Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s the time when you create tremendous value out of nothing.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s the time when you create tremendous value out of nothing.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s the time when you create tremendous value out of nothing.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Incentives and the Cobra Effect [Andrew ‘Boz’ Bozworth/Facebook] – So I don’t know if the story Boz references here is fully accurate or has taken on some metaphorical expansion, but it’s worth sharing. And how mismatched (or unspoken) ones in venture capital can cause stress.

Venture Capital 65

Venture Capital China Government Early Stage 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

This process costs money, which professional investors are not willing to contribute, since their interest is in scaling a proven product and business model into a growth business. Then seek angel investors or crowdfunding, as required, for the rollout, and venture capital for scaling the business across multiple geographies.

Early Stage 225

Early Stage SBIR Technical Review Seed Stage 225

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s the time when you create tremendous value out of nothing.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 257

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2023

Live operations refer to the ongoing management and maintenance of a game after its initial launch, and can include things like events, updates, and community management. How did the video game business evolve from its packaged goods roots in the early '90s to the complex, multi-platform, online business of today?

Generative AI 103

Generative AI San Francisco Technical Review Europe 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It’s the time when you create tremendous value out of nothing.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

www.xconomy.com

JUNE 9, 2012

New San Diego VC Firm Emerges as ‘The Moneyball of Venture Capital’. Here’s some big news for San Diego’s innovation economy: There’s a new venture capital firm in town—and its investment methodology represents a fundamentally different approach to the conventional business model for venture investing.

San Diego 40

San Diego Venture Capital Technical Review San Francisco 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. This is the dreaded “due diligence” process. Market need and size validation.

Technical Review 237

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 237

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2010

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. This is the dreaded “due diligence” process. Market need and size validation.

Technical Review 225

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 225

Gust

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. This is the dreaded “due diligence” process. No validated pain, no deal.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 152

David Teten

AUGUST 15, 2013

1) Corporate Venture Capital. Most VCs (including ff Venture Capital ) collect money from independent limited partners in order to form their fund. Some corporations emulate this model by creating their own wholly-owned VC entities, typically with one LP: the corporate balance sheet. 4) Accelerators.

Startup 114

Startup Technical Support Venture Capital Balance Sheet 114

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

Picking the right attorney in your startup is as important as picking the right business partner. You can’t underestimate the importance of selecting an attorney who “gets” your business model, your market opportunity, and most importantly, your fundraising and exit strategy. Best of luck to you in your startup venture!

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2014

a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance. Teams can prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors evidence that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model. Filed under: Customer Development Manifesto , Investment Readiness Level , Venture Capital.

Sacramento 306

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 306

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

2:20] Why the Lewis Carroll reference? [2:59] 4:30] Did you have an aha moment where you knew where you needed to start or how was the business born? [5:13] 6:09] Do you refer to yourself as a marketplace almost or more of a membership organization? And why the Lewis Carroll reference? Business model.

Entrepreneur 80

Entrepreneur Technical Review Networking Community 80

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 15, 2017

What seems to be the best way to create customers and revenue may result in a business model that is out of vogue with the investment world and shortchanges you on enterprise valuation. Heck, there was no venture capital in Dixie in that era. He forgot a major highlight of the business model, and the damage was done.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Nevada Silicon Valley 48

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Business Model I would like to propose that in addition to team, product, and market, there is actually a fourth, equally important, core element of startups, which is the need for a viable business model. For more on the topic of Viral Growth, refer to my blog post on that topic here.)

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

YoungUpstarts

JULY 1, 2019

All you need is a good pitch, an appealing company profile and solid references for the potential your start-up holds. Venture Capital. This is where venture capitalists enter the discussion. But to make things clear, you have to put together a smooth business model that proves how scalable your business model is.

Finance 127

Finance Angel Investor Offshore Equity 127

Up and Running

MARCH 4, 2022

A business plan does far more than help secure venture capital when you’re starting out. You’ll use a strong business plan throughout the life of a company. Share your plan with employees, shareholders, and investors, and refer back to it to see if you need to make adjustments along the way. Keep your plan updated.

Business Plan 117

Business Plan Revenue Small Business Administration United States 117

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

When we reference organizations that have provided us funding in the last year we will note it. Even the best venture capital firms have a lot of failures and few successes. While Ive made at least my share of mistakes taking equity in lieu of pay, I continue to see this as a key part of my business model.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2013

Jim Hornthal splits his time between venture capital, entrepreneurship and education. First, it allowed us to use the classroom time to dive deep into each team’s discovery narrative as it related to that week’s section of the business model canvas. Today he is the co-founder and Chairman of Triporati, LaunchPad Central.

Lean 282

Lean Cofounder Dividend Business Model 282

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

Note that the tips refer mainly to web ventures. It doesn’t mean that you should change your business model because one person suggested it, but listed to the feedback and if you see similar patterns over and over again, make changes. The talk was titled “Tips to make your startup attractive for investors&#.

Elevator Pitch 102

Elevator Pitch Incubator Technical Review Startup 102

Up and Running

OCTOBER 24, 2016

With the press focused on the millions raised by high-profile startups, many would-be entrepreneurs are becoming convinced that these are the only worthwhile ventures to pursue. “Lifestyle business” is a term in the startup lexicon that refers to businesses that aren’t a fit for venture capital.

Startup 60

Startup Venture Capital Salary Equity 60

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

The angel then introduces the entrepreneur to his or her wealthy friends and business connections who, based on the good reputation of the referring angel, also invest. This venture capital financing - usually between $3 and $10 million - is the first of a number of rounds of outside investment over a period of three to five years.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

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

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

If it's not your plan to get venture capital down the road, then you'll probably stop in Stage 2-receiving enough funding to boost your marketing, sales, and infrastructure to grow organically from there to the point where you are satisfied or ready to sell. Each round may raise between $5 million and $20 million or more.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Lean, when used in the context of lean startup, refers to a process of building companies and products using lean manufacturing principles applied to innovation. Truth: There’s nothing wrong with raising venture capital. Many lean startups are ambitious and are able to deploy large amounts of capital.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Professor VC

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

This got me thinking about the business model that Mike Keiser has built at the resort and a lecture began to form in my head. One of the guys on the trip referred to Bandon as Man Camp. cant wait to go back, which is clearly goal #1 in the list of critical success factors if anyone is still following the business model tangent.

Oregon 28

Oregon San Jose Angel Investor Silicon Valley 28

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

  I’ve sat down with entrepreneurs and a copy of a term sheet guide I like [ “Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations ” by Alex Wilmerding, Aspatore Press.] and walked through each proposed term and why it is or isn’t important.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

They are at the tops of their classes and want to get into private equity or venture capital some day. I have nothing against these young people – the dialers. They are often from the best universities: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Princeton, Yale.

Programming 294

Programming Entrepreneur Private Equity Equity 294

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

In my case, I am breaking down “business” to its fundamentals, which begins with a definition of what, exactly, is a “business.” That is, understanding your business model and the different variables that go into it. A few years ago “venture capital” was a revenue model.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

They said they’d call references but haven’t? They aren’t sure about your business model? VC’s (like you) are busy. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital. They’re worried about competitors? Do a 5-page PowerPoint competitive assessment.

Campaign 277

Campaign Email Venture Capital Term Sheet 277