Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

I was driving home from the BIO conference in San Diego last month and had lots of time for a phone call with Dave, an ex student and now a founder who wanted to update me on his Customer Discovery progress. Customer Discovery. He worked hard to deeply understand the customer problems of these two customer segments.

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Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Coder 336

VC Cafe

AUGUST 11, 2022

A couple of weeks ago I was did a fireside chat with Alon Grinshpoon, founder and CEO of Echo3D , a CDN and CMS for 3D content in the cloud and a Remagine Ventures portfolio company, as part of an entrepreneurial finance MBA class in Tel Aviv University. We were discussing both sides of the table and the relationship between founders and VCs.

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Founder Term Sheet Cofounder Venture Capital 187

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2020

by Zain Jaffer, serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Zain Ventures. In the early stages, it isn’t uncommon for businesses to bank their earnings on a handful of customers (or sometimes, just one). The loss of these major customers can have a dramatic impact on both internal (employees) and external contributors (investors).

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Customer Development Team Review Advisory Board Private Equity 347

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each cofounder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

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Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2022

Business partners can be co-founders in a startup, multiple owners of an existing business, or a joint venture. As a former startup investor, I was often involved with due diligence on founders, and I felt that founders should do the same on co-founders, as well as investors.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Cofounder 313

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

NZ Entrepreneur

MAY 27, 2019

Wondering how to find the right cofounder but don’t know where to start? If you are a solo founder, you may be able to do it all on your own initially but you’re making it very difficult for yourself. In my opinion, founders or early stage companies should only have a team of two or three people. This will never work.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 64

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 28, 2012

But when it comes to core technical skills, more and more entrepreneurs are opting to partner with technical co-founders rather than hiring someone for an in-house position. I really believe that what’s most important for a founder is the ability to have a vision for the company, make sales and hire well. Laura Roeder , LKR.

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Technical Review Cofounder Founder Software Review 131

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

” – Marc Andreessen In the book “ Super Founders “, author Ali Tamaseb, studied 200 Unicorns, aka startups valued at over $1 billion, started between 2005 to 2018. The 7 Traits of “Super Founders” 1. They are able to articulate this vision in a way that inspires others and generates excitement.

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Founder Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation 88

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

In my experience as an advisor to entrepreneurs, business startup founders most often point to a shortage of funds as the primary cause of their startup failure. In fact, this problem is so common among business startups, that is has been tagged with the name “ founder’s syndrome ” or “ founderitis.”

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Founder Technical Review Cofounder Demand 223

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2023

Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced. You can’t isolate your customers from language idiosyncrasies and culture issues, per reduced customer engagement highlighted a while back by the The Globe and Mail. But customers are not looking yet another homogeneous product or service, so be careful.

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Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property 285

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2023

Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. The only real alternative is to find a cofounder who can build and lead the team, while you focus on the product. Communicate individual results as well as team results to everyone.

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Leadership Technical Review Technical Cofounder Development Team Review 318

VC Cafe

MAY 17, 2023

But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains” Steve Jobs (from Chapter 8) I got to meet Uri Levine, the founder of Waze and Moovit, through his involvement in the Zell Entrepreneurship program at Reichman University. It starts from how founders pitch their startups.

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Founder Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 103

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Every startup needs two or three key advisors who have the domain experience, connections, and complementary skills to guide the founders through those early crises. Manage customer service. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Personnel Manager.

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Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 28, 2012

But when it comes to core technical skills, more and more entrepreneurs are opting to partner with technical co-founders rather than hiring someone for an in-house position. You Need To Know Tech Basics I really believe that what’s most important for a founder is the ability to have a vision for the company, make sales and hire well.

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Technical Review Cofounder Founder Software Review 79

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Few people like talking about their mistakes, but thankfully nine founders took some time to share some of their hard-earned knowledge with you. Find your niche.

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Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

View from Seed

APRIL 14, 2020

VCs are always founder focused no matter the market environment. But in a FOMO world, more investors are willing to take a chance on a founder that they don’t know, but seems to match some of the heuristics of other high quality founders. This gets really challenging if it remains difficult to meet in person or to travel.

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Early Stage Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence 374

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 10, 2010

Every business person with a dollar and a dream these days thinks they’re a technical co-founder away from interweb stardom. Remember the joke on Office Space where you can’t have the engineers talking to the customers? That the one guy’s job was just to interpret what the customers wanted for the engineers.

