September, 2018

article thumbnail

Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. 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.

Lean 335
article thumbnail

5 Criteria For Splitting Equity In Your New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.

Equity 238
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

We’re Overthinking Seed Round Signaling Effects

For Entrepreneurs

There is much hand wringing in the startup ecosystem about various forms of signaling between the seed and A rounds. Conventional wisdom, and advice, abounds: entrepreneurs should never include a venture firm in their seed round because it’ll scare other VCs off from pursuing the A. After all, the “insider” VC has more information and.

article thumbnail

Selling your business? Find the emotional buyer

Berkonomics

This is one of my favorite insights, since I lived this one in a positive exit from my computer business. Types of business buyers expanded. Most people will tell you that there are two kinds of eventual buyers for your business: financial and strategic. A financial buyer will analyze your numbers, past and forecast, to the n’th degree, and calculate the price based upon the result, after carefully comparing your numbers with those of others in the same and similar industries.

article thumbnail

Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

article thumbnail

Scaling from maker to manager

Version One Ventures

A few weeks ago I shared some important leadership lessons from Stewart Butterfield , including investing in your own growth to make sure that the founder scales as fast as the company. Growing with your start-up can be a very tough undertaking for a founder. It requires reinventing yourself dramatically in very little time. When you start your company, you will be a “maker” for most of your days, wearing a thousand hats and tackling whatever needs to be tackled.

article thumbnail

A Scorecard: Should a decision be fast, or slow?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

We all know that startups should make decisions quickly. Fast decisions leads to rapid action, which accelerates the loop of production and feedback, which is how you outpace and out-learn a competitor, even one that already has a lead. But some decisions should not be made in haste, like a key executive hire , or how to price , or whether to raise money, or whether to invest millions of dollars in a new product line.

Engineer 264

More Trending

article thumbnail

5 Keys To Minimizing The Burn Rate For Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remaining runway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 223
article thumbnail

9 Success Driven Tips For Starting A Successful Startup

YoungUpstarts

Starting a startup is definitely no easy endeavor. There are a number of goals to accomplish, and a variety of things that can go wrong along the way. In fact, many experts say that around 90 percent of startups end in failure. That’s a pretty startling statistic. However, there is hope for all you startup founders. With a bit of due diligence, how to develop a successful marketing plan for a startup and rules to ensure your endeavor grows and becomes successful.

article thumbnail

The Best Programming Languages for Digital Marketers

ConversionXL

In the world of data-driven marketing, more and more tasks require a bit of coding. You might need to add an extra parameter to your tracking code or pull raw data from Google Analytics. You may want to create a simple prediction—or automate a few repetitive tasks in your PPC campaigns. Or maybe you simply want to speak a common language with your developers so that you can brief them better and understand they may say, “This will take two weeks.” Regardless, knowing one or two data

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: Hugh Molotsi

Startup Lessons Learned

Innovation within large corporations has more in common with startups than you’d think, but also comes with its own set of challenges. In The Intrapraneur’s Journey , Hugh Molotsi and Jeff Zias share their experiences at Intuit and lay out the guidelines for fostering innovation projects and also an innovative culture within enterprise companies. Here, Hugh Molotsi takes us from skunkworks to large-scale success.

Incubator 121
article thumbnail

Female Founders: Role Models, Support Networks, and Confidence

The Startup Magazine

As part of our ongoing Female Founders series , The Startup Magazine asked Zandra Moore, CEO of Panintelligence, for some insights on her journey as a successful female entrepreneur. Below she offered her views on the importance of having a role model, finding the right support network, and overcoming self-doubt. Zandra Moore, CEO, Panintelligence. Role Model.

article thumbnail

3 Web Design Red Flags You Should Never Ignore

YFS Magazine

The deceit and deception of unscrupulous web designers is a real issue. Here's what you need to know before you hire a web designer.

