Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

The market was down considerably with public valuations down 53–79% across the four sectors we were reviewing (it is since down even further). ==> Aside, we also have a NEW LA-based partner I’m thrilled to announce: Nick Kim. Please follow him & welcome him to Upfront!! <== In 2009 we could take a long time to review a deal.

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

Investors and partners now look only for a framework of your business essentials, within the context of your opportunity, solution, and financials. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Early customer feedback will position your solution, and help you make pivots before critical time and money are lost.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Investors and partners now look only for a framework of your business essentials, within the context of your opportunity, solution, and financials. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Early customer feedback will position your solution, and help you make pivots before critical time and money are lost.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth.

Management 322

Management Entrepreneur Forecast Stock Options 322

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2023

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Plan for a real revenue model.

Business Model 273

Business Model Customer Angel Investor Bootstrapping 273

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. Another term often mentioned is “momentum,” or growing visibility and advocacy within your customer set.

Advisory Board 199

Advisory Board Technical Review Metrics Business Model 199

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

But being able to monetize customers and acquire those customers at a low enough cost is quite another. Especially in the early stages of growth, standing up to competition means that your business also needs to minimize the cost of acquiring new customers. It’s not enough that your business has product/market fit.

Acquisition 127

Acquisition Cost Affiliate Customer 127

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Key Takeaway: In the world of customer experience, mishaps are inevitable. However, by approaching customer recovery with style, empathy, and exceptional ownership, businesses can turn these situations into opportunities to create raving fans. 15:10 What are the best strategies for fixing a poor customer experience? [17:56]

Customer 77

Customer Technical Review Employee Artificial Inteligence 77

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Venture studios create startups by incubating their own ideas or ideas from their partners. The studio’s internal team builds the minimal viable product, then validates an idea by finding product/market fit and early customers. In return for the lower risk, a venture studio typically takes a larger percentage of equity.

Technical Cofounder 346

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

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 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 30, 2015

Google is focused on expanding its already broad reach into the advertising market by increasing the span and coverage of its digital and mobile platforms, and the company’s 4Q14 results highlight how the company’s efforts to buttress its core services is paying off: Google’s revenue and gross profit climbed 15.3% billion and generated $4.1

Advertising 100

Advertising Revenue Mobile Intellectual Property 100

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

ReadWriteStart

JULY 20, 2023

On average, medical group partners using Collectly’s platform experienced a remarkable 75% increase in patient collections. The “days sales outstanding” metric, measuring the average days to collect payments, reduced from 60-90 days to an impressive 12 days. million in funding.

ChatGPT 118

ChatGPT Artificial Inteligence Retention Technical Review 118

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 10, 2023

If there are inbound leads, the situation is different; hiring an AE might be suitable if these leads align with the ideal customer profile. Sally suggests considering a full-time Sales Leader when a startup has two or more AEs and SDRs and is on the verge of hitting a $1 million Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Sales Developer Development Team Review 78

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2014

As an entrepreneur raised in the era of analytics, I want to find metrics for everything. When I was going through the co-founder “dating” process, I’d found a potential partner through my network who seemed to be perfect. Finding the right business partner for me. But how do you measure (and prove) a gut feeling?

Partner 113

Partner Cofounder Equity Metrics 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In the short term you need customers to find you at any price, and in the longer term you need revenue, profit, and return loyalty. It’s your job as a leader to be the model high performer, quantify the team view with metrics, and expand awareness to the best outside competition and new tools.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Due Diligence Merger Social Media 312

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. " Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. Ultimately it matters a great deal.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

They encompass the effectiveness of marketing (the startup’s ability to reach and resonate with target customers) and stickiness (the product’s ability to deliver value to customers over time). Some studies suggest that the best consumer subscription companies are able to retain 65% of their revenue after one year.

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

Board Effect

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

Getting the right data to improve revenues, measure impact and reach peak efficiency can seem too difficult, too expensive, or both. Having a smart data strategy will not only help DCCU weather any future economic storms, but will help improve performance and better address customer needs.

