Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers?

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 228

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

For more about forecasting growth in these uncertain times, check out Sequoia’s “ Adapting to Endure ” presentations published in May 2022. Before product-market fit… just care about speed of iteration according to your customer feedback. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2017

Others like to focus on the numbers first, so they start with a sales forecast or spending budget. Summarize the problem you are solving for customers, your solution, the target market, the founding team, and financial forecast highlights. Key Customers. Revenue/Sales Forecast. Opportunity. Competition.

Business Plan 134

Business Plan Balance Sheet Forecast Lean 134

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2015

Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Yet every business requires revenue and volumes, as certainly as it requires a product to sell. Forecast sales-volume expectations.

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Forecast Entrepreneur Burn Rate Widget 120

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. A description of the problem you’re solving for your customers, and your solution to the problem, which is usually your product or service. Solve a problem you can relate to.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Up and Running

JUNE 23, 2022

Back to the fundamentals—sell more, sell more in cash than on credit, sell off unused or old inventory, and coax your customers to pay their invoices more quickly. I worked with a chain of computer stores that held a big inventory promotion to turn inventory into cash; and offered special upgrades and training to all existing customers.

SBA 163

SBA Finance Balance Sheet Technical Review 163

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. In the Early Days.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2015

I am here to talk about LivePlan and give you some big picture information on business planning, forecasting, how to really kick your business off in the best possible way. What is revenue going to look like? You don’t want to feel Schizophrenic to your customer. A persona is not your most desired customer.

Forecast 60

Forecast Video Business Plan United States 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re running a startup or small business, your first priority (after your family) is keeping your employees and customers safe. Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month. Are your customers closing for the next few weeks? Laying off people?

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2022

And they figure out how they could digitally enable their business – supply chain, customer interactions, etc. They explore and analyze data using machine learning platforms to create models about customers, processes, risks, or whatever they’re trying to predict. Making business smarter : Customer Support. What’s Different?

Artificial Inteligence 422

Artificial Inteligence Software Review Algorithm Technical Review 422

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. The IMF just raised its global growth forecast from 2.5%

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Gust

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

We recently started a series of posts on establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup companies for purposes of investment by seed and startup investors. He has invested in more than 70 startup ventures. Dave Berkus is a founding member of the Tech Coast Angels in Southern California, a lecturer and educator.

Valuation 79

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Southern California 79

David Teten

AUGUST 6, 2015

My colleague Paul Bianco serves as interim CFO for a number of ff Venture Capital ’s portfolio companies, and has built and reviewed hundreds of financial models. 6) Title your file in a format like [Company Name] [Forecast] [yyyymmdd], e.g., “[Company Name] Forecast 20150524″. HOW TO MAKE YOUR CELLS READABLE.

Balance Sheet 60

Balance Sheet Software Review Forecast Acquisition 60

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. It would have been easy to explain the difference by changes in the 2010/2011 revenue growth projections but unfortunately that is not the case. revenues while large caps are trading at 6.4x. Venture Capital. (3).

Software Review 101

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Europe 101

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2017

From my perspective, projecting financial returns is part of the homework every business person needs to do in sizing customer opportunity, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value, before expending their own resources in a highly risky venture. Quantify overhead and growth costs.

Burn Rate 144

Burn Rate Forecast Angel Investor Revenue 144

Hunter Walker

JULY 18, 2022

Are you indispensable for customers? Do you understand your cost structure and can you manage to a forecastable growth rate. Your runway is impacted by the absence of projected revenue. You literally just showed me a deck that said your TAM was 10,000 customers. Similarly, for a variety of reasons, the music stopped.

Valuation 116

Valuation Cap Table Startup Later Stage 116

Up and Running

AUGUST 1, 2017

While there’s a certain cachet that comes with being able to say you raised a round of funding for your startup, realize that it’s a lot of hard work to actually secure venture capital (VC) funding , and there are reasons you might not want to. If you’re looking to bring on a partner and money, venture capital might be the right fit.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Cofounder Finance Security 113

Growthink Blog

APRIL 3, 2012

For example, having a financial model that shows you are going to grow from $0 to $100 million in revenues in 3 years is generally going to be frowned upon. Likewise, you can boost credibility by getting customers. One of a VCs greatest concerns is whether you'll be able to acquire enough customers.

Private Equity 97

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Forecast 97

Up and Running

MAY 30, 2022

This includes financial statements such as your profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, and sales forecast. Determines financial needs and revenue models. A vital part of starting a business is understanding what your expenses will be and how you will generate revenue to cover those expenses. Futureproofs your business.

Business Plan 150

Business Plan Balance Sheet Revenue Metrics 150

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

Defining the problem you are solving for your customers is crucial for your business success. If you can’t pinpoint a real problem that your customers face (that your product solves), then you might not have a viable business concept. Use this section to talk about your customers’ needs and how you’ll reach them.

