VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This is a question startup founders ask themselves multiple times a week. Understanding the benchmarks on conversion, retention, and churn for your business is therefore critical. I previously wrote about startup benchmarks in the context of funding readiness, so it was time to give it a re-fresh. How are we doing?

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2019

All other sections, starting with a definition of the problem and the solution, opportunity sizing, business model, competition, executive team, and financial projections, are just as critical for nonprofits as for-profits.

Equity 235

Equity Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy 235

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

Since language and implication have changed a bit since then, I’ll restate Carnegie and Hill’s original principles here, with my own current-day commentary and recommendations added: Definiteness of purpose. Every entrepreneur needs to start by setting a major purpose for embarking down a specific business path.

Technical Review 297

Technical Review Angel Investor Differentiation Business Model 297

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have often been asked about Startup Funding by entrepreneurs. Many myths surround the subject of startup funding. Here is Startup Funding, a Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs. You must have seen a lot of startups giving out promotions, discounts, and incentives at the early phase of their business.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? —— When I wrote Four Steps to the Epiphany and the Startup Owners Manual , I believed that Life Sciences startups didn’t need Customer Discovery.

SBIR 314

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 314

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. As with most business and personal interactions, first impressions tend to become lasting ones. A proven business model, ready to scale, is particularly attractive.

Intellectual Property 316

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Early Stage Venture Capital 316

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2022

All other sections, starting with a definition of the problem and the solution, opportunity sizing, business model, competition, executive team, and financial projections, are just as critical for nonprofits as for-profits.

Angel Investor 327

Angel Investor Equity Technical Review Exit Strategy 327

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. But the reality is that I engage with about 5 new startups each year which means that I end up working with less than 5% of the startups where I provide these free consulting sessions. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ?

Fractional CTO 264

Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 264

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

According to most definitions, an entrepreneur is one who envisions a new and different business, meaning one that is not a copy of an existing business model. Many entrepreneurs have a passion and an idea, or even invent a new product, but are never able to execute to the point of creating a startup.

Matching 270

Matching Entrepreneur Startup Seed Stage 270

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. But the reality is that I engage with about 5 new startups each year which means that I end up working with less than 5% of the startups where I provide these free consulting sessions. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ?

Fractional CTO 259

Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 259

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2017

An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the Business Model Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008. In my experience as a new business advisor, a business is nothing until people are aligned and work in sync. Customer relationships.

Business Model 143

Business Model Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor 143

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web. Union Square Ventures The next morning I got to spend time with Brad Burnham , partner at Union Square Ventures talking about their investment strategy and insights about web-based businesses.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2020

Since language and implication have changed a bit since then, I’ll restate Carnegie and Hill’s original principles here, with my own current-day commentary and recommendations added: Definiteness of purpose. Every entrepreneur needs to start by setting a major purpose for embarking down a specific business path.

Technical Review 315

Technical Review Angel Investor Differentiation Business Model 315

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

Even when your startup is a one-man show and lots of fun, a “business” needs some discipline and controls to keep it from being defined as a hobby by investors, and assure some financial return. Like it or not, you are now entering the dreaded realm of specifying and documenting “formal business processes.”

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2018

As we put the final touches on Lean Startup Conference 2018 , I wanted to take a moment to share more about some of the panels, workshops, and events. As is the right business model, which is the focus of the Don’t Bet on Your First Business Model workshop. For the whole program, please take a look here.

Lean 103

Lean Las Vegas Cofounder Startup 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2016

This section of the plan would include the definition of specific test processes, how results will be measured, and who has responsibility for execution and approval. Now let’s talk about the basic components of a business plan. Provide details on the business model. Quality testing and approval processes.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Product Architecture Startup 120

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

So, it’s not surprising that many businesses can be started online today that advocate for convenience, such as subscriptions. And if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur looking to start something new, a subscription business is definitely for you. Here are four benefits of starting your own subscription business: More cash flow.

United States 68

United States eCommerce Business Model Technical Review 68

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2010

If you’re a Web-based startup, for example, show me how many unique visitors you think you can get in the beginning, and what you’re using for an estimated conversion rate (buyers to browsers). And it’s surprising how few startup founders think in those terms. Part of those questions are around Startup Metrics.

Metrics 159

Metrics Startup Retention Software Developers 159

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2015

In fact, I just finished a new book “ The Automatic Customer ,” by John Warrillow, who runs the successful subscription based research business SellabililityScore , outlining nine common variations on the subscription model. With this model, you provide website access to insider information for a regular subscription payment.

