Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

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. We we’re now a tight board of early-stage VCs, management and two hands-on operational experts in our target markets.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Too many early-stage companies are so desperate for customers that they operate in a frantic and random sales mode. The right partnership strategy can make a company relevant.

Early Stage 379

Early Stage Vertical Sales Global 379

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Similarly, customer introductions are invaluable in the early days, but become less valuable once a company has a fully-formed go to market function.”. A well-organized library of best practices for founders in your vertical, which you can share as appropriate. Organize events in your vertical. AskAnything.VC

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 18, 2018

Now as projects are developing, it is clear that blockchain technology is still in the early stages. We’re focused on vertically integrated startups that empower consumers and companies to collect health data easily and affordably, to become a “biobank” where this data can power personalized recommendations. Bio/healthcare.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review North America Seattle Deal Flow 124

ConversionXL

MARCH 17, 2021

And while this was a good start, a significant position of these companies were early-stage startups. Our research showed that LTV was much higher compared to other verticals we have worked in the past which made the decision to change our approach a no-brainer.

B2B 150

B2B Sales Cycle Belgium IP 150

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 8, 2021

Are you going to grow vertically or horizontally? In the early stages of your business’s development, you’re going to notice dead weight. How much growth is reasonable to achieve? What are the channels and mechanisms that will help you achieve this growth? . Dead Weight.

Startup 127

Startup Retention Acquisition Agile 127

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

These five strategies are proven to work for early-stage companies in a variety of industries — including, perhaps, yours. Instead, use an existing user manual template that’s appropriate for your process and vertical. They quite literally can’t afford to wait. Focus on Your Minimum Viable Product.

Cost 100

Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Competencies? Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Competencies?

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 48

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2021

billion in early funding. Dozens of outreach programs across the military now offer quick revenue to early-stage companies. For example, “flying taxi” startup Joby Aviation aligned its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with the Air Force’s stated interest in advancing the market for air mobility vehicles.

Artificial Inteligence 326

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Startup Silicon Valley 326

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Vertical integration of different funding risks. I also believe that the ebb and flow of the venture investment cycle has been exacerbated by the recent vertical integration of early, growth, and even late stage venture funds. The investment thesis wasn’t wrong — it’s just that they bet on the wrong horse.

Harvest 60

Harvest Vertical IPO Early Stage 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Too many early-stage companies are so desperate for customers that they operate in a frantic and random sales mode. The right partnership strategy can make a company relevant.

Startup 242

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 242

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

So most early-stage VCs have started to evaluate investment opportunities with an imaginary benchmark in mind: can this company become a $100 million opportunity? A great product is always the foundation but a clear distribution strategy becomes essential to cut through the noise.

Churn Rate 168

Churn Rate Viral Acquisition Cofounder 168

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

Our current focus is Actors and Actresses and we are moving into other verticals. I also serve as CEO of a small media companies that profile “Tomorrow’s Most Exciting People Today”.

Los Angeles 225

Los Angeles Revenue Southern California Social Network 225

A Crowded Space

AUGUST 12, 2011

By this, I really just mean what I look for in entrepreneurs and companies at early stages. Start with a niche in a city, demographic, or vertical. But I wanted to organize my thoughts on this primarily for my own purposes. It’s helpful to force yourself to write down your principles. That’s the name of the game.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Vertical Social Media Acquisition 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

Vertical 128

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 128

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Yet for every founder there are 10-20 other employees who take the near-equivalent risks in joining an early-stage company. If you’re not a founder (by choice, timing or temperament,) you may be an early employee or a later stage startup employee. This means you still need to have a resilient personality, and be agile.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. This model certainly makes sense.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. This model certainly makes sense.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Seed investors are being compensated for the risk because later-stage investors are paying higher prices, and diluting early-stage investors less.

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

ConversionXL

JANUARY 28, 2021

While early-stage companies may not see an immediate need for using a CDP, setting the groundwork before reaching accelerated growth can save time and frustration down the line. Both Segment and Mparticle work to keep your teams aligned so you can deliver the best experience possible and know exactly how to serve your customers best.

