The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

Optimising Your Operations Efficiency is the name of the game when it comes to operations. Whether it’s managing your supply chain or automating customer service, look for ways to optimise every aspect of your operations. It’s not just about a logo or a tagline; it’s the experience you promise your customers.

Intellectual Property 158

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Bootstrapping 158

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? Customer Development. A well-developed model is Andreessen Horowitz’s Executive Briefing Center. In-house, brand-name guru. This is an open-ended query and the most important question.). Advantages.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Note to Chinese Communist party – the best name for your propaganda department should probably not be the “Propaganda Department.”). The motivations are the same – profit – driven by entrepreneurs and venture finance. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. Beijing’s Academic Hub.

China 218

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 218

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

For the past 30 years great colleges have approached recruitment by creating a list of names from the PSATs and then sending out glossy brochures. Prior to founding Carely , Michael Eidsaune earned his MBA in finance and spent several years in investment management, eventually earning his level 1 CFA certification.

Cofounder 145

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 145

Up and Running

MAY 18, 2016

You’ll learn more about what destroys startups, how to use the Customer Development method to succeed, how to use the Business Model Canvas, how to identify and keep your customers, and how to drive profits. Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy. B y Cindy Alvarez.

Startup 80

Startup Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 80

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

For the past 30 years great colleges have approached recruitment by creating a list of names from the PSATs and then sending out glossy brochures. Prior to founding Carely , Michael Eidsaune earned his MBA in finance and spent several years in investment management, eventually earning his level 1 CFA certification.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital | Tagged: Entrepreneurs « Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type (part 4) Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) » 16 Responses Jon Ziskind , on September 14, 2009 at 9:19 am Said: Steve – Great post and really great advice.

Silicon Valley 234

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 234

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development? The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses. Website Analysis.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

Staring at us in the board meeting were three term-sheets from brand name VC’s and an unexpected buy-out offer from Google. They grow their business via profits or traditional bank financing. Posted in Customer Development, Durant versus Sloan, Technology, Venture Capital. Which one is “right” is up to you, not the crowd.

Hockey Stick 298

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 298

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

For example: Dropbox, Reddit, and Birch Box, to name a few. Lean Startup Circle Boston – Meetup dedicated to the lean startup and customer development methodology. Not Boston focused, but definitely follow his reports of PE and VC financings and the state of the venture market. @danprimack. The Grand-daddy.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems. Now, in some situations, this over-selling would lead to a secondary problem, namely, that customers would realize they had been duped and refuse to re-subscribe.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

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 did you discover from customers?

Wiki 315

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 315

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 125

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 125

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs Tweet When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. What many first-time CEOs might not realize is that they may need to setup an Advisory Board as a condition of receiving financing. But I suspect that’s often done for name brand and recognition.

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance and planning. Where are the charitable foundations, business schools and hospitals named after him? Sloan had each of the divisions start systematic strategic planning. Yet you never hear who built that company. What happened to him? Who was he?

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 179

View from Seed

JANUARY 28, 2016

When we talk about seeds, we mean your first outside round of financing at the earliest stages of your business. In my prior post, I talked about the rise of the pre-seed and a more nuanced definition of a pre-seed based on milestones, not financing labels. This staged approach is often much better for the founders as well.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Finance Founder Syndicate 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2009

Steve my name is Donald xx, and I’m the head of external affairs of the CIA’s venture capital firm and we’d like you to keynote our conference.” And you’d like me to do my talk on Customer Development and startups?” “No, we’re the other CIA.” We witness similar behavior in corporate finance.

Silicon Valley 266

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Venture Capital 266

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2016

We give out between $2 and $3 billion a year for these startups as 5,000 and 7,000 grants to small businesses doing everything from advance composite materials, space exploration, to IT, mobile security, you name it. the FEC deals with campaign finance information, regulating and disclosing all that information.

Small Business Administration 120

Small Business Administration SBIR United States Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

So my first job out of business school I wanted to learn finance and I went to Merrill Lynch in investment banking. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. .” I think I was hesitant because of the experience my father had where he tried a bunch of businesses that were unsuccessful.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

So my first job out of business school I wanted to learn finance and I went to Merrill Lynch in investment banking. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. .” I think I was hesitant because of the experience my father had where he tried a bunch of businesses that were unsuccessful.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

But we were cutting corners in the development methodology as well as in the code, in the name of increased speed. a is name, b is address, and c is tax percentage. Cost and time are effectively absolutes (The Caretaker's high finance schenanigans and 20th century Physics aside).

