan classes, business plan competitions and loosely coupled accelerators that focused primarily on mentoring. Traction and evidence from customers were what investors were looking for – even in “slow” sectors like healthcare and energy.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

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? In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. In fact, this company hasn’t shipped any new products in months.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. Customer Development.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Some quick VC math : If a VC invests in ten early stage startups, on average, five will fail, three will return capital, and one or two will be “winners” and make most of the money for the VC fund. ——-. The Good News. FDA approvals?

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments. Investing in a startup company carries a high degree of risk, particularly at the early stage. They also look for a robust business model and product/market fit.

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Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

It was great to watch him embrace the spirit and practice of customer development. He was constantly in front of customers, listening, selling, installing and learning. I got to spend time inside his company while I was using their software to analyze early-stage ventures. We’re building the wrong product!”

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Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Women Entrepreneurs Can

MARCH 18, 2023

VCs typically invest in startups at the seed or early growth stage. They may help with product development, market research, or even setting up a management team. They Provide Business Expertise Venture capitalists provide business expertise to startups by guiding them from ideas to profitable companies.

Artificial Inteligence 52

Artificial Inteligence Startup Early Stage Syndicate 52

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most startups don’t have the luxury of hiring an experienced PM early in their journey. Many founders have to turn to brute force to figure it out, even when they themselves don’t have practitioner product management experience. they can range from customer acquisition, product engagement/stickiness, or business model.

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Hiring Bandwidth Product Early Stage 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

To clarify the discussion, let’s use a simpler model: Companies A and B both sell products with recurring monthly revenue, and both brought in $10,000 in revenue last month. Company A has 1,000 customers each paying $10/mo. Company B has 10 customers each paying $1,000/mo. Which is better? Oops, bad question.

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Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Early stage startups have to survive one day at a time and are often presented with limited choices of the moment that enable them to continue. At early stages you probably don’t have an assembly line and can’t clearly define any particular job. Customers are choices made by your startup.

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Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. In addition, I’ve noted a few multi-product lending firms, e.g., Kapitus and United Capital Source , which provide RBI as one of many structural options to companies seeking capital. . Alternative Capital. “

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Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. These companies would take our computers and put their name on them and resell them to their customers.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

You know, could you look at my business plan? See if the business model works, all these questions. So if you're running a small business, usually what you're doing, if it's a consulting business or any type of business, you are doing something similar to what other people have done in the past.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2010

Yet at their early stages, they are not small versions of larger established companies. The good news is this team found a business model, product/market fit and a repeatable sales model. The table below helps elucidate some of the characteristics of entrepreneurial executives by stage of the company.

Agile 120

Agile Development Team Review Leadership Merger 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. These are people who should believe in you, without waiting to see if your idea works, or waiting until you have real customers, revenue, and hard assets. IRA financing.

Entrepreneur 254

Entrepreneur Finance Equity Early Stage 254

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

In the real world, most business plans don’t survive the first few months of customer contact. And even if they did – customers don’t ask to see your business plan. MootCorp in particular has an impressive track record of putting early stage tech companies on the right path towards funding.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Do your customers really read TechCrunch? If not, do not launch there.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

ConversionXL

JANUARY 17, 2017

They have a ratings system and build distribution algorithms to best distribute lawn care providers to customers. In short, they need to approach data and experimentation from multiple fronts, so it gets a bit complicated in how they actually do this, as well as how they balance experimentation with their typical product development process.

Algorithm 48

Algorithm CTO Hire Distribution Engineer 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2013

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. These are people who should believe in you, without waiting to see if your idea works, or waiting until you have real customers, revenue, and hard assets. IRA financing.

Finance 243

Finance Startup Equity Early Stage 243

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Do we believe “startup-driven” innovation (innovation that comes from relationships with external, early-stage companies) should be part of the corporate innovation portfolio? Wants to promote intrapreneurship to extend its business model and retain creative employees like Google, Amazon, and Facebook do.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Acquisition Boston Early Stage 120

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

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

enabling you to expand on an already working business model), and if you’re in the extremely early stages of building your company, you still need to develop your product. Product development. Raising money is all about enabling scalability (i.e. SEO has worked extremely well for us.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Startup Forecast Channel 60

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

When you put together a business plan, you have to spend time thinking about things like your target market , your sales, and marketing strategy , the problem you solve for your customers, and who your key competitors are. Beyond understanding your business strategy, investors will also want to understand your financial forecasts.

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Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Exit Strategy 138

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

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. While many of the organizations were technical, we also spoke to big non-tech companies, and smaller businesses like restaurant owners.

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Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

The Startup Magazine

JULY 16, 2018

Earlier this year at the FUND Conference in Austin, Texas, over 100 startups presented their early-stage companies in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. Yip Yap is impacting the lives of our customers by allowing kids to connect safely with the people (and content) they love. Why do you do what you do?

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Startup Texas Angel Investor Mobile 77

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable. That’s because the model is based on assumptions about customers that are totally unproven. But proving your assumptions with early adopters is an essential first step. If it costs $0.10

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Founding a company is a sheer act of will and tenacity in the face of immense skepticism from everyone – investors, customers, friends, etc. Next, you have to deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers. And that’s just to get started. Let me know what you think.

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Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 26, 2015

On Tuesday, we interviewed Amanda Krantz of Dohje, an early-stage startup, to talk about experimenting with product development. Thursday brought stories from three startups—PayrollHero, Munchery, and Tough Mudder—about how they’ve experimented with their business models to get to where they are today.

Lean 60

Lean Early Stage Distribution Metrics 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

BetaBrand building apparel MVPs and testing them quickly with targeted customer communities. Telecom O2 learning to move at the speed of the internet 500 Startups and their accelerated feedback loops on what works, and what doesn't work in early-stage investing. (Social entrepreneurs take note!) It's a big tent.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur Agile San Francisco 167

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

When seeking equity investments, the source of capital is, for the most part, tied to the stage of capital being raised. You see, equity capital is raised in stages or rounds. The five main stages include the following: 1. Early Stage Investment (Series A & B) 4. Pre-Seed Funding 2. Seed Funding 3.

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Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88