Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. They taught you about customers, markets and profits.

Silicon Valley 230

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 230

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

This happens when you either sell your company ( M&A ) or go public (an IPO.) For the first few years, your VCs want you to keep your head down, build the product, find product/market fit and ship to get to some inflection point (revenue, users, etc.). If so, how is the revenue measured? Know the End from the Beginning.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Addressing real world problems, they thrive in uncertainty, generating new jobs and new revenue streams in new markets. experiments to build a product, find customers, test business models and hire amazing people. Creating this value is anchored in finding a repeatable, scalable business model. pivot the business.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

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? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about a lot of things during the keynote. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

If your business is truly complex, you can dive into the details later on. Company Analysis Goal of the company analysis section: Educate the investor about your company’s history and explain why your team is perfect to execute on the business opportunity. Detail all revenue streams. Give some history. market research).

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

View from Seed

MAY 16, 2019

I have friends who are execs or shareholders of the company, but I have no stake in Slack nor intent to invest in the IPO. If you haven’t seen these already, here are some of the headline figures about Slack’s business: $400M in GAAP revenue in the most recent year (fiscal year ’19 ended 1/31/19).

Lock-up Period 168

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 168

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations.   Some people will talk about this as a “multiple,” i.e., “I expect ten times my investment back.”   I find this to be imprecise because it doesn’t encapsulate the element of time. An average of these ranges results in a pre-money valuation of about $4MM.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Austin Startup

MAY 10, 2021

three companies he previously worked for had successful exits including two acquisitions and one IPO. Georgoff also held senior positions during critical growth periods for both Redbox and RetailMeNot, where he helped drive increased revenue growth through his leadership roles in strategy, marketing, and product.

Hiring 104

Hiring Product United States Startup 104

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

Before the doomed launch I had people asking me what I thought about Color. ” Here’s the summary of his track record (excerpted from the Fast Company article): Forefront — IPO’ed in 1995 by CBT — CBT stock fell 85% in 1998 and prompted class-action lawsuits. from an IPO under a year ago of $10.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Most of the startups they invested in either died by running out of money before they found a scalable business model or ended up in the “land of the living dead” by never growing (failing to Pivot.).

Venture Capital 302

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 302

Agile VC

AUGUST 1, 2012

About 6-12 months ago you could hardly throw a rock in the startup ecosystem without hitting a VC expressing their enthusiasm for “mobile” Now the frenzy about mobile has extended into the mass media and public equity markets, though with trepidation as often as excitement. So what about the skepticism?

Mobile 160

Mobile Advertising Bandwidth Web 160

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Part 3 will offer our hypothesis about how to change the dynamics of the Life Sciences industry with a different approach to commercialization of research and innovation. The FDA is tougher about approving innovative new medical devices. Business Model Issues. Business Model Issues.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 299

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2019

I have friends who are execs or shareholders of the company, but I have no stake in Slack nor intent to invest in the IPO. A somewhat unique thing about the Slack IPO is that they’re pursuing a direct listing on the NYSE. Slack’s net dollar retention rate is an incredibly impressive 143%. So Slack generated $1.43

Lock-up Period 100

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 100

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

The CEOs on the panel were (from left to right): Michael Simon, CEO/founder of LogMeIn (2009 IPO) . Scott Griffith, CEO ZipCar (2010 IPO). Gail Goodman, CEO Constant Contact (2007 IPO). Niraj Shah, CEO/cofounder of Wayfair ($500m revenue). Colin Angle, CEO/cofounder of iRobot (2005 IPO).

Technical Cofounder 45

Technical Cofounder Cofounder IPO Boston 45

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2011

As an entrepreneur it can be dizzying to watch Groupon and Living Social grow so quickly, raising huge venture rounds at massive valuations while contemplating multiple billion dollar acquisitions and IPOs. eBay certainly has enabled purchases and built a very large business doing this. The Last Shift: License Revenue to Advertising.

