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. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

The investment will be used for product development initiatives. Summit is a hugely respected firm in Silicon Valley and a long-term “institution&# but they’re better known as more of a “private equity&# investor meaning that they do later stage investments in much larger companies that are profitable.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

Angel Investor 256

Angel Investor Early Stage Incubator Government 256

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2015

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

Product Development 120

Product Development Developer Product Angel Investor 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about 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. Part 4 of the Customer Development Manifesto to follow.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

Version One Ventures

MAY 3, 2023

With the right product or service for the Indian market and strong execution, an “India for India” start-up can see incredible growth. India for the world” has traditionally focused on outsourcing and leveraging cost advantages, from customer service to product development.

India 86

India LP Silicon Valley Vertical 86

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. However, not all firms are venture capital firms. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments. Investing in a startup company carries a high degree of risk, particularly at the early stage.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Most startups view venture capital funding as a blessing from above — eager to take it as soon as they can get it. Tempted by large sums of money and the perceived validation that comes along with being funded, founders turn to venture capitalists to accelerate their company’s growth. Focus on Product Development First.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. I knew no one, which meant I had to spend a lot of time meeting people and developing relationships.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley. This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley. And even more importantly, was there any way to reduce risk in early stage ventures? familiar with Customer Development you should be.

Product Development 159

Product Development Developer Silicon Valley Product 159

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. The reality is that their core business is not venture capital.

Strategic Investors 279

Strategic Investors Venture Capital Due Diligence Early Stage 279

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Luckily in the last quarter of the 20 th century a new source of money called risk capital emerged. At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class. ——-.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Private Equity 120

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

Twenty years ago 3i dominated venture capital in the UK with a very low touch model. The gaps that we most often fill are product, development, design, marketing, recruitment and fundraising. Uncategorized Venture Capital'

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Snyk was founded with the mission to help developers make their code secure, providing a platform to automatically assess and remediate open source vulnerabilities. The company’s success has been largely driven by its developer-led freemium model, going from Series A funding to a valuation of $2.6B million developers using our product.

Early Stage 62

Early Stage Open Source Development Team Review Security 62

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I was consulting for the two venture capital firms who between them put $12 million into my last failed startup. I began to gain an appreciation of how world-class venture capitalists develop pattern recognition for these common types of problems. “Oh Oh yes, company X, they’re having problem 343.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 131

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Increased venture funding has been helping to develop a robust tech ecosystem with major hubs in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. Here’s how public venture funding can help build Canada’s tech talent. These workers are recruited to work in international development offices.

Canada 127

Canada Government Venture Capital Early Stage 127

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 24, 2014

by Matthew Sawyer, Managing Partner of Rocket Market Development LLC. Investors keep pouring money into startups and early stage companies. According to the National Venture Capital Association , the amount of money that VC’s invested rose 8% to nearly $30 billion in 2013. Are they addressing market needs?

Startup 252

Startup Angel Investor Early Stage LLC 252

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. This post describes such a model.

Customer Development 253

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 253

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. Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking?

Customer Development 267

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Market Risk vs. Invention Risk - Click to Enlarge For companies building web-based products, product development may be difficult, but with enough time and iteration engineering will eventually converge on a solution and ship a functional product - i t’s engineering, not invention.

Vertical 162

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 162

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Pre-seed tends to be about developing an MVP and generating early traction. Seed is about showing initial product market fit. Shameless plug, at Remagine Ventures we’re one of those specialists funds, investing in the future of interactive entertainment tech, gaming and next-gen consumer startups.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. The answer depends on your answer to two questions: which step in the Customer Development process are you on?

Technology 143

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 143

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

Nic Brisbourne is Managing Partner at Forward Partners, the UK’s leading early-stage VC, currently supporting the UK’s next generation of AI, e-commerce and marketplace businesses. Nic is also the author of one of Europe’s most popular venture capital blogs – www.theequitykicker.com.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

When seeking equity investments, the source of capital is, for the most part, tied to the stage of capital being raised. You see, equity capital is raised in stages or rounds. The five main stages include the following: 1. Early Stage Investment (Series A & B) 4. Pre-Seed Funding 2.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? I’ve seen a range of options for supporting entrepreneurs, which I can rank from least to most involvement in companies by investors: financier VCs, e.g., Correlation Ventures. Vlad is also the CEO at DarwinApps , a software development shop.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Up and Running

JANUARY 30, 2014

My partner is a full-time developer and math teacher, and I’m an engineer. Marketing the site and creating a business behind the product proved much more challenging. To thrust our venture forward, gain business skills quickly, and increase our chances of raising capital, we searched for an accelerator program.

Incubator 105

Incubator New York City Venture Capital Startup 105

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Yet the processes that early-stage companies were using were identical to that of large corporations. In hindsight it appeared clear that startups that survive the first few tough years do not follow the traditional product-centric launch model espoused by product managers or the venture capital community.

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital California 133

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Eighty some pages later I realized that a) I had some great war stories as a good marketeer and failed CEO, b) I’d have to pay my wife and kids to read them, c) the three of them were probably the entire total available market, and d) when I looked at what I had done and what other entrepreneurs had done at their startups, that there was a pattern.

Redemption 132

Redemption Silicon Valley RSS California 132

The Equity Kicker

JULY 16, 2015

Team structure in early stage ecommerce and marketplace companies is a function of manpower and skills necessary to build the company and the founder(s)’ skillset(s). First iteration of the product vision. Design and development of landing pages and prototypes. Build deep understanding of early adopters.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce Burn Rate Early Stage Hiring 60

Gust

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Too many entrepreneurs develop a new product without regard for market demand , then build an entire strategy based on creating a need, rather than acting on an existing market need. Early-stage investors won’t risk this much. Investors characterize this approach as a “solution looking for a problem.”

Technology 167

Technology Angel Investor Early Stage Viral 167

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc. Their story, market positioning, products, etc. At the early stages of your company’s life, you cannot rely on disinterested, hired guns to define your company’s key tasks. Launching Venture (33).

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aligning the Startup Team Strategy with the Capitalization Strategy. The single most important factor to raising capital for any tech startup is the management team. This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. Early Stage. Seed to Series A. Series A to Series B.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 260

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 260

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Another great way to test your idea is to create a minimum viable product, or MVP. This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. It’s a particularly popular strategy in the world of product development and is used to quickly and quantitatively test a product or a product feature.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure. MootCorp in particular has an impressive track record of putting early stage tech companies on the right path towards funding. to compete.

Business Plan 156

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 156