Technical Review 86

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Technical Cofounder 86

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. The Pocket Negotiator is very early-stage attempt to aid in the negotiating process itself. . Accompany focuses on this use case.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Seed investors are being compensated for the risk because later-stage investors are paying higher prices, and diluting early-stage investors less.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Some five years into an early stage technology company, I found myself, an experienced technology manager, as a CEO in search of competent manufacturing. It wasn’t like we were packaging software we were producing the highest performing vertical axis wind turbine. Thanks Pamela. Where is the innovation workforce? –

Technical Review 102

Technical Review Engineer United States Government 102

Austin Startup

JUNE 22, 2020

The phrase, “missionaries, not mercenaries,” applies just as equally to early-stage investors as employees. The product is a complex AI service in an industry vertical that is large and growing fast. Didn’t make sense to him that the industry vertical had revenue anywhere near their forecast.

Vertical 64

Vertical Early Stage Forecast Revenue 64

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

In a deep ocean of early stage investors, it’s important to signal to the market that you have specific areas of interest, even if you look to invest in everything. In the early days, I focused on anything data science related, then healthcare, and now I proactively look at climate/energy. Be a generalist and a specialist.

Cofounder 182

Cofounder Portfolio Capital Gains Vertical 182

Eric Friedman

MARCH 25, 2019

Consumer tech works best when it’s completely horizontal or deeply vertical. Multi-vertical out of the gate usually fails. Once you nail the first vertical, you can expand to others. To put it another way, doing less better is a much better way to focus. The balance can be difficult to reach.

Vertical 92

Vertical Early Stage Demand Conversion 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2013

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Too many early-stage companies are so desperate for customers that they operate in a frantic and random sales mode. The right partnership strategy can make a company relevant.

Startup 293

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 293

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

This curriculum is based on the various questions entrepreneurs have asked me over these 64 sessions, spanning financing, positioning, customer acquisition, marketing, sales, channel, and various other early stage, startup-related issues. As usual, then, I worked with three entrepreneurs working on specific businesses. Mava Consulting.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

This is particularly true for complex verticals such as B2B SaaS products, where product marketing’s ability to pinpoint users with the most need and educate them on product features and benefits proves useful. To become and remain competitive, you need both brand marketing and product marketing at each stage of your company’s development.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

VC Cafe

AUGUST 29, 2022

As an investor in early stage startups in gaming and metaverse/web3 at Remagine Ventures , I naturally consume a lot of content on this topic, and this post also helps me digest and separate signal from noise. Inworld AI (image credit: Techcrunch ). Industry reports.

IP 187

IP Strategic Investors Vertical Early Stage 187

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Filed under: SuperMac | Tagged: Early Stage Startup , Steve Blank « There’s a Pattern Here SuperMac War Story 2: Facts Exist Outside the Building, Opinions Reside Within – So Get the Hell Outside the Building » Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Nothing I couldn’t fix. I took the job.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Haystack

JANUARY 12, 2020

As valuations have gone up early, the cost of ownership has also risen, and in an early-stage fund where the loss ratio is likely to be much higher, high ownership has been increasingly important to these funds. 4/ Social Forces – As seed stage funds grow and mature, the GPs grow and mature too.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Cram Down Early Stage Cofounder 106

VC Cafe

DECEMBER 1, 2022

However, in reality the Metaverse is still in its early stages of development, and yet, we already can see positive examples of its impact. As the underlying technology for the Metaverse continues to evolve, we will see more and more use cases brought to life across verticals. Into the Metaverse event in London.

Generative AI 88

Generative AI Vertical Early Stage PR 88

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

Investors in this category are usually operating executives who have spent their entire careers in a specific industry vertical, like internet travel, for example. Cons of an investment from a Super Angel include potential lack of “value-add” because his or her time is spread so thin amongst many portfolio companies. The Domain Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2012

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Too many early-stage companies are so desperate for customers that they operate in a frantic and random sales mode. The right partnership strategy can make a company relevant.

Startup 247

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 247

Haystack

JULY 8, 2018

After reflecting on it for a day, I began to understand why — even though this topic has been written about many times, “technology” as a sector and industry now has gone from vertical to horizontal, entirely pervasive across industries, across sectors, across geographies and cultures.

Early Stage 95

Early Stage Dilution Private Equity Common Stock 95

Version One Ventures

JULY 11, 2013

For example, at version one ventures, we’re focused on early-stage (seed and Series A) opportunities in e-commerce, SaaS, and marketplaces/platforms across North America. Vertical SaaS (investments: Frontdesk , Jobber ): In the new era of enterprise software, the winners will be purpose-built, vertically sliced tools.

North America 147

North America Vertical Venture Capital Early Stage 147