Balance Sheet 90

Balance Sheet Business Plan Security Forecast 90

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

The combination of Venture Capital and technology entrepreneurship is one of the great business inventions of the last 50 years. They’ll explore the best way to deliver the product to customers, the resources required, as well as competing technologies. Filed under: Lean LaunchPad , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Engineer 284

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 284

Cracking the Code

MARCH 12, 2010

So, here is the first edition, including the recent Q4 2009 earnings and the updated 2010 forecast. Given the predictability of SaaS GAAP revenues on a quarterly basis, the fact that the 08/09 projections were unchanged is not a surprise. Venture Capital. (3). Explore Venture Capital. Favorite Podcasts. (1).

Software Review 63

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Forecast 63

Steve Blank

JUNE 10, 2010

Founded in offices smaller than my parents grocery store, Fred and Maheesh’s vision was to provide a home for artists who made personalized products assembled in a just-in-time factory that today delivers a customized gift each second. With venture capital came accountability to board members, forecasts, and other people’s agendas.

Silicon Valley 331

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur United States New York City 331

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

By freeing up your time it really helps you focus on more important tasks and this can be things ranging from improving the product quality to hiring a great team to rewarding your people to thinking more holistically about customer experience or understanding your competition. Two, revenue. What do you do? Three, growth rate.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

In the next few posts that follow, I’ll describe how thinking of a solution to this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – that offers a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities. The meaning of alpha test , beta test, and first customer ship are pretty obvious to most engineers.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 228

Up and Running

MARCH 4, 2022

A business plan does far more than help secure venture capital when you’re starting out. As you work through the potential revenue numbers, pay attention to what others in your industry make in a year. Their overall goal is total customer satisfaction. Where can you reach your average customer?

Business Plan 117

Business Plan Revenue Small Business Administration United States 117

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

That’s the sales forecast, the spending forecast and the cash flow. You want to show that, and investors need to see the scale of a business that have to do with your sales forecast. They’re going to look first at the sales forecast. That’s a lean business plan. It is not a document.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

Sean Seton-Rogers of PROfounders Capital recently claimed that of the more than 3,500 business plans they had received, his London, U.K. based venture capital fund had just invested in 17 companies. We need to insist that they set goals and milestones, create cash flow forecasts and devise ways to test their assumptions. ??We

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 21, 2014

As a result, the full revenue for each deal was recognized in that quarter as soon as the software was shipped. This allowed our revenue to skyrocket from $1.8 But the downside to our business model was that we did not have hardly any recurring revenue. . I later came to realize that r ecurring revenue is magic.

Revenue 54

Revenue Valuation Churn Rate Portfolio 54

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

One of the points I tried to make is that as venture capital investors as an industry we seem to have a healthy disdain for public market investors. What is your revenue growth rate and what does this imply about your number of months of capital remaining? ” It goes like this: What is your net burn rate?

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

Plans and processes are in place, and rules, job specifications, revenue, profit and margin goals have been set. Forecasts can be based on a series of known conditions. It only emerges after an intense business model design and search activity based on the customer development process. We will propose some alternatives.

Business Model 334

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 334

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

Last week, I wrote about Akamai , a company with strong network effects that successfully transitioned from a single product to build a platform that garners over a billion dollars in revenue and is now a core part of the Internet’s fabric. Expedia grew to account for roughly one third of the company’s revenues. Think about that.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

When it comes to customer acquisition, there are many free marketing strategies you can use such as SEO, social media, and email marketing. See Also: 17 Venture Capital Blogs You Should Be Reading. A business at scale may have a customer acquisition cost of $35, but this is averaged across all of their marketing channels.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Startup Forecast Channel 60

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 22, 2009

While it may make sense to offer very slight adjustments for favorable payment terms and one time revenue, net additions to MRR should dominate the sales rep’s thoughts. 1 of MRR generates $12 of annual revenue, so $1 commission equals 1/12=8.3% of Year One Revenue Sounds high, but is that considered a reasonable package?

Software Review 91

Software Review Clawback Sales Salary 91

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.) If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I believe that: 1) a product is just a part of a startup, but understanding customers, channel, pricing, etc. to optimize this search.

Wiki 316

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 316

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

The Deutsche Bank report has a very interesting chart on the topic presenting the Free Cash Flow margins vs. the revenue growth four years post IPO for select software leaders: As you can see, with 20% Free Cash Flow margin and a 50% growth rate, Salesforce is well positioned in the pack! Venture Capital. (3). for Lawson?

Software Review 48

Software Review Software Technical Review Cloud 48

Women Entrepreneurs Can

SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

Do your homework by doing a revenue forecast. After some time in the game, the need for expanding the team to cater to more customers becomes vital to bigger business operations. In this case, doing a revenue forecast will help you weigh your options. She is an expert in venture capital and business funding.

Due Diligence 40

Due Diligence Forecast Finance Bankruptcy 40