Technical Review 97

Technical Review Technology Software Review Georgia 97

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2014

In this webinar, we take time to discuss the different metrics that startups—and established businesses—should be tracking. In terms of pre-purchase, traffic and content metrics. Every single page you have on your website needs to have a purpose and needs to have a functionality for that customer or that visitor.

Metrics 84

Metrics Startup Churn Rate Forecast 84

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

billion in ad revenue in 2020. But you can also accumulate significant exposure and revenue through an organic YouTube strategy. As with most platforms, there are metrics that matter, and vanity metrics. Both metrics represent high engagement. YouTube generated $19.77 Time-to-value is much more important.

Analytics 134

Analytics Metrics Channel Video 134

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 4, 2021

In this post, you’ll learn how to overcome the challenges and reap the rewards to collect subscribers, users, and loyal customers. . We’ll look at where email fits in the customer journey and walk you through how to create a strategy that fits your customer lifecycle. Customer journeys are rarely linear. Consideration.

Email 136

Email Customer Marketing Software Review 136

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. I believe that Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem.

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Growth hacking is a practice that aims to acquire as many customers as possible while spending as little money as possible. Where campaigns to build brand awareness and generate top-of-funnel sales drive traditional marketing, data across the entire customer lifecycle drives growth hacking in marketing. What is growth hacking?

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. In his tenure as CEO of DataSift we have never missed a monthly revenue figure. What Rob wrote in his post is right. Send Text messaging for rapid responses.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

ConversionXL

AUGUST 2, 2017

1,983% boost in annual revenue, 1,000% user base growth within six months with no upfront costs. These are actual results a startup Ringadoc got from their partner program. Chris Samila , Partnerships Manager at Optimizely shares: “We saw building and supporting a partner ecosystem as a massive opportunity. increased revenue.

Channel 84

Channel Partner Programming B2B 84

Women Entrepreneurs Can

MARCH 13, 2024

A loyalty program allows restaurants to connect with customers and build brand trust. It also helps businesses stand out in a saturated market by rewarding their best customers and increasing repeat business. Loyalty programs provide data on each customer, including their dining history, dietary preferences, age, and location.

Programming 52

Programming Retention Software Review Social Media 52

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. 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? Can it scale?”

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

ConversionXL

AUGUST 2, 2017

1,983% boost in annual revenue, 1,000% user base growth within six months with no upfront costs. These are actual results a startup Ringadoc got from their partner program. Chris Samila , Partnerships Manager at Optimizely shares: “We saw building and supporting a partner ecosystem as a massive opportunity. increased revenue.

Channel 77

Channel Partner Programming B2B 77

ConversionXL

JUNE 8, 2017

According to the same study, 80% of its customers’ video plays comes from its personalized recommendation engine. Potentially, every interaction with the customer or the prospect can be personalized to a point. Copy-pasting examples from case studies is a doomed endeavor as your company and your customers are specific and different.

Programming 97

Programming Revenue Analytics Software Review 97

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

Or, if you can’t skip a round, when should you try to work extra hard to minimize dilution and when should you be prepared to take more dilution for the right partner/situation? Also, the benefit of raising a pre-seed from great partners probably outweighs the cost. Founders with limited experience. Experienced founders: B2B.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth.

Startup 283

Startup Forecast Stock Options Technical Review 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2023

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. They watch for formal follow-up to questions, demonstration of real product, and revenue results. Customer acquisition, retention, and support.

Cofounder 389

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 389

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth.

Forecast 161

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 161

Women Entrepreneurs Can

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Among these, sales, marketing, customer service, and product development take center stage. After all, these departments work tirelessly to secure deals and generate revenue, only to face setbacks when payments aren’t collected promptly. By neglecting accounts receivable, businesses miss out on crucial revenue streams.

Software Review 40

Software Review Metrics Analytics Software 40