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Cofounder CTO Hire Design Founder 123

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

But these look for founders who have a technical or business model insight and a team. Accelerators provide these teams with technical and business expertise and connect them to a network of other founders and advisors. Carlos stirred his coffee. Accelerators don’t sound like a fit for where I am at in my career,” he offered. “I

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Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

www.kernelmag.com

MARCH 8, 2012

The Scene Developers Nailing that elusive technical co-founder. Just last week, start-up supremo Naval Ravikant of AngelList wrote how the “oversupply” of founders starting companies is making it harder to hire for the average startup. Are there any ‘Founders Dating’ events coming up?”. Thursday, 8 March 2012.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Coder 43

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Nils De Moor, Co-founder and CTO at Woorank. After a brief passage through the academic world where he researched simulation of distributed systems, he decided to try his luck as an entrepreneur and cofounded Woorank as the CTO. Marketing Podcast with Nils De Moor.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Fractional CTO Belgium 94

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

Unfortunately, I see too many new entrepreneurs who let their passion for a new idea or invention blind them to the stark realities of customer need, opportunity size, or pricing and cost implications. The sooner you face these issues, the more success you will garner from investors and customers.

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Advisory Board Bandwidth Cofounder Technical Review 356

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 27, 2010

In the video below, LivingSocial co-founder and CTO Aaron Batalion talks about the company's previous manifestations - consultants, Facebook app developers, and so on - and the principles that helped motivate the company to change direction like this. But like many success stories, LivingSocial didn't suddenly spring up wholly formed.

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Cofounder Fractional CTO Founder Lean 128

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs.

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Partner Management Cofounder San Francisco 361

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. that’s where the customers are. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, founders, marketers, investors?—?and no surprise?—?that’s

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Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 7, 2024

Guest Author: Danish Ahmed, Founder of startuptools.ai. Companies are turning to AI to streamline their operations, notably in areas like customer service, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention. AI tools help analyze vast amounts of data to provide insights into market trends and customer preferences.

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Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Algorithm Cofounder 117

ReadWriteStart

JULY 5, 2023

Recently, the medical diagnostics company Neko Health, which was co-founded by Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, was successful in acquiring €60 million ($65.4 Customers are pleased with the company’s transparent approach and its commitment to providing high-quality medical care, as evidenced by their expressions of satisfaction.

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Sweden Artificial Inteligence Cofounder Technical Review 126

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

Many are reporting that they’re seeing a more diverse pool of applicants than traditional equity VCs… even though virtually none have a particular focus on women or underrepresented founders. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A new option for founders who care about control.

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Revenue Cofounder Founder Venture Capital 60

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Home About Contact Me How To Make It as a First-Time Entrepreneur Vinicius Vacanti Guide to Finding a Technical Co-Founder September 7, 2010 | View Comments Steve Job's Technical Co-Founder “I’ve got this HUGE idea. I just need to find a technical co-founder.&# So, why should they pick you?

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 21, 2020

by Kathryn Petralia, cofounder of Kabbage. Kathryn Petralia is the President and Co-Founder of Kabbage , an American Express Company. Kathryn co-founded Kabbage in 2009, and Kabbage has since provided more than $5 billion to SMBs through a fully-automated platform that allows customers to apply in minutes.

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Small Business Cofounder United States Technical Review 147

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

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Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

YoungUpstarts

MAY 30, 2014

by Sam Bahreini, co-founder and COO of VoloForce. Improved customer satisfaction. Improved customer satisfaction often goes hand in hand with increased sales. When customers like your product, they tell their friends, and then their friends tell their friends. Increased sales.

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Customer Development Team Review Cofounder Agile 231

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Passionate – is the company/product/customers the most important thing in your life? This is the minimum feature set for founders. Other Roles in a Startup Generic advice given to entrepreneurs assumes that everyone is going to be the founder/co-founder. Founders know they want to start something.

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Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2018

In my role as an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often find founders who have such conviction and passion for their new idea, that they can’t believe anyone could challenge it. They bristle quickly when investors or even potential customers raise issues with real value, competition, risk, and sustainability.

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Technical Cofounder Founder Cofounder Mobile 168

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2023

Cash isn’t always the scarcest resource startups have to invest – more often it’s the leadership capital of under-experienced and over-stretched entrepreneurs and co-founders. Most new startup founders start out by assuming they need to spread their leadership efforts evenly across all team members.

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Employee Leadership Cofounder Matching 267

nikcub.appspot.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Finding a Technical Co-Founder. In the recent weeks, I have also had no less than three people email me and ask about finding a technical co-founder, which has also been a very frequent topic on the Hacker News forums. Ask former co-workers. New Web Order. 5th November 2010. #. Ideas alone are not worth a lot.

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Cofounder Web Founder South Korea 40

YoungUpstarts

JULY 21, 2019

The founders of Benkheim&Co , an online brand which seeks to change the traditional luxury watch concept, explains how motivated entrepreneurs benefit from globalisation, efficient fulfilment services and new technologies. One concept was to cut down on inventory warehouses and send the products directly to the customers.

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Cofounder Technical Review Technology Netherlands 113