Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Here’s the punchline: if you run your company as if you have closed a VC equity financing round even though you actually closed a convertible debt round, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to raise your Series A financing. So why would you treat your debt investors (somewhat) like equity investors?

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. The number of serial entrepreneurs is very low and until recently most of the talented sales and marketing professionals choose to work for Nokia.

Finland 325

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 325

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

I wrote the post below for Crowdcube , one of the UK’s leading equity crowdfuding sites. Two developments have changed the face of startup investing in the UK in recent years. The first development is increased capital efficiency. It went up on their blog yesterday. _.

Early Stage 119

Early Stage Development Team Review Technical Review Software Review 119

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. business models. Note that the inner ring shows their global equivalents.). I can’t imagine a U.S.

China 324

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 324

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact My thoughts & lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, marketing and other stuff. Changing Equity Structures for Early Startup Employees Tweet Recently someone asked me for advice on how much equity they should give to their early employees. Those first employees will take 0.5-1%

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. business models. Note that the inner ring shows their global equivalents.). I can’t imagine a U.S.

China 216

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 216

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

To do this they have to accomplish five things; 1) get deal flow – via networking and legwork, they identify likely industries, companies and teams with the potential for rapid growth (less than 10 years), 2) evaluate those companies and teams on the basis of technology, market opportunity, and team.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

You don’t even need to do anything and we’ll give you equity. It doesn’t have to be a huge commitment on their part (or significant equity), but just start giving them some tie to your startup and some incentive to maintain the relationship. Advisors can be so much more than social proof and tactical advice.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Equity Vesting Startup 151

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks ,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model. This means you still need to have a resilient personality, and be agile. You’re not joining a big company.

Cofounder 223

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 223

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany."

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Market research tools to help you figure out the size of the opportunity your startup is pursuing, are here. customer development. Some general customer development slides click here. They don’t ask for equity and charge just enough to cover the costs of pizza and the room rental. agile engineering.

Open Source 335

Open Source Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Over the years we brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Part 2: Early-stage Regional Venture Funds.

Silicon Valley 314

Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 314

Steve Blank

JUNE 4, 2012

This is a 3-day program for entrepreneurship faculty from around the world how to teach entrepreneurship via the Lean LaunchPad approach ( business model canvas + customer development ) and bring their entrepreneurship curriculums into the 21st century. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching.

Silicon Valley 307

Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 307

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

Fast forward a decade, today the Private Equity and Venture Capital business is booming in China with over 1000 firms actively investing. The market was created to provide startups and their investors liquidity. China’s venture capital system has made a remarkable journey from the “state owns everything” to the free market.

Venture Capital 272

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 272

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 26, 2018

In our experience, structured customer development work is right up there amongst the most valuable things a founder can do in the early days of their startup. Once you have an idea that feels strong, it’s imperative to speak with customers about it. But good customer development is tough to do.

Customer 75

Customer Framework Differentiation Customer Development 75

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. Product management tools like Stage-Gate ® emerged to systematically manage Waterfall product development.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

understand who their core and tertiary customers are, and the sales and marketing process required for initial clinical sales and downstream commercialization. They add mentors and additional services and some offer free space in exchange for equity. assess intellectual property and regulatory risk before they design and build.

San Diego 262

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 262

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

Fast forward a decade, today the Private Equity and Venture Capital business is booming in China with over 1000 firms actively investing. The market was created to provide startups and their investors liquidity. China’s venture capital system has made a remarkable journey from the “state owns everything” to the free market.

Venture Capital 164

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Take a look: This full-day Master Class focuses on how to build a startup from the ground up to focus on customers, markets, and speed of iteration. Unlike other incubator-led programs, this workshop is open to anyone who wants to learn, and it does not require companies take investment or give out equity. It was a disaster.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

OneBox.com — On $60m invested, sold for $850m 18 months after launch to J2 just before market crash — score! After all, before the house of cards inevitably tumbles, private equity investors get a tidy return. Support.com — On 2.5m invested, IPO’ed in 2000 for $32/share — stock price now $2.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

When I’m assessing the market opportunity for new products I like to ask two questions: What do people do at the moment which suggests they will want the new product? in most new product categories demand is evident because companies have hacked together custom solutions. That is where I think they got it wrong. Here’s why.