Advertising 116

Advertising Business Model Revenue Mobile 116

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

I’m still amazed at how many technical entrepreneurs don’t have a business pitch, and offer me their product pitch or product spec instead. I’m a technologist, so I always love to learn about the product, but every investor needs to make sure you have a business, as well as a product.

Product 145

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Exit Strategy 145

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2019

Meanwhile, Soulcycle, the spinning obsession of every trendy New Yorker, filed for IPO in 2018 only to withdraw at the last minute. You can also download a free business plan template to guide your first draft. . To give you a chance of staying somewhat afloat, start signing up members while you are setting up the business.

Retention 70

Retention Social Media Software Review Acquisition 70

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

What is striking about these syndicates is that nobody had any meaningful capital, which forced syndication and cooperation. I well remember being in Don Valentine’s office as he waxed poetically about his new deal, Malibu Race Track. They don’t talk about the 80’s”; if true, maybe it’s because the period cannot be simplified.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Board Control.

Founder 263

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 263

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 8, 2008 The lean startup Ive been thinking for some time about a term that could encapsulate trends that are changing the startup landscape. Paring down products, target customers, business models etc takes courage, but it must be done to have any chance of success. Good stuff.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 26, 2014

As further market proof of the power of Drupal in the enterprise, Acquia has received about $100 million in funding in the past 3 months, which puts its valuation at over $1 billion. There’s a lot of buzz about the Amazon acquisition of TWITCH this week. They kind of invented this business model.

Founder 42

Founder Los Angeles PHP Open Source 42

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

O’Reilly has good intentions, but he’s wrong—both about blitzscaling and in his desire to turn back the clock. O’Reilly is not the only one to worry about the negative impact of scaling. Instead, he argues for the virtues of going slow and staying small. And, as the industrial revolution showed us, there are some real costs to scale.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Business model. In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. What is the planned exit strategy (IPO, merger, sale, including likely candidates)? Financial projections.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

This got me thinking about the legal obstacles that face innovators with new business models. Rent seekers are individuals or organizations that have succeeded with existing business models and look to the government and regulators as their first line of defense against innovative competition. Rent Seekers.

North Carolina 335

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 335

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Pick a specific solution that you have built or prototyped, rather than rambling about all the possible things that could be done with your idea. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Explain the business model. For a family business, don’t project an exit.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

Provide specifics on the customer business model. All startups, including non-profits, need revenue to thrive, such as such as from subscriptions, retail, online, licensing, or services. They want to see revenue to share in the return. Here I recommend a 5-year projection of revenues, expenses, and funding requirements.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Agile VC

MAY 22, 2014

Unfortunately Alibaba doesn’t actually break out revenue by marketplace or business unit. Tmall (storefronts for larger, branded merchants like Nike, Gap, etc.) –> While Tmall is frequently compared to Amazon.com, it’s business model is totally different.

China 159

China Revenue Flash Affiliate 159

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Revenues for the July-September quarter were $569m, up 32% on the year ago and losses narrowed considerably to $3m for the quarter. All the growth came from Groupon’s new direct ecommerce business.). One of the great things about startups today is that they can create giant new markets in short periods of time.

IPO 104

IPO Marketing Venture Capital eCommerce 104

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Entrepreneurs who are looking to attract investors need to develop and pitch a plan -- preferably written -- that answers every potential investor question about your startup before it is asked. What is the business problem you are solving? How does your business model make money?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Pick a specific solution that you have built or prototyped, rather than rambling about all the possible things that could be done with your idea. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Explain the business model. For a family business, don’t project an exit.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Business model. In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. What is the planned exit strategy (IPO, merger, sale, including likely candidates)? Financial projections.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

  And – they can be avoided if both parties – investors and entrepreneurs – are knowledgeable and well-informed about each others’ goals and interests.  I’ve written a lot about that topic ( [link] ).  I’ve written a lot about that topic ( [link] ). Can you bootstrap your way to positive cash flow?

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83