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

The importance of a domain name. For Gabriel Kuperman, founder and CEO of CuePin, finding a good domain name was a key part of his branding strategy. If you find the domain name you want is taken, Gabriel suggests turning to a domain marketplace that sells premium domains. Pick a name for your business.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

It means they have to deal with finances and customers and investors and other things that aren’t what they love to do, which is building software. Now you go: Name (required). Your technical partner must be someone who shares your vision and enthusiasm for your idea, BUT he/she does not necessarily need to be a developer.

Technical Cofounder 42

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

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

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Paul Graham kicked it off by noting that all the financings in the recent YC batch were converts. Develop your business plan. What the crazy name "Smart Bear" taught me about branding - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , August 2, 2010 Every founder struggles to find a great name for her company.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards. So when he saw the browser it instantly dawned on him that this would be the greatest customer development tool ever. Shopping.com. The Wedding Channel. Commission Junction.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Rob Go

JANUARY 28, 2016

When we talk about seeds, we mean your first outside round of financing at the earliest stages of your business. In my prior post, I talked about the rise of the pre-seed and a more nuanced definition of a pre-seed based on milestones, not financing labels. This staged approach is often much better for the founders as well.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Finance Founder Syndicate 28

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Edwin: Correct, I fully agree and the name MeetingKing already says that my initial focus definitely was on meetings, right? Now what I’ve found is that especially the larger licenses, 10- and 25-user licenses, in the beginning I lost those customers after a couple of months. But we’re just not going to name them as ideal.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 13, 2013

JoAnn and I had our Clients First revelation while wrestling with whether or not to allow a customer to be ‘right’. Should we allow a family to buy a home they wanted, but that would have stretched the buyer’s finances and caused the seller to accept less than they should? You habitually let certain clients go to voicemail.

Customer 150

Customer Flash Customer Development Small Business 150

news.ycombinator.com

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

His quote on the subject, "no amount of finance will cure mismanagement". Had the Winklevoss Twin and their friend continue, do you realistically believe Facebook (by any other name) would be where it is today? While I believe there are some things you should keep secret, the general idea itself is not one of them.

Stealth 41

Stealth Technical Review Startup Software Review 41

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2020

You don’t need custom development to get the job done. Going back and forth with a developer is usually far from fast. Without a brand name and social proof, growth can be extremely slow. If you want to contribute to general business, marketing, finance, health, etc. That’s branding.

SMS 134

SMS Campaign PR Sales 134

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

I would) then spend every free moment I had writing old-fashioned letters to every name I could find in Silicon Valley. This is why when I first learned about customer development, I’m like I get this, this made a lot of sense to me. …. Then I would go out there and say, “By the way, I’m here.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Investment Bankers 120

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

If you believe in it – then finance whatever you can yourself. 2) Co-Founders are the largest form of dilution (if you’re raising) 3) Everything around LeanStartup / Customer Development 4) Understand the micro economics of your business early. First Name. Other sources of capital. Government grants – Credit cards / debt.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

His name is Charlie and he responded to our question last week about whether you should stick to the plan or change it. Peter: Well, fortunately I know how to pronounce his name because I felt and that was some of his incubator work but Joe is a local entrepreneurial champion here in Oregon. He says, “Hey guys. Great episode.

Incubator 60

Incubator Email Startup Oregon 60

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

My name is Crystal Williams, and I maintain a small business blog called Babeofbusiness.com. 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.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

In other words, the future of financing is continuous funding, not discrete. The Phantom Sales Forecast – Failing at Customer Validation - Steve Blank , July 22, 2010 Startup CEO’s can’t delegate sales and expect it to happen. Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved. Boy did I feel like Rip Van Winkle.)

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

I lived through the time when working in my first job in Ann Arbor Michigan we had to get out a map to find out that San Jose was not only in Puerto Rico but there was a city with that same name in California. A 20 th century VC was likely to have an MBA or finance background. 39 years ago I got on that plane and never went back.

Restful 242

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 242