David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. Rational burn profile, up to 50% of revenue at close, scaling down.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Nowhere is the politics more difficult than with co-founders, which is why for years I’ve spoken publicly about “ the co-founder mythology.” ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. She started it with a partner, 50-50.

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This is a question startup founders ask themselves multiple times a week. It’s not just the competition against the incumbents and the large tech platforms that founders has to worry about, but most importantly is the company’s performance and product market fit. How are we doing? The benchmarks are based on the US market.

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

Most large companies manage three types of innovation: process innovation (making existing products incrementally better), continuous innovation (building on the strength of the company’s current business model but creating new elements) and disruptive innovation (creating products or services that did not exist before.).

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

David Teten

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Blue Future Partners, a venture capital fund of funds, recently interviewed me on ESG in venture capital. Starship was launched by the co-founders of Skype. The Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge , a US-based global network of accelerators, partnered to study why “ women-owned startups are a better bet ”. Why is that?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Partner Technical Review Cofounder 60

Women Entrepreneurs Can

JUNE 3, 2021

Business success requires a range of skills and talents and it often makes sense to have a business partner rather than going solo. Iconic companies that have achieved phenomenal success include Microsoft, Apple, Google and Intel — every one of these companies had a couple of founders. Integrity & Trustworthiness.

Partner 52

Partner Technical Review Cofounder Georgia 52

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. Since NewTV won’t be making the content, they will be licensing from and partnering with traditional entertainment producers. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. He just hired Meg Whitman.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). What does this mean for startup founders? Here’s the thing most founders miss.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Benchmarks are typically specific to stage/business model/geo. In Rob Go’s words: For seed and Series A deals, investors will also need to see a high-potential team with founder/market fit , a large and attractive market opportunity , and a business model with increasing returns to scale.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

VC Cafe

MARCH 4, 2024

With NVIDIA’s Israel-1 AI supercomputer, a broad range of innovative companies in Israel will create AI that can transform the productivity and business models of enterprises around the world.” credit rating forecast dropped in November, and since then the S&P 500 index has jumped by 15%.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital 78

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Arif Bhalwani is the co-founder and CEO of Third Eye Capital (TEC) in Toronto, Canada. The most poignant of these challenges was the quest for capital partners, which was not just about securing capital but about finding collaborators who were willing to believe in the vision and commit to the long-term journey.

Technical Review 132

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 132

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2021

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. Plan for a real revenue model.

Business Model 414

Business Model Angel Investor Bootstrapping Revenue 414

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 2, 2019

by Daniel Ramsey, founder and CEO ofMyOutDesk. In today’s small business and start-up world, when you want a reliable (and affordable) assistant, you don’t have to limit yourself to your geographic location. Here are some benefits of partnering with a virtual assistant: · They help put processes in place.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Due Diligence Technical Support Bootstrapping 147

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

The concept our Guilds is simple: We want to bring together small groups of Product and Go-to-Market experts to lend their time to support our portfolio company founders and key operators. Pierre Valade, Co-Founder of Sunrise & Mobile Designer at Microsoft. Pierre Valade, Co-Founder of Sunrise & Mobile Designer at Microsoft.

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. Few entrepreneurs find this scalable and repeatable business model because it’s not easy. This is true whether the company is concept stage or ramping revenue. The Bend Experience.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2021

Of course, you can find these elements embodied in many of the business plan templates and tools out there, such as the Business Model Canvas. Provide initial and long-term sources of revenue. Free” is not an exciting business model for investor interest. Outline your key activities to win.

Intellectual Property 332

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Channel 332

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2023

Bill was relentless in his focus on getting the software PC DOS project delivered, while continually challenging us with new business models. If you or your team sees you as an idea person, your first task as an entrepreneur should be to find a co-founder who can deliver. Passionate reiteration of the idea won’t close funding.

Cofounder 389

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 389

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2011

Max and his partners had interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. The benchmark is not perfect, it may even be flawed, but it is head and shoulders above what we have now – which is nothing – for giving Internet startups founders specific advice on best practices. Happy birthday Max.

Software Review 292

Software Review Early Stage Technical Review Startup 292

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

The market and venture capitalists are looking for business, but with a continuing focus on proven business models. Your friends and family are really the only answer until you have a significant revenue stream. Follow with a killer executive summary, investor presentation, and financial model. Timing is critical.

Venture Capital 252

Venture Capital IPO Elevator Pitch Initial Public Offering 252

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “. In two of these three phases – the first and third – volumes of helpful information and numerous organizations are readily available to help guide and support founders of startups. Go-to-Scale.

Cleveland 150

Cleveland Framework Marketing Early Stage 150

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

The instructor then presents a cohort specific lecture explaining how the business model for their area (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) builds on and/or differs from the canonical business model in the online Udacity lectures (which the students had to watch as homework.). Lessons Learned.

Lean 258

Lean Customer Business Model Customer Development 258

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann Miura-Ko is a founding partner at Floodgate , a seed-stage VC firm. She’s also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in both funders and founders. There were none in the firm, so I remember asking him if he knew of any general partners who were women in the Boston area.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

GrowthHackers founder and former Head of Growth at Dropbox, Sean Ellis , coined the term: “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. In his course on Growth Mindset (part of CXL’s Growth Marketing Minidegree ), WeTheFuture.org founder John McBride describes three key components of a successful growth marketer: 1.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2016

Founders soon learn that customers only spend real money for solutions rather than ideas. Success requires moving your passion quickly from the idea to the business implementation. As a result, Google has become a verb, and the company is a tech giant with record growth rates and a revenue of $74.5 billion in 2015.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Architecture Agile Business Model 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. Plan for a real revenue model.

Business Model 120

Business Model Angel Investor Startup Bootstrapping 120

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 14, 2022

Bob is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Acceleration Partners, a global partner marketing agency. He is also the Co-founder and Chairman of BrandCycle. 9:14] How do I find partners? [12:58] 12:58] Is there an example case on finding partners that you’d like to go through with us? [15:43]

Marketing 90

Marketing Affiliate Channel Software Review 90

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. As a startup founder, you won’t have the marketing resources or brand recognition to appeal to all consumers.

Exit Strategy 120

Exit Strategy Technical Review Distribution Viral 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2021

Other entrepreneurs skip just a couple of the elements outlined in my original article, “ These 10 Key Elements Make a Business Plan Fundable. Investors know that first-time entrepreneurs who start a business without a good written plan almost always fail. Investors bet on the team, more than the business plan.

Intellectual Property 429

Intellectual Property Bootstrapping Venture Capital Revenue 429

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

While it sounds simple , the Build Measure Learn approach to product development is a radical improvement over the traditional Waterfall model used throughout the 20 th century to build and ship products. Luckily Alexander Osterwalder’s business model canvas presents a visual overview of the nine components of a business on one page.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

VC Cafe

JANUARY 27, 2021

We are taking the screen sharing experience to the next level, so that collaboration doesn’t get in the way of doing great work,” writes CEO and founder Tom Medema. Next47 and American Insight Partners VC, demonstrates growing trust in its current and future business model.

Vertical 148

Vertical Video Technical Review Europe 148