Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Virtually, every business plan that's ever been presented to the investor community, invariably, has that fabled "hockey stick growth" period where suddenly revenue jumps exponentially. And in reality, few businesses ever experience such growth, at least not all at once. Don't just let it happen. is a journey.

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Hockey Stick Bandwidth Entrepreneur Venture Capital 42

Up and Running

JANUARY 2, 2013

Have a well thought out business plan on hand to share, so investors can read more if they’d like to. The intention, after all, is – you deliver a powerful pitch, and their hands are out asking for either your executive summary or your complete business plan. How will you reach your customers?

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Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Due Diligence 164

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Whether your business is brand new or it’s been around for a while, you’ve probably thought about putting together a financial forecast. Most lenders and investors will expect it to be part of your business plan. Why do entrepreneurs sometimes resort to the “hockey stick forecast,” especially when they pitch to investors?

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Forecast Hockey Stick Angel Investor Sales 114

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

When I asked the standard “How are you,” he answered: “If I see another hockey stick forecast this week, I’m going to throw something at somebody.”. That was so long ago that I had to ask him to explain the hockey stick metaphor. ” See Also: How to Forecast Sales. How to avoid unrealistic projections.

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Forecast Hockey Stick Startup Sales 130

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Its easy to get high on your own supply as a startup—watching hockey stick growth on an initial launch, knocking down a big biz dev deal, but the road is long and hard no matter who you are. Again, we put our heads down and played our game—great pitching, great defense, and lots and lots of hits.

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Hockey Stick Business Plan Venture Capital Naming 121

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Build a business plan and model that is attractive to investors. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. It’s hard to build and scale a business on free high-support products. These are more likely scalable and investable.

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Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 278

Up and Running

APRIL 24, 2014

When reading business plans, we can’t afford to believe that you’re this next huge breakthrough. So if your numbers are here, going up in a hockey stick—and let’s just say this is your hockey stick—and your marketing expenses go up, and how do I do? So I hope that helps.

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Forecast Hockey Stick Sales Business Plan 85

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Build a business plan and model that is attractive to investors. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. It’s hard to build and scale a business on free high-support products. These are more likely scalable and investable.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

Self-sustainability, independence, and real fun requires paying customers, profitability and an early cash-flow-positive business plan. Use your equity for key executives and business partners. Don’t assume you must plan for exponential growth. Bootstrapping doesn’t mean that you don’t share equity.

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Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

Up and Running

APRIL 19, 2017

Or, you just don’t want to write a lengthy business plan. While we’re big advocates of the simpler, faster Lean Planning method, doing just a sales forecast is also an effective way to quickly validate your initial assumptions before writing up a business plan. Top Startup Mistake: Unrealistic Forecasts.

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Forecast Curation Sales Hockey Stick 85

The Equity Kicker

MAY 3, 2016

As you can see from the chart below Amazon has delivered on the proverbial hockey stick that startups put in their business plans, and they’ve done it at serious scale.

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Hockey Stick Revenue Stock Business Plan 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Build a business plan and model that is attractive to investors. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. It’s hard to build and scale a business on free high-support products. These are more likely scalable and investable.

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Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

In his recent post, Top 10 Ways to Win a Business Plan Competition , he says: #4 I wanted to push this further down the list, but I just bristle at this: the revenue forecast. My 4 plans get increasingly more incredible, ranging from $50M, $60M, $70M to $161M in year 5! These are so detached from reality.

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Hockey Stick NPV IRR Valuation 205

Up and Running

JUNE 26, 2013

Business Planning Finance business accelerator failure startup tech' The entrepreneur-cum-blogger opted to include Tumblr’s “Ask Me Anything” feature on his blog, which opens to doors to any reader who would like to know more.

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Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Startup Bootstrapping 72

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

You would think that would be enough to get wrong, but entrepreneurs and investors compound this problem by assuming that all startups grow and scale by executing the Revenue Plan. Reality Meets the Plan. Because the company’s initial revenue plan (the spreadsheet the founders attached to the business plan) said so.

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Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 230

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2014

When you look at SaaS metrics, keeping your CAC low and increasing your ARPU is going to be the fastest way to the hockey stick that SaaS companies are trying to achieve. Business Planning Videos Business Planning Webinar Videos (Blog) metrics saas tracking webinar' If we increase our-.

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Metrics Churn Rate Startup Forecast 84

Growthink Blog

AUGUST 24, 2016

I am doing this because first, it is simply exciting and inspiring to visit with innovators - folks who "connect the dots" between technological change and business opportunity.

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Hockey Stick Artificial Inteligence Venture Capital Hosting 48

Professor VC

JUNE 7, 2018

For example, many visitors are surprised that nobody prepares business plans to raise funding. While a lot of what is done here is clearly cutting edge and best practices, some of what we do doesn't make any sense to those visiting from other parts of the world. And when I think about, it shouldn't make sense to those of us here.

Silicon Valley 31

Silicon Valley Hockey Stick Venture Capital Lean 31

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

She is regularly invited to participate as a judge for business plan competitions, as well as speak on topics including entrepreneurship, angel investing, social media, and authentic self promotion. Needless to say, the webinar was absolutely packed with great tips on what it takes to pitch your business so that investors take notice.

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Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence Exit Strategy 60

BeyondVC

JANUARY 22, 2009

Josh started Jupiter Communications which during the mid-90s was the go-to research firm for market growth numbers for every startup business plan.    As a VC, you couldn't believe them, but it didn't stop every entrepreneur from using the hockey stick projections in their business plans. 

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Hockey Stick Web New York Social Network 60

Small Business Force

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Sure, you've got a business plan and it shows the proverbial "hockey stick" of growth. And does your plan really consider the various alternatives and issues that you would face to sustain and deliver on that growth? Well, what if you succeeded "beyond your wildest dreams?"

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Hockey Stick Dilution Viral Demand 37

Small Business Force

JUNE 29, 2013

Most business plans for funding contain tons of research about the market, and, usually, some well-thought-out strategies and tactics. Guesses, wishes and dreams won't make it happen, but they, often, drive the capital raising process.

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Hockey Stick Due Diligence Finder SEC 37

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

The objections range from "its hard", "nobody believes them" to "all hockey sticks look alike". To that last one, there is certainly some truth as the standard time vs. revenue chart in most business plans looks like this: Im not teaching Entrepreneurial Finance this semester for the first time since Fall 2007.

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Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35