Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

To move innovation faster, we now have 21 st century tools — Business Model Canvas , Customer Development , Agile Engineering – all adding up to a Lean Startup. 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

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. As a result, the standard product development model is not only useless, it is dangerous. What do you think?

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

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? For instance, tracking ‘months-of-runway’ combined with the month-over-month change to that metric allows us to rapidly identify companies that may be distressed. Customer Development.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

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

JULY 1, 2014

Investors sitting through Incubator or Accelerator demo days have three metrics to judge fledgling startups – 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling PowerPoint slides, and 3) a world-class team. a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance.

Sacramento 306

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 306

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

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 5: Get financed. In fact, when you consider the fact that VCs finance just one or two ventures out of every 100 pitches they see, you might be better off bootstrapping it to begin with. Additional resources to help you finance your business: How to Get Your Business Funded. Step 8: Track your metrics.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

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 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

We could for example, find warning signs in popular literature about e.g. finance suggesting rapid maturation in bond trading. My own metric is that you need experience >= 1.5 Or were they trained and raised in the bubble and M&A hype and still looking for some shortcut to liquidity? Warning sign? At best. ~ Is 20 years enough?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

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.) The course does not examine financing options or the composition of founding teams. I also frequently see the reverse. The class debuts in a few weeks.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Managewith.us - Collaborative Task Manager Mavenlink - manage project communications, documents, schedules, budgets, payments Industrial Logic – Agile eLearning Misc Office Help Google Apps – cloud mail server, calendar, docs, etc. It’s more reference material. Thus, these pages. I’ll add more as time goes on.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

in developing these new models. We believe that using the customer development process to monetize these assets through new business models can create huge competitive advantage and more speed to market for us and other big companies. Using an alternative process including different systems and metrics is key.

Lean 326

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 326

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. Time-to-complete-a-sale is not a bad metric for validated learning at this stage.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

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

JUNE 1, 2011

3) An experienced board brings an extensive network of customers, partners, help in recruiting, follow-on financing, etc. The Wrong Metrics. Traditional startup board meetings spend an insane amount of wasted time using Fortune 100 company metrics like income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, waterfall charts.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

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 226

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 226

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

3) An experienced board brings an extensive network of customers, partners, help in recruiting, follow-on financing, etc. The Wrong Metrics. Traditional startup board meetings spend an insane amount of wasted time using Fortune 100 company metrics like income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, waterfall charts.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Instead you will be getting your hands dirty talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. What are the 9 parts of a business model?

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Do they “get&# Customer Development ? They understand that now’s not the time to hire a senior VP of Sales to start to scale the sales force or to look for a finance department to create income statements that say zero each month. Do They Get Customer Development? Have they heard about Customer Development ?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

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

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

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. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Continuous Deployment 131

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

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

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

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. Startup Metrics for Pirates â?? SaaS Metrics Tutorial â?? easy business finance software. YCombinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents. Read post Why Learning should be your top 2013 new year’s resolution  for a full list.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

Are you looking for help and expertise in hiring, product strategy, customer development, fundraising, coaching, therapy, etc.? co-founder problems, personnel issues, company pivot, customer fall out)? Lastly, dig down into how an investor behaved during new financing rounds or during exits. What is important to you?

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

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. So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. So I have a question for you, Jason.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 4, 2013

And that’s not to mention the advice for very early-stage companies on topics like getting your first users, or choosing metrics. These workshops include hands-on, intense instruction in techniques like continuous delivery; innovation accounting; Lean Analytics; and Lean Startup for HR, IT, and finance teams.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Conversion Startup 167

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 19, 2013

However, measuring the outcome of a fund has a long time horizon so there are several other metrics we keep on our dashboard. The product was still evolving but their execution ability and customer development had accelerated nicely during the startup’s first few months. Two learnings.

Cofounder 105

Cofounder Term Sheet Seed Stage Portfolio 105

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

They have many, many man-years of development and customer development in them. You have your general management meeting and in your general management meeting you talk about product development, about marketing and about finance. And again, that doesn’t have the metrics that a VC wants.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Steve Blank

MAY 3, 2011

What are the key financials metrics for costs in your business model? Include people, hardware, software, prototypes, financing, etc. We taught them theory, methodology, and practice using Customer Development and business model design. Our assignment for the teams during their final week: What’s your expense model?

South Dakota 217

South Dakota Business Model Lean United States 217

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Cost and time are effectively absolutes (The Caretaker's high finance schenanigans and 20th century Physics aside). The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Quality is an abstraction of value, and value of service (or changes) is situated in human contexts.

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. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly. 10) Metrics.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

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

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. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ▼ June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

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

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

In other words, the future of financing is continuous funding, not discrete. Metrics availability. 0160; If I need $250,000 to get to 100 customers, or $1 million to get to X, and I can raise both amounts from either Angels or VCs, where do we turn? Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved. Not so bad.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217