Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2021

If you sold your last startup for $800 million, you probably already know how to build a business, and even conservative investors won’t worry about the quality of your next business plan. Most good ones I see are in the range of 25 pages, which is more than enough to describe concisely all the business what, when, where, and how.

Silicon Valley 342

Silicon Valley Exit Strategy Business Plan Restful 342

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2015

BMNT , a new Silicon Valley company, is combining the Lean Methods it learned in combat with the technology expertise and speed of startups. Army – build teams that deliver solutions to complex problems, with access to the entire network of suppliers and partners that Newell and Felter developed throughout their careers.

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Silicon Valley Afghanistan Iraq Kuwait 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Based on my years of experience in both startups and large companies, trusted relationships are more the key to success than a great business model, how smart you are, or how much money you have. Don’t wait for the right people in business to find you – developers, investors, partners, or key customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Examples of some leaders in this space include Ron Conway in Silicon Valley and Jeff Bezos , CEO of Amazon, who each may have over 500 startups in their portfolio. They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions.

Angel Investor 342

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Portfolio 342

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

As an entrepreneur himself, founding and operating printed circuit board factories in Taiwan, my father was debating between two places to immigrate to and build his next new venture: Los Angeles (“The Valley” aka San Fernando Valley) and Santa Clara (“Silicon Valley”).

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Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Up and Running

APRIL 25, 2014

The cast of “Silicon Valley” Image credit: HBO. Silicon Valley is a crazy place. I’ve opted not to return to the Valley for various reasons, but still have plenty of friends who work there and return regularly for business meetings. As the dot-com bubble was bursting, I left to work in the U.K.

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Silicon Valley Business Plan Entrepreneur Cap Table 104

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

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. Bill and his partner Fred Wilson have invested in ~30 or so companies with 27 still active. It is related to business model.

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Customer Development Web Developer Customer 223

ReadWriteStart

MAY 5, 2011

At the final roundtable, we worked with just two entrepreneurs and then spent the rest of the time on Q&A, which in itself was interesting. We can derive GeoInvenio's business model and pricing model based on that. You can select the business you like best through a poll on the 1M/1M Facebook page.

Costa Rica 115

Costa Rica Incubator Silicon Valley India 115

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

Although the class was run completely online, and even though they were suffering from Zoom fatigue, the 10 teams of 42 students collectively interviewed 1,142 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, industry partners, etc. – while simultaneously building a series of minimal viable products.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.

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Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 302

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Steve is the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines. But I, what I wanna do in the a book is tell entrepreneurs, you can't just dive into it.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

By then, I had become a venture capitalist at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and found myself talking to a lot of entrepreneurs who were proclaiming their great technology yet were struggling with little revenue, and claiming they were “crossing the chasm”. We kept talking, with Steve asking “How long are you staying in Silicon Valley?”

Japan 296

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 296

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. I remember presenting our ideas for Marketing Automation to one VP of Marketing in a large Silicon Valley company. Are These Your Slides?

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Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 232

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

The key things I want students to take from the class are: Understand that a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a profitable business model. Learn how to put together a business model , not a business plan. Having a teaching partner makes life a lot easier and the class improves.

Business Model 230

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 230

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Pattern Recognition One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you are constantly running a pattern recognition algorithm against a continual collection of customer and market data. But at times it’s why entrepreneurs can sink their own companies. More on this in later posts.)

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Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 201

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2020

Based on my years of experience in both startups and large companies, trusted relationships are more the key to success than a great business model, how smart you are, or how much money you have. Don’t wait for the right people in business to find you – developers, investors, partners, or key customers.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Bandwidth Angel Investor Equity 312

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. There’s lots of lore, emotion, and misconceptions of what VC’s do or don’t do for entrepreneurs. Each VC firm/partner has a different spin on what to weigh more.) What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Examples of some leaders in this space include Ron Conway in Silicon Valley and Jeff Bezos , CEO of Amazon, who each may have over 500 startups in their portfolio. They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup 314

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Startups don’t fail because they lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a profitable business model. Look at the Product Development model and you might wonder, “Where are the customers?” Or at times an even more honest answer, “My senior partners say this is the only way to do it.” before you ship.