Marketing 100

Marketing Demand Hosting Customer Development 100

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

When I first started building Coach, I invested $30k of my own money to get a prototype working and acquire our first half dozen customers, but I (and the contract developer who I was working with) were spread too thin. These days, to even get noticed, you need to be 100% on point with design, product, copy and marketing.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e., equity that belongs to departed cofounders)? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) The best analog for China’s InnoFund is the U.S.

Programming 280

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 280

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

” I believe that by this he means they want cash rather than equity. My hunch is that most good software engineers only work for cash because they don’t feel that working for equity is worth the risk of failure. I absolutely want cofounders when the time comes. But conceptually it does ring of some truth.

Technical Cofounder 42

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2009

Worries from the garage One of the worries I hear from entrepreneurs (not just my students) is that Customer Development means getting out of the building and sharing what you are working on. In the end, the CEO couldn’t get his board to give us the cash in exchange for the Japanese distribution rights and some equity.

Silicon Valley 152

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 152

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

Home About Contact My thoughts & lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, marketing and other stuff. This is typically done with a small piece of equity. lol [link] Ben Yoskovitz @Zack: You don’t necessarily have to pay your Advisory Board with money – generally you compensate with equity. Expectations.

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Also included is the incredible Venture Hacks Bible, which is worth the price of admission on its own, and The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development (which I previously reviewed here). The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? And theres so much more.

Lean 153

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

The whole market could change. … There is a ton of things I had to learn about lawyers, which I’ve hated every minute of… There are (also) challenges in the beginning like negotiating equity (how to split up stock) among your founders and with your employees and things like that. A good idea isn’t fresh forever. …

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York 120

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 2, 2014

At that time he was talking about infrastructure monitoring, doing customer development work but had yet to start the company. They were coming out of Alfresco where they’d built a custom solution to monitor their infrastructure as they’d moved from an on premise software company to a cloud play.

Cofounder 95

Cofounder Continuous Deployment Seed Stage Cloud 95

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) The best analog for China’s InnoFund is the U.S.

Programming 172

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 172

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

I do believe the only reason the developers were willing to work for some equity is because they became friends with us at Hackers and Founders, so that part worked. What this did allow us to do was HIRE PROGRAMMERS again, but this time, we got a quality prototype at a great price. We were even a top 3 finalist.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 13, 2014

There were, I think, 2-3 years of little growth before market changes pushed music streaming into the mainstream, user numbers rocketed and the company was acquired by CBS for $280m. As regular readers of this blog will know I’m a big fan of methodologies like lean, design thinking, and customer development.

Lean 122

Lean Portfolio Design Customer Development 122

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

equity debate. A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , August 9, 2010 This is Part 3 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.? Novel and creative campaigns like the recent YouTube campaign from Old Spice purportedly demonstrate the power of social in marketing. Kudos to John for an excellent pitch.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

The Equity Kicker

DECEMBER 17, 2015

In the speciality retail world they have market leading sales per square foot and profits. Interestingly, much of the insight that made the business work is the sort of insight that comes from customer development. Customer development only emerged as a thing in the last 5-10 years, so in one sense they were ahead of their time.

Customer 60

Customer Bankruptcy Customer Development Global 60

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. " 34; To which I say "we don't think we can time markets." It may be that all the doomsayers are right. But I don’t think so.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2018

Still, for most startups today best practice in product, including customer development and lean development principles, will be critically important. To go back a generation of startups, the success of Oracle and Microsoft came more from being great at sales and partnerships than from being great at product.

Silicon Valley 68

Silicon Valley Framework Lean Founder 68