Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

Customer Development 217

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 217

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

In the last five years “ Lean Startup ” methodologies have enabled entrepreneurs to efficiently build a startup by searching for product/market fit rather than blindly trying to execute. Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Customer Development , Science and Industrial Policy. Fast forward to today.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

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. Early customer development talks are going great which keeps the team really excited.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? Similarly, customer introductions are invaluable in the early days, but become less valuable once a company has a fully-formed go to market function.”. Customer Development. Fundraising.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

A description of the problem you’re solving for your customers, and your solution to the problem, which is usually your product or service. A description of your target market or the different market segments you’re targeting. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

As a consequence, corporations used metrics like return on net assets (RONA), return on capital deployed, and internal rate of return (IRR) to measure efficiency. These metrics make it difficult for a company that wants to invest in long-term innovation. Risk capital has provided financing for new ideas in the form of startups.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

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 233

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 233

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

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Here’s why. Take a look at the chart below.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Home Books for Startups Guide Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Tools Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Email Subscription Get Steve Blank via your RSS Feed RSS - Posts RSS - Comments Categories Air Force (12) Ardent (10) Audubon (1) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (39) Business Model versus Business Plan (..)

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

How do we finance the company, etc. An early indication that you’ve found the right business model is when you believe the cost of getting customers will be less than the revenues the customers will generate. If you are following Customer Development , the answer is easy. Startup Metrics. Web Metrics.

Balance Sheet 303

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 303

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Their product development team is hard at work on a next-generation product platform, which is designed to offer a new suite of products – but this effort is months behind schedule. What’s the total available market? What’s the ROI on acquiring new customers?

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

In fact, this crisis was at the heart of Steve Blank ’s original impetus to develop customer development as an alternative set of milestones to use for startups.) LTV focuses on the integration of marketing and engineering functions and emphasizes implementation rather than strategy formulation issues.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

What CEOs, management teams and shareholders care about is growth —revenue growth, greater user adoption, increased market share, bigger margins, etc. Our market cap is around $170B. For most big, established companies like us, our business models were developed years—even decades ago. in developing these new models.

Lean 329

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 329

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

Or depending on your metrics for success, get users, grow traffic, etc.). A business model diagram also shows how the product gets distributed to your customers and how money flows back into your company. How do we finance the company, etc. Most of the time the darn customers don’t behave as you predicted.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). Therefore we developed a class to teach students how to think about all the parts of building a business, not just the product.

Wiki 315

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 315

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

While startups eventually get into execution mode, their initial stages are devoted to a non-linear, chaotic search for a business model: finding product/market fit to identify a product or service people will buy in droves at a sustainable, profitable pace. The Wrong Metrics. What do those numbers/metrics look like?

Silicon Valley 296

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 296

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2010

Metrics That Matter (Business Model Metrics). Accounting Basics and Multi-stage Finance. None of the students were domain experts in their areas, and each team had to figure out how to contact potential customers and channel partners. By design we didn’t give them too much Customer Development theory.

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 252

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

On the other hand, it’s a whole universe and you’d need an interesting perspective on why you should go attack that market and face all that competition and noise and everything that’s in the market. So when you’re thinking about marketing positioning to me, that side of it is the interesting side of it.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

While startups eventually get into execution mode, their initial stages are devoted to a non-linear, chaotic search for a business model: finding product/market fit to identify a product or service people will buy in droves at a sustainable, profitable pace. The Wrong Metrics. What do those numbers/metrics look like?

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 269

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Do they “get&# Customer Development ? Some VC’s invest solely on technology breakthroughs and assume they’ll find a market later.). Do They Get Customer Development? Do they have metrics and a methodology they use for early stage companies that differs from companies that have already found a business model?

Founder 232

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 232

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. How to differentiate yourself in a crowded market (and when perhaps you shouldn’t try). Try to get those good customers who are going to pay for it.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

Compounding is not a process that most people find intuitive, and thats as true in engineering as it is in finance, so it requires a lot of encouragement in the early days to stay the course. Only one occasion was a substantial rewrite justified based on performance metrics. Its a version of the law of compounding interest.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Whether you’re wondering what site search you should use or what is the best email marketing tool, knowledge is power. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Inbound Marketing vs Interruption marketing. Email marketing. Market Research. Customer service. Promotions/Marketing.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

As Eric said, “at IMVU, ‘release’ is a marketing term&#. In the case of an entrepreneur pitching for finance, its the same fear that has them putting on a facade and not comfortable in what they do and dont know that will see them a long way off getting funded. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review Lean 131

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology that helps startups optimize their chances for success while reducing risk. An experienced board brings an extensive network of customers, partners, help in recruiting, follow-on financing, etc.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 19, 2013

With Homebrew , Satya and I both consider ourselves a startup in its “product-market fit” phase. However, measuring the outcome of a fund has a long time horizon so there are several other metrics we keep on our dashboard. ” Is it when you successfully raise your first dollar or finish the fundraising?

Cofounder 105

Cofounder Term Sheet Seed Stage Portfolio 105

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

We were using it to get features to market faster, and that was working well. But we were cutting corners in the development methodology as well as in the code, in the name of increased speed. Keeping in mind that caveat, in our world the biggest factor in total project ROI was time to market. Top managements #1 was usually ROI.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Take the market and break it down into smaller chunks. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Those are the only 2 metrics you need initially. Why do I do it? Building Product 2.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

This is why so many small businesses can be financed with simple bank loans; the level of risk and uncertainty is well enough understood that a reasonably intelligent loan officer can assess its prospects. But most often, the entrant of a startup into a previously calm market precipitates this kind of crisis.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

But lots of lawyers and finance kids in New York thought they had stable jobs that would make them rich. But lots of lawyers and finance kids in New York thought they had stable jobs that would make them rich. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 111

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 111

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 11, 2008

Among those: plentiful financing and nerds , a culture that celebrates both failure and success, and an ethos of openness and sharing. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? What is customer development? Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Silicon Valley 68

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 68