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

I’m in Australia and just spent time with some great entrepreneurs in Melbourne. The trap most of them fell into (common almost everywhere): they were reading the blog posts and advice of Silicon Valley-based companies and believing that it uniformly applied to them. Regional Ecosystems. Bay of Fires Tasmania. It doesn’t.

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Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

For this week's One Million by One Million roundtable, we partnered with the Indian Angel Network (IAN). It is particularly satisfying for me to work with these entrepreneurs because I have long believed that India needs to diversify out of pure labor arbitrage. I detected a major flaw in Kiran's business model assumption.

Entrepreneur 118

Entrepreneur India Technical Review Los Angeles 118

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Part 1: Bend, Oregon Ecosystem and Entrepreneurs. The differences between the Bend, Oregon region and Silicon Valley are obvious.

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Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 314

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

One of the great things about being a retired entrepreneur is that I get to give back to the community that helped me. I assembled this collection of free and almost free tools, class syllabi, presentations, books, lectures, videos in the hope that it can make your path as an entrepreneur or educator easier. Free: Startup Tools.

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Open Source Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development 335

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

Well, I have coached early stage entrepreneurs for a couple of years now - diligently, patiently - and have learned a few things. We're trying to bring the lessons we have learned in Silicon Valley to a million entrepreneurs. As you may know, 99% of the entrepreneurs who seek financing, get rejected.

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Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

Whether or not you’re raising money for your business, getting advice from venture capitalists can be invaluable. But, getting in the doors of a Sand Hill Road VC in Silicon Valley can be an incredibly difficult undertaking. Hunter is a partner at Homebrew and previously led consumer product management at YouTube.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. And they probably never will be unless business model viability is reassessed across the board.

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Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 111

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had really positive experiences such as working with Greg Gretsch at Sigma Partners where he championed us to a partners’ meeting where we sort of got crucified. We made changes and Greg was a gentleman throughout the process rather than berating us for our performance (it was our first partners’ meeting).

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Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He tells the story of how he was out of cash, stressed out, nobody in LA or Silicon Valley would give him money, he had finally found an investor in Minneapolis but his venture bank was going to shut him down for breaking a “covenant&# in their agreement by not having enough cash in the bank. And he said ok got it.

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Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 28, 2023

She is a leading venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, where she mentors tech startups and helps them go public. She is the CEO & General Partner of the investment firm Street Global. 11:53] Is there anything about what’s going on right now in the current business environment that you think makes us a strong time? [15:25]

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South Africa Africa Global Silicon Valley 67

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She actually IS the prototypical entrepreneur. Unfortunately Tracy would learn first hand not much later that the business model has two components: both buying and selling. But Tracy did what entrepreneurs do. More on that later.

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Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur Startup 363

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

Please remember, free is not a business model. a healthcare IT business for managing compliance requirements for pharmaceutical and medical device companies, recording transactions that involve payments to physicians. Please note that I work exclusively with 1M/1M entrepreneurs. The Free Rider Problem. Desi Sauda.

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Business Model New Hampshire Dallas Entrepreneur 122

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 17, 2018

But a thesis centered around network effects isn’t static – and isn’t limited to any particular sector, business model, or platform. From Fund I and now to Fund III, we have been able to serve as an important bridge between Silicon Valley and other tech ecosystems. It is a true honor to be a partner of yours!

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Silicon Valley North America San Francisco LP 127

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Silicon Valley, New York). Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model.

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Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 292

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Below, we talk to Glen Mello , Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s accelerator team in Boston. From a company milestones perspective, entrepreneurs who take on venture debt are almost always thinking about raising that next round of capital from other institutions.

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Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. Why It’s “Silicon” Valley. It might be its most important.

Engineer 307

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 307

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Silicon Valley, New York). Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 263

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2013

My co-author and business Partner Bob Dorf spends much of his time traveling the world teaching countries and companies how to run the Lean LaunchPad program. The program is funded by the Colombian government and modeled after the NSF Innovation-Corps program created and built by my partner and co-author Steve Blank.

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Colombia Lean Silicon Valley Coder 322