Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2012

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. So how do you go about proving the business model?

Business Model 248

Business Model Advisory Board Entrepreneur Angel Investor 248

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2012

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. I support her assertion that a business model consists of at least the first seven of the following ten basic elements: Value proposition.

Business Model 242

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 242

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2016

Beyond basic business and technical credentials, here are some of the key startup team attributes that every investor is looking for: Team shows an appreciation and plan for marketing. Similarly, mentioning viral marketing without specifics won’t assure fundability. Plan includes a business model with good margins.

Technical Review 134

Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence Angel Investor 134

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2011

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. I support her assertion that a business model consists of at least the first seven of the following ten basic elements: Value proposition.

Business Model 246

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 246

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 15, 2011

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. So how do you go about proving the business model?

Business Model 234

Business Model Advisory Board Startup Angel Investor 234

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

The faster this process can be repeated, the more likely they’ll find scalable, repeatable ways to grow the business.”. Where campaigns to build brand awareness and generate top-of-funnel sales drive traditional marketing, data across the entire customer lifecycle drives growth hacking in marketing. Image source. Acquisition.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 28, 2022

I intend to release one study every three months, which I'll send to journalists in the hopes of generating viral attention on social media. I believe that if I can have one piece of content go viral every three months, not only will I be able to develop more links but also raise my brand's recognition. 18- Expand speaking engagements.

Social Media 119

Social Media Entrepreneur Retention Finance 119

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. However there is a lot of value in looking at these same metrics for all other businesses.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 6, 2021

Choose the Right Business Model. Once you’ve come up with a sound idea of what type of business is the best for your needs, it’s time to follow the best business launch steps and start planning how to fit it in your business niche. You have your idea all worked up and your business model all set up.

Social Media 173

Social Media Audience Affiliate Startup 173

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 6, 2012

Boston University’s business incubator has produced numerous success stories, including HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals with two drugs in Stage 2 clinical development to treat blood disorders and viral-related cancers, as well as Modular Genetics, a biotechnology company focused on sustainable gene engineering. Syracuse Student Sandbox.

Incubator 202

Incubator New York City Boston Intellectual Property 202

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 5, 2010

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. So how do you go about proving the business model?

Business Model 120

Business Model Advisory Board Angel Investor Channel 120

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 18, 2023

09:42] Was there a point in time when you decided to use newsletters to fit your business model or you started it as a normal standard digital marketing tactic? [11:10] Like, you're gonna need to get somebody on the phone, there's gonna need to be a sales process and so forth. John Jantsch (16:48): A viral referral tool.

ChatGPT 92

ChatGPT Advertising Email Viral 92

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

Different sources define freemium as a business model or a pricing strategy. I suspect we’ll get rid of the freemium model at some point soon as there’s no real benefit. You’re not going to go viral Dropbox style, so having a freemium model doesn’t really work. Freemium isn’t free.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 14, 2013

Berger explains why people talk about certain produces and ideas more than others, why some stories have a greater tendency towards a viral effect and why some rumors are simply more infectious than others. CTRL ALT DELETE is the necessary process to reboot and re-build your business model. Not to mention merch.

Viral 93

Viral Small Business Social Media Technical Review 93

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Managing the Business. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or to optimize this search. to optimize this search.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

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. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Finding common elements for scaling is tough The site may need consumer revenue to survive. Maybe it’s selling local tours and taking a cut of the revenue. Watch out for local sales force requirements. Look at how large Groupon and Living Social’s sales forces are, and they are still struggling to maintain profitability.

Finder 210

Finder Curation Seattle Community 210

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. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. The game has started getting some traction already, and has a good virality index.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

Business model. Outline your sales and marketing strategy (direct marketing, sales channel, viral marketing, and lead generation). You need to show your summary revenue and expense projections for three to five years. Most likely, the investor has already seen multiple plans with similar solutions.

