Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

The Founder’s New Insight Smart founders are never satisfied with simply executing their current business model, they are constantly observing, orienting and deciding whether their current business model can be made better. It’s a natural part of learning about your customers and business model.)

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2018

For many years, NextView has looked at many health-related businesses but invested in relatively few. We wanted to learn more about the nuanced industry market forces before applying the same hands-on investing model we do with tech startups in other verticals. They can be surprisingly capital efficient.

Vertical 120

Vertical Stealth Portfolio Seed Capital 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. It’s a big idea.) before you ship.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. Help them?!!

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . 1) Manage the firm . Before you can actually invest, you have to manage your fund. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

V: Should you raise venture capital from a traditional equity VC or a Revenue-Based Investing VC? With a portfolio that includes food, tech, and services, the fund is industry-agnostic and focused on the overlooked and underrepresented with high-margin business models. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

He had teamed up with a former product manager at P&G to deliver seminars on just this subject. It was a management problem. We had been outsourcing an important part of our demand creation strategy – packaging – to an outside agency without having the expertise to judge or manage the results.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

It is time to fix your key SaaS metrics: P&L: MRR = MRE: you control your destiny when your monthly revenue equals your monthly expenses Sales & Marketing: Your cost of capital doubled, so if a CAC ratio > 0.5 Rethink vertical segmentation: Healthcare? Small and medium businesses. (2). Venture Capital. (3).

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Portfolio 48

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 2, 2006

"If you would ask me what part of the market is most underserved by technology companies today, Id tell you its small and medium sized business. Today, VARs are the key to the SMB segment and their business model is collapsing, opening new opportunities for them and for technology providers. Small and medium businesses. (2).

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Europe Software 48

The Next Web

OCTOBER 2, 2013

That’s why the free business model is so popular in China. Jenny Lee, a partner at venture capital firm GGV Capital which has a presence in both the US and China, also observes that in the US, the willingness to pay for an app is pretty high — especially for a utility tool, which is what CooTek’s TouchPal X Keyboard essentially is.

China 122

China Developer Intellectual Property Mobile 122

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

It is gently laying the foundation for a subsequent financing, helping the CTO set sensible milestones to be achieved that can demonstrate execution skill and release cycle management. It is helping with recruiting by leveraging my networks and experience in a particular domain. Camaraderie? Perhaps all of the above. Camaraderie?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

Some areas that are likely to see significant growth in the coming years include e-commerce, digital technologies, and sustainable business practices. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards remote work, which may lead to more flexible business models in the future. The most significant shift coming.

Artificial Inteligence 108

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Global 108

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

For the first 25 years HP’s business model was static. Of course HP did ship new products and innovate, but their center of innovation was sustaining innovation , around the core of their existing business. General managers of divisons are compensated on division P&L not long term innovation.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Rule 1: In an existing market Customer Development means not only understanding potential customers, but your competitors in detail – their product features, their sales channels, their demand creation strategy, their business model, etc. We’re about to ship next week.”

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

As one could imagine this was the last thing the supercomputer center management wanted to hear. Was Ardent’s business model flawed from the start for being so short on potential customers with deep pockets? All their peers were buying Cray’s, and they wanted one as well. I liked to fail fast, move on, and not [.] [.]

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 185

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 17, 2013

eBay recently launched an aggressive campaign attacking Amazon’s rate table on a vertical-by-vertical basis ( those percentages can be found here ). This is one of my favorite marketplace business model “tweaks.” As Jeff Bezos is fond of saying, “ your margin is my opportunity.”.

Europe 101

Europe Social Network Technical Review IPO 101

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Is there a profitable business model? The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

Needless to say, this isn’t a business model that works in the pandemic world. Frequently, however, you need to pivot your business model and find new ways to make money. Business model evolution is the rule, not the exception. The Palm Pilot was a personal information manager.

Startup 36

Startup Silicon Valley Business Model Mobile 36

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

If you can’t find enough paying customers in the Customer Validation step, the model returns you to Customer Discovery to rediscover what you failed to hear or understand the first time through the loop. Having raised lots of money tempts you to give products away, steeply discount to buy early business, etc.,

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

TripAdvisor may be one of the most fascinating companies I know and so I was excited to dig into their business model as part of my series on scaling. This is a company that took $4 million of invested capital to build a company now worth over $4 billion. “TripAdvisor is to travel reviews what Kleenex is to tissues.”. .

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

Hunter Walker

JULY 18, 2022

Multiples dropped in public and private markets, growth expectations were cut, and business models with high spend for promise of future ROI became quite unfavorable. As a result, there’s a lot of incentive to remain a ‘great’ company, which is still venture investable, versus falling into a trough of uncertainty.

Valuation 116

Valuation Cap Table Startup Later Stage 116

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Our “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” story played great in Silicon Valley, they ate it up in Hollywood, and the business press tripped over themselves to talk to us. Hype before shipping any product is an obvious flaw, but what about hyping products that have shipped but have zero business model? We all know how that ends up.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

If you are an entrepreneur seeking funding, try our free Funding Recommendation Engine to identify a list of angels, venture capital and state grant programs that best match your business. It’s a pain to manage payroll, unemployment, insurance, etc in one state. We had the wrong business model.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

It’s our hood alignment station,” the plant manager said proudly. These damn models weren’t designed right so we’re fixing them on the line.” One day, I was at the Ford Wixom auto assembly plant training my replacement and I was at met at the door by an irate plant manager. the manager followed us still yelling.

Founder 297

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

VC Cafe

DECEMBER 7, 2010

billion in venture capital funding in Q3 2010, representing a 14% decline in total funding amount compared to the previous quarter. eCommerce is the smallest vertical in the US tech venture investments, with only $39 million invested in Q3, in eight companies. Overall, 343 US companies raised $1.8

Venture Capital 79

Venture Capital Vertical Massachusetts eCommerce 79

Hunter Walker

APRIL 18, 2013

It’s difficult on YouTube to find and manage the content you want to watch These are both absolutely true yet it doesn’t matter – video discovery startups are flawed products and even worse businesses. Here’s why: Verticalized content needs context not just collections. Just build it.

Video 98

Video Curation Startup Metadata 98

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

These specialist companies were still small local businesses. Ownership and management were one and the same – the owners managed, and there were no salaried middle managers or administrators. and to develop professional managers and management hierarchies to run them.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Getting Out of the Building Wasn’t Entertainment – Discovery and Validation Now that I was the master of the “facts” about customer needs in these specialized vertical markets , and with my team of vertical marketers , I thought I had achieved absolution and redemption. But there was one fatal flaw.

Silicon Valley 172

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 172

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Researchers polled experts in lending, mezzanine capital, private equity, venture capital and private businesses themselves. Not a big shock, but things don’t look pretty, especially in the venture capital world. The businesses, it seems, vastly over-estimate their ability to raise funds.

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

VC Cafe

JUNE 19, 2020

“As big businesses begin to measure their impact, they begin to show it is fundamental to their future business models.” Here are some interesting numbers: At 44% , the tech sector soaks up nearly half of venture capital investment. Sir Ronald Cohen. Tech products and services command a high profit margin of 12.4%.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Global South Africa 174