Business Model 120

Business Model Startup Cloud Curation 120

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 26, 2023

Explore SaaS business models, learn key metrics, and discover effective product/market fit strategies in your SaaS business.

Software 106

Software Metrics Business Model Marketing 106

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

According to most definitions, anyone who starts a business is an entrepreneur , but most people don’t realize there are many startup types out there, and picking the wrong one can be just as disastrous as being stuck in a cubicle at work, or doing things with no interest and no skills.

Intellectual Property 243

Intellectual Property Matching Business Model Cofounder 243

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model. I’m definitely a proponent of this latter approach.

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur Private Equity Startup Salary 321

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. The next customer segment we tried was startup founders.

Lean 315

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 315

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Only after shipping and attempting to sell the product would a startup hear any substantive feedback from customers. With Agile you could end up satisfying every feature a customer asked for and still go out of business.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2023

contributes more than $25 billion to fund 70,000 startups every year. In fact, there are a few key sites to help you find angels, including AngelList and Gust , but these don’t tell you very much about how angels work, and how to find the right ones for your startup. Their realm fits between crowdfunding and venture capital sources.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Accredited Investor Syndicate Syndication 265

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2015

All other sections, starting with a definition of the problem and the solution, opportunity sizing, business model, competition, executive team, and financial projections, are just as critical for non-profits as for-profits. donation equity grant investment non-profit philantropy startup' That’s a higher calling.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Equity Technical Review Exit Strategy 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2020

This section of the plan would include the definition of specific test processes, how results will be measured, and who has responsibility for execution and approval. Now let’s talk about the basic components of a business plan. Provide details on the business model. Quality testing and approval processes.

Entrepreneur 310

Entrepreneur Architecture Business Plan Startup 310

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

Since there weren’t corporate resource for further evaluation, (one of our programs’ constraints was not to create new permanent infrastructures for implementation,) we had no choice but to assign the idea to a business unit and ask them to perform due diligence the best they could. (By Venture Fest was not integral to their success.

Programming 265

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 265

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2011

Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development , Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a “science,” and anyone could do it. Founders fit the definition of a creator: they see something no one else does. Lessons Learned.

Agile 332

Agile Customer Development Early Stage Business Model 332

Up and Running

MAY 18, 2016

Reading lists are dime a dozen, but reading lists that focus on rapid-growth startup businesses? If you’re planning to start and build a scalable, high-growth business, get ready to fill your bookshelves. There are many assumptions that can get in the way of starting and running a business. Not so much. B y Eric Ries.

Startup 80

Startup Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 80

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2014

As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. As with most business and personal interactions, first impressions tend to become lasting ones. A proven business model, ready to scale, is particularly attractive.

Angel Investor 268

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Early Stage 268

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2010

It’s the combination of Business Model Design and Customer Development. Business Model Design. Today every business organization from startup to large company uses the words “business model.” More importantly they showed how any company’s business model could be defined in 9 boxes.

Customer Development 329

Customer Development Business Model Developer Customer 329

The Next Web

MARCH 5, 2014

So for young startups, here’s some food for thought when you start interviewing employees. What startup would you work on if I gave you money to do so? I don’t want to see your business plan. Also, if your startup dream is to open a restaurant or shoe store, you probably shouldn’t be interviewing at a tech company.

New York City 162

New York City New York Startup Application Development 162

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Just look at the disruptive challenges that businesses face today– globalization, China as a manufacturer, China as a consumer, the Internet, and a steady stream of new startups. Perhaps that’s because where established companies might see risks or threats, startups see opportunity. Innovation.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2021

According to most definitions, anyone who starts a business is an entrepreneur , but most people don’t realize there are many startup types out there, and picking the wrong one can be just as disastrous as being stuck in a cubicle at work, or doing things with no interest and no skills.

Intellectual Property 328

Intellectual Property Matching Business Model Cofounder 328

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

The class is designed for students who said they want a hands-on experience in what it takes to build a startup – not just writing a business plan or listening to lectures. Our first class session is definitely not a “meet and greet”. Commitment is the first step in building a startup team. Lessons Learned.

Lean 278

Lean Customer Development Business Model Email 278

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2023

Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model. I’m definitely a proponent of this latter approach.

Private Equity 255

Private Equity Salary Cofounder Equity 255