Web 95
article thumbnail

Grant Applications Often Provide Early-Stage Funding

Startup Professionals Musings

A critical stage for most first-time entrepreneurs is getting their idea developed into at least a prototype to validate their technology. This process costs money, which professional investors are not willing to contribute, since their interest is in scaling a proven product and business model into a growth business. Investors want potential for a large and timely return, with reduced risk.

article thumbnail

Why Consumer Brands Need To Keep An Eye On Their eCommerce Channel

YoungUpstarts

by Shailendra Nagarajan, Senior Product Marketing Manager at DataWeave. The online retail marketplace is a hugely competitive ecosystem. It is saturated with competing eCommerce retailers, brands and sellers, all fighting for consumer interest and investment. For brands, such an environment poses unique challenges. How can they ensure that their products and overall brand identity are being perceived well on all eCommerce sites?

eCommerce 127
article thumbnail

Mixpanel vs. Google Analytics: The 2018 Guide

ConversionXL

This post is not a dry feature-by-feature comparison, nor does it include a winner-take-all verdict. Your business won’t benefit from either of those things. Instead, we’re comparing Mixpanel and Google Analytics in the terms that drive business growth—identifying the core use cases for each tool and the business problems they solve, while highlighting the features that make it possible.

Analytics 119
article thumbnail

Maximizing Profits in the Healthcare Staffing Industry by Susanne Mariga

Mike Michalowicz

Profit and cash flow are critical in any business. In the Healthcare Staffing Industry failure to maintain profit and cash flow can result in massive debt and out-of-control IRS payroll taxes issues. To glean insights into the maximization of profitability in the Healthcare Staffing Industry I interviewed 5 Amazing Thought Leaders in the Healthcare Staffing Industry. .

CPA 69
article thumbnail

Disruption in the 2.0 Era

The Startup Magazine

From implementing an idea to working your way up in a hierarchical and rigid environment, don’t be afraid to challenge your industry’s dogmas. The humankind, as fascinating as it is, has always distinguished itself by its attitude for building rules and laws to order society, but also with its peculiarity of being creative. The word “economy’ perfectly encases the need for rules: it is an ancient greek word and literally means “rules of the house”: oikia as home, nomos as rule.

article thumbnail

San Antonio-based Assembla Buys MyGet

SiliconHills

Assembla, a software development platform based in San Antonio, has announced plans to acquire MyGet, a software management company, based in Belgium. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Assembla, founded in 2005 and acquired by Scaleworks in 2016, is a software as a service company that sells a platform that allows coders […].

article thumbnail

7 Keys To Improving The Odds On Your New Idea Success

Startup Professionals Musings

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? After all, most great breakthroughs, like a computer in every home, seemed like a crazy idea before Steve Jobs and Bill Gates made it happen.

article thumbnail

How To Get Ready To Participate In An Acceleration Program

YoungUpstarts

by Marc Pitart, founder and CEO of onlineresume.us. Acceleration and incubation programs are on the rise and have helped start and scale many successful businesses over the past 10 years. There are many different kinds of accelerators – private and public based accelerators, accelerators that take equity, as well as equity free accelerators. The experience of participating in these programs can vary depending on factors such as your work experience and career background, the stage of your

article thumbnail

9 Common Things that Stunt Business Growth (and What to Do about Them)

ConversionXL

A major benefit of working in a digital-growth consultancy is that you see businesses across all industries and lifecycle stages try to grow their companies. I see good actions that really help a company grow but also common elements that hinder growth. In this article, I’ll give you insight into nine of the most common things I see holding back business growth—and how we’ve helped clients solve these issues.

