Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2015

I was in New York last week teaching my annual 5-day version of the Lean LaunchPad class at the Columbia Business School. We had 130 students in 30 teams who got out of the classroom and did 2154 customer interviews in 5 days – a remarkable effort for 120 hours. What role does venture capital play?

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley New York City New York Venture Capital 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Are there customers for what you are building? How many are there?

Customer Development 267

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! It might be for technical reasons or it might be for customer adoption reasons.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2021

When we graduate, we don’t really know what a “good customer” is. For Alex at Origin , a scheduling and booking platform for outdoor guiding companies, he soon realized that for the company to grow exponentially, they’d need thousands of customers because of how fragmented the market is. Go lean with your planning.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Lean Colorado Engineer 132

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , January 10, 2010 Developing new startup ideas - Chris Dixon , March 14, 2010 Batch Processing Millions and Millions of Images - Code as Craft , July 9, 2010 jQuery Plugin: Give Your Characters a NobleCount - The Product Guy , March 23, 2010 How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents?

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

Pre-seed investing should be super simple, so any signs of pro-rata rights, tranched financings, charging the company for value-added services, etc. As an inexperienced founder, you are very likely to take at least two rounds of financing before a series A, so the round to try to skip is any sort of second seed. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com. SIGNIFICANCE PROMINENT. --> The Venture Capital Secret: 3 Out of 4 Start-Ups Fail. See a sample reprint in PDF format. SMALL BUSINESS. Stock Quotes.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

the wave of semiconductor startups in the 1960’s/70’s, the emergence of Venture Capital as a professional industry, the personal computer revolution in 1980’s, the rise of the Internet in the 1990’s and finally. Yet time after time, after the product shipped, startups would find that customers didn’t use or want most of the features.

Restful 243

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 243

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) Where Are the Customers? Product Development Diagram 1.

Customer Development 244

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 244

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Now they are starting to use the Lean Innovation process (see here and here ) to turn ideas into solutions. He wanted to build an innovation pipeline that would allow the Navy to: Create “dual-use” products (build solutions that could be used for the military but also sold commercially, and attract venture capital investments.)

Lean 242

Lean SBIR Incubator Curation 242

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

We recently had Tim Berry, Palo Alto Software founder and business planning expert, present our Bplans audience with his latest advice on lean business planning. Start your lean business plan today: Download our Free Lean Plan Template one-page-pitch-download.pdf. I’m going to start with what’s a lean business plan.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

abovethecrowd.com

DECEMBER 18, 2017

While other industries often speak of being “customer centric” or “putting the customer first,” the U.S. healthcare system rarely thinks of the patient as a customer. healthcare market is the least customer centric of any customer service industry. One could go even farther, and suggest that the U.S.

Customer 59

Customer Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review 59

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? What Has Changed in Financing? even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed. Of course we can’t.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Up and Running

MAY 18, 2016

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. ” Lean Business Planning: Get What You Want From Your Business. Why David Rose recommends it: “This guide takes the lean theories and shows you how to put them into practice.”. B y Eric Ries. B y Tim Berry.

Startup 80

Startup Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 80

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Customer/Market Risk Versus Invention Risk One day I was having lunch with a VC sharing what I learned from my students. Our firm has a portfolio of companies across a broad range of markets and the way we look at it is pretty simple – the deals fall into two types: those with customer/market risk and those with invention risk.”

Vertical 162

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 162

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. Customer Care Today. Here’s why. 10 Blogging Tips.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

In 2012 I got together with Alexander Osterwalder , Henry Chesbrough and Andre Marquis to think about the Lean and the future of corporate innovation. It didn’t take us very long to connect the dots between exponential growth, business model innovation and the “Lean Startup” movement. in developing these new models.

Lean 329

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 329

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Or worse yet they may never get financed. Raise at “ the top end of normal &# but not so high that future financings in a corrected market become impossible. An obvious example is Google who may have gotten less market attention if there would have been 8 well-financed competitors during the 2001-2005 timeframe.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 235

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 235

Up and Running

OCTOBER 30, 2017

How easy is it (and how much will it cost you) to acquire a customer? It means that the market for your product or service already exists, so you know that you have potential customers who are willing to spend money on your product or service. If you will be seeking outside financing, a business plan is a necessity.

Venture Capital 166

Venture Capital Business Plan Limited Liability Company Finance 166

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Storm Clouds - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 12, 2010 We have enjoyed an amazing run in the web startup and investing space over the past five or six years. Competing To Win Deals - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 7, 2010 The venture capital business is highly competitive.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods. 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

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Any custom manufactured IoT device would require software development as well as hardware customization. Both of which are expensive and time-consuming. Crowdfunding.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , June 18, 2010 The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conference a couple months ago. Why you have to design products for how your customers are , and not how you want them to be. Yes, even bootstrappers. liquidation preference.

Cofounder 175

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 19, 2019

We’ve spent a lot of time this past year running Lean Startup tests on our annual flagship conference to really nail down what you’re most interested in. Our goal—again, based on feedback—is to continue broadening the reach of Lean Startup and embracing the numerous ways people are using it.

Lean 68

Lean Programming San Francisco Silicon Valley 68

VC Cafe

MAY 21, 2024

AI has the potential to offer entirely new user experiences, making them far more personalised and intuitive across various sectors such as finance, education, and gaming. Here are some key advantages: Owning User Data and the customer – For startups in the application layer, owning user data is crucial.

Generative AI 97

Generative AI ChatGPT Vertical B2B 97

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2020

Jeff Epstein is on the board of Shutterstock, Twilio, Kaiser Permanente, and was the CFO of Oracle, DoubleClick, Nielsen and King World and is an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. He teaches the Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford with me. And the minute he talks about financing I shut up and take notes.

Salary 331

Salary Lean Equity Government 331

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . At Flow Capital, we use HubSpot’s sequences and workflows functions to automate a bulk of our emails and internal tasks. 3) Raise capital. 6) Due diligence.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Board meeting gets scheduled Nobody thinks too much about it until a week or two before Management team has a last-minute scramble to pull materials together Management is super focused on its daily work of … winning customers, signing biz dev, shipping product … so this prep is a last minute “fire drill” and is seen as a slight distraction.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 19, 2019

Andy Rachleff co-founded the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital in 1995. Andy and I will be having a fireside chat at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October. And how has that affected venture capital? We can do all of that so you never have to worry about your finances again.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Lean Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation 159

YoungUpstarts

JULY 6, 2020

They’re all VC-backed, and it was venture capital financing, those back then young startups, received, which was integral to their tremendous growth. However, many first-time entrepreneurs fail to grasp the important distinctions between a “venture backable” business and a “lifestyle business.”

Venture Capital 226

Venture Capital Software B2B Early Stage 226

Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2014

a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance. When I first read about the Investment Readiness Level (IRL) on Steve’s blog, I was excited by Steve’s attempt to bridge the capital-efficient Lean Startup process for founders with the capital-raising process for funders.

Sacramento 312

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 312

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Venture Capital Cafe > Startup Resources (Updated Mar 2013). Lean Methodology Sources. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Part 3- Lean Cust. Customer service. Google Custom Search Engine. Customer Relationship Management. Steve Blank’s Lean Startup Resources.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53