Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

The Lean Startup Book is done. If you've been waiting for a comprehensive account of the Lean Startup and how it can help you achieve dramatically better business results, this is it. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

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Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

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. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup.

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Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. 2001 – 2010: Back to Basics: The Lean Startup. Carpe Diem. We’re now in the second Internet bubble. The New Bubble : (2011 – 2014): Here we go again…. (If

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Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Larry had the DNA I’ve seen common with all the successful entrepreneurs I’ve backed in my 25 years of Venture Capital work—only he had a more exaggerated case than most. Being distributed/network ready (even though Ethernet was just barely coming into use in the enterprise). Pragmatic and Lean. Hired the Smartest People.

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Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review Database 334

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. What is venture capital, really? And what does a venture capital firm do?

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500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

TL:DR : This post aims to recap significant changes in the venture capital industry over the past ten years, and then make some [biased] predictions as to major forces at play in the next five years. However, all three shifts are related and can be summed up simply as: Geeks are Taking Over Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should have a chance to walk the floor looking for deals, technology, distribution, customers, etc. If your don’t have enough employees on the payroll, hire relatives, friends, or part-timers and train them. You’ll never have to do it again.) Trade Show Post Mortem Evaluate the experience. What didn’t?

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 136

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Most importantly, the phrase “ bootstrapping a startup ” translates into “growing your business with little or no venture capital or outside investment. It is also important to realize that, statistically speaking, most startups become operational without any venture capital or external funding sources.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. Initially your job is to understand each of the parts of your business model before you hire someone to do it.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of the series on the changes to the software industry over the past decade that has led to changes in the venture capital industry itself. In addition it is much easier to get distribution than it was in the pre Facebook, pre iPhone world. They should start “lean.&#

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. After that there’s a discussion of how the product will reach the customer and the potential distribution channel. The distribution discussion also leads to some assumptions about pricing.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US. It led to hiring Eric Schmidt. The second is not.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann will be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October about all of this and more. I've been in venture now twice. I was in Boston, working for the first time in venture capital as an analyst for this guy who was incredible and an amazing mentor. How do you develop power within a venture capital firm?

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The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

I’ve hired and built great teams. By doing so early and by using our expert team of designers, product managers, developers and marketers they can refine their business model without needing to hire full time staff or find their own office space. I know what it takes to bring order to chaos and to scale a company.

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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. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

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. . Lean Case provides standard business models & metrics, so you can apply a standard approach to business planning, modeling, and profitability tracking. What’s Your VC Tech Stack?

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Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

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. Semiconductors. Telecommunications. Transportation. Stock Quotes.

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Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

I lovingly call him the curmudgeon of fintech – in this episode we go deep into how he is building a venture capital firm and practice, not just running a fund and how he views the world of fintech investing. One of the ones that really bothers me is how Venture Capitalists try and conflate what they do as being complicated.

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Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

David Teten

MARCH 24, 2014

ff Venture Capital is both an investor and also runs our back office on Addepar.). ” It’s great reading for anyone that leans too heavily on the left side of the brain. Teten : No one ever got fired for hiring Och-Ziff, or any other of the massive hedge funds. But we are limbic system-driven humans first.

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Software Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Portfolio 114

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

To an entrepreneur, being asked to join a venture firm with an Entrepreneur-in-Residence title means you have been tapped on the shoulder by the VC gods. The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. We understood none of this. More detail in future posts.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

It’s quite simple, which is when you had systems where you had limitations on distribution or transportation of products, it enabled you to operate with a certain cost structure. or an MSN or an AOL in terms of portal distribution. of companies should never raise venture capital. Let me say this to you.

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Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

Up and Running

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Given the number of funding resources available today, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem getting that initial start-up cash, especially if you focus on a lean business model or MVP route to market. Are you going to be hiring employees? Angel investment/venture capital funds. Personal investment. Just keep going.

Elevator Pitch 166

Elevator Pitch Software Review SBA Business Plan 166

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Successful pinball companies didn’t hire Hollywood talent. Meanwhile our company was pouring an enormous amount of dollars into building tools and video compression technology, while also hiring a lot of high-priced Hollywood talent like art directors, and script and story editors. I know what’s great and what’s not.

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Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 222

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

Empower Your Small Business: trust & loyalty, marketing insight, lean business – [link]. 5 Hiring Mistakes That Can Crush Your Company’s Culture – [link]. “So many folks in the venture capital business are sheep that just want to follow the herd. ” – [link]. – [link].

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 90

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Raymond has built a nice business through efficient distribution deals and will do about $250,000 in revenue this year. He needs to generate enough profit so that he can grow organically and build his business systematically, and without expecting a lot of outside financing. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Raymond has built a nice business through efficient distribution deals and will do about $250,000 in revenue this year. He needs to generate enough profit so that he can grow organically and build his business systematically, and without expecting a lot of outside financing. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

Additionally, if you want to hire more engineers, how hard will it be to find people using this language. Need to hire others: This communicates they might not be as good as you want or just can’t hack it and solve the initial problem. You might as well hire an outsourced team. Thus, this is not the right co-founder for you.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

The negativity either impacted investment funding (venture capital fell off a cliff in 2009) or the customers they were targeted as was the case for Untitled Partners who were building a platform for fractional art ownership. Posted in Analysis , Venture Capital. Don't Believe Venture Capital Firm Websites.

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Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 89

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

And thanks to Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate (my first Lean LaunchPad co-instructor) for her suggestions. Repeatable sales means if you hire an account exec, you know that they will close $1M Annual Recurring Revenue in a year. But great product and eager customers are just part of what makes a great business.

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Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The timing is perfect, there is more than a little overlap with Vivek Wadhwa’s guest post on venture capital earlier today. Inevitably, the excuses begin: I need to hire people to build the product. I too am looking for someone to work with that knows the manufacturing and distribution end of a solid product.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 22, 2011

In order to grow we hired successful and expensive sales people who in turn were able to (and incentivized to) sell projects at higher margins and close big deals. This has particularly hurt the print media businesses that can no longer charge enough to pay for editorial, printing & distribution. Teams that have a “lean” mentality.

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Non-Compete Startup Internet Cost 386

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2020

Ryan Sarver was a partner at venture capital firm Redpoint. And as we looked at that and had discussions and examined what that meant, it really meant distributing the sense of ownership, just pushing it out and opening it up and trying to enable anyone else to do this as well. Frank Barbieri is the president of Art.com.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Founder Community Software Review 68

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? I thought, "Oh, I'll start it as a hobby, and if it turns into something, I'll hire a CEO.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Lean Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation 159

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

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Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

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. Steve Blank’s Lean Startup Resources. Lean Startup Circle â?? free, distributed source code control management system. About VC Cafe.

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Software Review Technical Review Startup 53