Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. So what is Revenue Based Investing?

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Most startups equate the process of fundraising to dating – founders have to typically kiss a lot of frogs until the find the right fit. Eliminating middlemen in healthcare – from using AI to automate repetitive human jobs to exploring new and better business models for providing care.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

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. Equity for the future?

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

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

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

However, Elgg could power 100,000 networks and it would make no difference - there is no revenue stream as we give everything away under a GPL license. There are quite a few other Software Development Companies in Southern California working on open source and/or freemium business models. I understand his frustration.

Open Source 150

Open Source Business Model Technical Cofounder Southern California 150

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

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

How to evaluate New Businesses at Their Infancy, Their Early Stages, and Their Growth Stages Evaluating a new business venture involves elements of both art and science. During the pre-seed fundraising stage, investors need a viable business plan to base their investments on.

Seed Stage 132

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 132

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

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. Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits.

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.). (BTW, 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

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

Most existing investors (those still in business) hoarded their money and stopped doing follow-on rounds until the rubble had cleared. Except, that is, for the bottom feeders of the Venture Capital business – investors who “ cram down ” their companies. W hy would any founder agree to this? Why do VCs Do This? You Have a Choice.

Cram Down 404

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 245

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 245

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

While you are working away on your business plan, looking for ways to raise capital, finding the right people to hire, etc., But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Things snowballed from there.”.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

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

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Arif Bhalwani is the co-founder and CEO of Third Eye Capital (TEC) in Toronto, Canada. The goal is to transform dormant or underutilized assets into active capital that supports your business. It is also the time to take a hard look at your business model. Are there new revenue streams you can tap into?

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2015

Building an ethical business is more than just compliance and meeting legal requirements, and it has big paybacks. One 11-year study of over 200 companies, detailed in “ Corporate Culture and Performance ,” found that those working on their culture improved revenue by 516%, and increased net income by 755%. Marty Zwilling.

Founder 120

Founder Software Review Offshore Startup 120

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

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. Where else can fast-growing companies get funding?

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 13, 2010

In the end the revenue simply wasn’t enough to make a sustainable business and so we had to switch gears once more (in today’s parlance that would be a “Pivot”). Over the course of that relationship that lasted several years, we did over $1M in revenue just from HP. Google’s first business model wasn’t based on advertising.

Revenue 72

Revenue Developer Java Customer Development 72

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2014

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Your revenue model has to make sense. Marty Zwilling.

Business Model 248

Business Model Sales Customer Distribution 248

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2014

The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability. The revenue model you select is basically the implementation of your business strategy, and the key to attaining your financial objectives.

Revenue 287

Revenue Startup Business Model Retention 287

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

A version of this article appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. If you’re following Tesla, you might be interested to know that Sloan wasn’t the founder of GM.

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 21, 2020

No surprise during an economic crisis, over 81% of business owners are prioritizing cash flow management and are identifying ways to cut back spending and increase sales, namely by moving services online. Diversifying revenue streams (35%). Kathryn Petralia is the President and Co-Founder of Kabbage , an American Express Company.

Small Business 136

Small Business Cofounder United States Technical Review 136

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor Technical Review 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2017

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 161

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 161

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2012

For survival, the objective of every business should be to bring in revenues which exceed their costs. Yet I continue to see business plans, or even talk to founders, and can’t find the specifics of the business model anywhere. Here is a summary of a half-dozen of the most common models: Facebook model.

Business Model 238

Business Model eCommerce Business Plan Revenue 238

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

At Wildcat, we recommend benchmarking your startup against the four core architectural pillars of the Traction Gap Framework: product , revenue , team and systems. Revenue Architecture. A comprehensive revenue architecture should be designed to enable a startup to generate and monetize awareness, engagement and usage.

Framework 118

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 118

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. Services (Cloud, ads, music) have a very different business model. Microsoft executed its 20 th -century business model extremely well, but it missed the new and more important ones.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. Services (Cloud, ads, music) have a very different business model. Microsoft executed its 20 th -century business model extremely well, but it missed the new and more important ones.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

We realized that past K-12 Entrepreneurial classes taught students “the lemonade stand” version of how to start a company: 1) come up with an idea, 2) execute the idea, 3) do the accounting (revenue, costs, etc.). We wanted to teach our students how to think like entrepreneurs not accountants.

Lean 334

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 334

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Few entrepreneurs find this scalable and repeatable business model because it’s not easy. Startups still need capital to scale once they find good product-market fit and a repeatable-scalable business model.). 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

DECEMBER 20, 2012

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 296

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 296

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2017

by Mark Gilbert, founder and CEO of MBS Accounting Technology & Advisory. Roughly 27 percent of startups can’t get the funding they need to take their business to the next level, according to the National Association of Small Businesses. Founders overlook how their salary looks to investors. >Investors

Software Review 109

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 109

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 286

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 286

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

At Wildcat, we recommend benchmarking your startup against the four core architectural pillars of the Traction Gap Framework: product , revenue , team and systems. Revenue Architecture. A comprehensive revenue architecture should be designed to enable a startup to generate and monetize awareness, engagement and usage.

Framework 104

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2019

Friendly or hostile takeover attempts are just a couple of the many ways that company founders sense a loss of control of their own destiny. The board of directors, as well as public stockholders, are no longer part of the inside team focused on the founder’s vision to change the world. Startup founders don’t fit in a public company.

IPO 210

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 210

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder.

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195