Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

With the unlimited access to “how-to” videos and detailed instructions on the Internet, you shouldn’t need to hire experts for most things. Use multiple social-media channels, blogging, email and voicemail to build the same image and responsiveness as larger competitors. Learn to be a generalist rather than a specialist.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Show that you have and can continue to hire the right people to run the scaled business without you being everywhere and making every decision. Focus on marketing and indirect channels to get the message out quickly. Outsource what is non-strategic to optimize leverage. Scaling requires leveraging outside resources.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Show that you have and can continue to hire the right people to run the scaled business without you being everywhere and making every decision. Focus on marketing and indirect channels to get the message out quickly. Outsource what is non-strategic to optimize leverage. Scaling requires leveraging outside resources.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

ConversionXL

APRIL 10, 2020

No one cares about a team or individuals’ “experience” with platforms or channels. Hockey-stick growth requires being ahead of, not in line with, conventional wisdom: The most impactful ideas won’t be found in “best practices.” The solution isn’t just to learn a platform or channel. Mailchimp’s Willie Tran agrees.

Hockey Stick 68

Hockey Stick Analytics Channel Sales Cycle 68

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Because they have no presence in the market, they have to find distribution channels to bring in customers. This wasn’t very impressive, but we had two things going for us: A hockey stick shaped growth curve. People often forget the most important part of the hockey stick: the long flat part.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

That year the two founders decided to get serious about being a company, and hired a CEO. This results in a much slower adoption curve – the classic hockey stick. By 1992 Research in Motion (RIM) had been in business for eight years, had 16 employees, sales of about $500,000 a year, and three or four business lines.

Hockey Stick 271

Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 271

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 21, 2010

Since we often invest before the big “hockey stick” traction that bigger VCs wait for, a lot of times the company is still trying to tweak exactly what service or application will take off in a given market. Hire what compliments the product and necessary strategy. At First Round , I often hear the term “product-market” fit.

Product 68

Product Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Syndicate 68

Duct Tape Marketing

JULY 26, 2017

Though I would say based on the numbers that I see it’s not like a hockey stick growth, but the growth in people’s desire to listen to the content and people’s desire to create terrific podcast content has really never been higher. I had somebody hire me for next February for an event, to speak at an event.

Audio 39

Audio Programming Software Review Hosting 39

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

With that implicit assumption, startups hire a VP of Sales with a great rolodex and call on established mainstream companies while marketing creates a brand and buzz to create demand and drive it into the sales channel (web, direct salesforce, etc.) Even more serious, startups can have radically different cash needs. End result?

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Up and Running

APRIL 28, 2015

Finding and winning customers can sometimes be the biggest challenge for a startup, so it’s important to show that you have a solid grasp of how you will reach your target market and what sales channels you plan on using. Investors see “hockey stick” projections all the time and will mentally be cutting your projections in half.

Forecast 60

Forecast Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 60