YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

On the other hand, if you arrive at a VC pitch without a comprehensive understanding of the industry you’re hoping to compete in, or without a clear path to profitability or a thoughtful product-development road map, you’ll likely leave empty-handed. Investors want to feel confident that they’ll see a return on their investment.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

To create this first year in business checklist, I turned to our in-house experts here at Palo Alto Software: Sabrina Parsons, CEO; Noah Parsons, COO; Josh Cochrane, Vice President of Product Development; and Josh Fegles, Academic and Government Channel Sales Director, and founder of gluten-free cookie company Jude’s Foods.

Forecast 60

Forecast Software Review Lean Finance 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. They measure their success on metrics that reflect success in execution, and they reward execution.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. Here is another often overlooked area of process that kills many startups, both in cost and time.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. There are financial metrics (Return on Investment, Hurdle Rate, etc.) That’s now changed.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. Here is another often overlooked area of process that kills many startups, both in cost and time.

Institutional Investors 230

Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping Database 230

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. Here is another often overlooked area of process that kills many startups, both in cost and time.

Startup 255

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 255

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. Here is another often overlooked area of process that kills many startups, both in cost and time.

Startup 239

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 239

Up and Running

MAY 12, 2015

You want to vet your metrics with experts in your industry, see if there are any holes in your presentation, and make sure it reads well before you pitch your investors. An old standby for a good reason—your local Small Business Development Center is an excellent resource for information on a variety of business-related topics.

Angel Investor 60

Angel Investor Software Review Technical Cofounder Due Diligence 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

It cost us a few hundred thousand dollars to get our app up and running, but none of that was dollars spent on software licenses or professional services. Some combination of the dot-com crash and a just terrible business plan prevented us from having to take our scalability problems to the next level. yeah, its awesome.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

It provides a basic introduction to analytics as they apply to Lean Startup, including sections on what metrics to use and how to interpret them. For instance, Ben lists out the worst of the “vanity metrics,” a term that describes appealing but meaningless or misleading numbers. We often tell founders that a business plan is nonsense.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Certainly venture-backed startups don’t have this luxury – every business plan has a model in it. In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics. If it costs $0.10 to acquire an early adopter, how much should it cost to acquire a mainstream customer?

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Steve Blank

MARCH 1, 2010

It’s Part of the Plan. Most investors require you to write a business plan which includes a section called a “competitive analysis” in which you tell potential investors how your product compares to products other companies trying to develop and sell to the same customers.

Customer Development 263

Customer Development Metrics Differentiation Engineer 263

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

It’s human nature to prioritize the metrics that get measured, so the simple act of keeping track is often enough to have a significant positive impact. Products: You obviously can’t create value without a viable product (or service) to sell. Tags: scorecard venture value Akira Hirai business valuation.

Intellectual Property 223

Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Most likely, your business plan is loaded with opinions and guesses, sprinkled with a dash of vision and hope. Customer development is a parallel process to product development, which means that you dont have to give up on your dream. This is a common mistake. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. Instead of sitting down to write a 40-page business plan, start with a one-page pitch. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

"We do not develop a product until we get a paying customer," says Orit Pennington , who co-founded the six-employee company with her husband in 2002. Development time is typically no more than two to three weeks, and it generally takes just a few orders to cover development costs. Read the rest. Read the rest.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. I think Drucker said it best.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

What must go right for the plan to succeed; 2. What it costs if it does; 4. In general, the first part of the discussion runs to whether or not your numbers are tied to metrics with an underlying set of assumptions, or if they are simply a function of a mathematically applied growth rate. What it will cost?

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Building Product 2. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Figuring this out takes time, and few entrepreneurs have the patience to wait it out, because the business plan does such a good job of explaining what customers are going to think. The problem is that customers dont read your business plan. Know what the success metrics are for the launch.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

A business that strives for something like this should absolutely be charging money from day one, in order to establish baselines for their two key metrics: CPA (the cost to acquire a new customer) and LTV (the lifetime value of each acquired customer). Why vanity metrics are dangerous What is Lean about the Lean Startup?

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

In the world of startups, this is like trying to sell a product to a very demanding customer who needs to see a lot of features before buying. Resegmented market (low cost variety). Heres a situation where you offer to do the job for 1/10th the cost. They must be thinking "if its costing people their jobs, it must really work.

San Francisco 89

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean 89

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Small Business tools list. Startup Metrics for Pirates â?? SaaS Metrics Tutorial â?? tells you how much adwords cost. Great for visualizing work of product development. hire low-cost international engineering talent. outsourcing for small business. BPS : Business Plan Servicesâ??

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53