Business Plan 244

Business Plan Elevator Pitch Viral Lead Generation 244

abovethecrowd.com

OCTOBER 17, 2013

Awareness of the service was clearly spreading virally through word of mouth. A new pricing or packaging model does not by itself represent a meaningful core differentiation, and the rising abundance of “subscription” or “flash sales” companies heightened our concern with regard to barriers to entry.

eCommerce 62

eCommerce Technical Review North America San Francisco 62

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

We’re at 70 people, and we’ll do $40 million in revenue this year and should get to cash flow breakeven this quarter. ” In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. writing the HR manual, sales comp plan, expense reports, branding guidelines, etc.).

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Business model. Outline your sales and marketing strategy (direct marketing, sales channel, viral marketing, and lead generation). You need to show your summary revenue and expense projections for three to five years. Most likely, the investor has already seen multiple plans with similar solutions.

Elevator Pitch 226

Elevator Pitch Viral Lead Generation Metrics 226

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. Consumer apps and services.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

The company has just missed its quarterly revenue forecast. Lets take an example, and look at how they might do this: They will be able to tell you that revenue is composed of deals. To compute revenue, you multiply average deal size by number of deals. SolidWorks 2: The best VAR management program in the world?

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

The fact that SaaS valuations are being more affected by the downturn than the Nasdaq can be surprising given the supposed resiliency of the SaaS model (recurring revenues) but it translates the public investors belief that SMB software spend is going to be hit very hard by this recession. With this decline, the average EV/08 rev.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Portfolio 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Diving in a bit more into some thoughts here: 1b) Ad-based revenue streams generally have terrible unit economics. A typical ad-based revenue stream on a media website is around $5 per 1000 eyeballs ($5m CPM and give or take $1-$20ish CPMs). For example, if you are running affiliate ads for hotels, you might get 3-5% on a sale.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Diving in a bit more into some thoughts here: 1b) Ad-based revenue streams generally have terrible unit economics. A typical ad-based revenue stream on a media website is around $5 per 1000 eyeballs ($5m CPM and give or take $1-$20ish CPMs). For example, if you are running affiliate ads for hotels, you might get 3-5% on a sale.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

What makes this tricky is that markets evolve, and an innovative technology or business model can transform a normal market into a Glengarry Glen Ross market. Google realized that being the way to find the world’s information was a blitzscalable market, thanks to the network effects in its AdWords revenue engine. The difference?

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

In an over-funding environment companies are encouraged to eschew revenues in a land grab to acquire eyeballs, clicks, page views or whatever other vanity metrics give VCs the false comfort that they’re sitting on a gold mine. The opportunity to transact at the point of purchase increases the sheer number of revenue opportunities.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Ben's Blog

MAY 30, 2013

He founded and ran SuccessFactors and led them to $364 million in annual revenue ultimately resulting in a $3.5 SAP then put Lars in charge of its newly formed Cloud Business unit, which he promptly grew to $1 billion in annual revenue. billion acquisition by SAP in 2011. It’s about working for each other.

Denmark 78

Denmark Acquisition Viral Green 78

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Business model. Outline your sales and marketing strategy (direct marketing, sales channel, viral marketing, and lead generation). You need to show your summary revenue and expense projections for three to five years. Most likely, the investor has already seen multiple plans with similar solutions.

Elevator Pitch 138

Elevator Pitch Viral Lead Generation Business Plan 138

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

With a focus on seed investing in the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise and business models that harness the power of network effects, our entrepreneurs have successfully been able to raise over $200 million of financing following our initial seed investment. Storing and scaling tons of data cheaply and efficiently is already done.

Seed Stage 110

Seed Stage Agile Viral API 110

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

we had no revenue. But with so many investors still licking their wounds from the dot-com bust, many focused on proven business models, such as advertising or e-commerce. As a result, we knew that our pitch would need to steer into investors’ biggest concern: the lack of revenue. Investors see a lot of pitches.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

BeyondVC

AUGUST 26, 2008

I have written a number of times about frictionless sales and how on-demand companies have a huge opportunity to reduce their sales and marketing costs and subsequently scale their business more efficiently. " The lowest friction sale can be a user clicking on a web page and the content owner getting paid for it.

Cost 60

Cost Sales Sales Cycle Demand 60