Metrics 132
article thumbnail

Techpreneur and CEO Leads a Company to Reign in Testing of Software For Tech Companies

Hearpreneur

Software testing requires smart people to develop smart solutions. CEO of software crowd testing company, testIO, Phil Soffer is one such person. An early hacker in his teens and a Berkeley Ph.D. candidate in his 20s, Phil is one of the most charismatic and atypical CEOs that you will likely meet. He spent years working in the Valley and considers himself part of the rather undiscovered Plumtree Mafia (includes top execs at Redfin, Xoom, Atlassian, Zendesk and a number of VCs).

article thumbnail

Smart Tips For Reclaiming VAT

The Startup Magazine

It does not have to be hard to reclaim VAT on your small business expenses. There are actually a number of steps that you can work through that allow you to successfully reclaim your VAT. Any company that has registered for VAT will be able to use this handy option and reclaim VAT on any purchases relating to the running of the business. Of course, there are a set of rules that you will need to stick to in order to ensure that VAT is properly calculated and documented.

article thumbnail

Oracles streak of missed opportunities

deal architect

No, this does not have much to do with Oracle’s recent quarter. Nor is it about intrigue and gossip so many analysts use to compare Oracle to the Trumpian White House. It has more to do with two decades of.

Software 362
article thumbnail

Keep A Real Job Until Your New Venture Shows Traction

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the big decisions every aspiring entrepreneur has to make is when to quit your current job to devote yourself fulltime to your new startup. Some of you are so committed to the new passion that you quit your day job early, and dedicate all your time and resources to the new venture. Others wait until the new business starts to generate revenue and profit before making the move.

Salary 383
article thumbnail

Should you include a Series A investor in your seed round?

Version One Ventures

One of the most important decisions for a founder of an early stage company is deciding who should be on the cap table. We’ve written about doing your due diligence on investors and funds to make sure you find the right partners for the journey. Lately, we have seen more founders grappling with the question of whether to include a Series A investor in their seed round.

Cap Table 351
article thumbnail

Sales Training Options to Help Your Small Business Succeed

Duct Tape Marketing

Sales Training Options to Help Your Small Business Succeed written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Having an effective and engaged sales team is one of the keys to guaranteeing your business’s success. Some people are natural sales men or women—they have the gift of gab, the ability to easily connect with others and win their trust, and are adept at juggling leads and following up with prospects and existing customers alike.

Sales 74
article thumbnail

CEO Shaking Up the AI Industry With a Robotic Reading Companion for Kids

Hearpreneur

Meet Gu Jiawei is the CEO of Ling Technology, the brain behind a truly innovative approach helping children find their passion for reading real books, far away from tablet and TV screens. He holds 22 US patents and more than 120 Chinese patents in artificial intelligence and robotics. Jiawei graduated from Tsinghua University and prior to Ling Technology, he managed the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group at Baidu Research Institute of Deep Learning (IDL), and also worked at Microsoft Resear

article thumbnail

The Top UK Industries Searching for Talent

The Startup Magazine

The UK is currently experiencing a boom in the jobs market. This is great news for those who are looking to secure a first or new job as there is less competition. For some companies, however, it presents a problem, as they search for qualified or experienced workers. Here we take a look at UK talent sectors most affected and the roles therein. Source: Pixabay.

Search 84
article thumbnail

Sneak Preview: Workday Rising

deal architect

It’s an annual ritual. A Workday executive does our readers a favor and shares a curtain raiser on their Rising event, which this year is expected to draw over 10,000 attendees. This time it is Barbry McGann, senior vice president.

303
303
article thumbnail

7 Must-Dos Before Starting a Company

Up and Running

There are so many things I wish I’d known before I started my first company. Hindsight’s 20/20, but I wish someone had sat me down before I wasted a lot of time and money on a company I wasn’t ready to start. While the project quickly fizzled out, it did give me some valuable insights into all the groundwork that needs to be done before getting started which helped me succeed in my second endeavor.

article thumbnail

Is Your SaaS Go-to-Market Strategy Tsunami-Proof?

ConversionXL

Right now, there is a tsunami that’s coming to wipe out thousands of SaaS companies. In this article, I’ll walk you through the three tidal waves coming ashore and show you how to avoid their potentially disastrous consequences. The Three Tidal Waves Coming for Your SaaS Business. Tidal Wave 1: Buyers now prefer to self-educate. This isn’t limited to the B2C space.

Marketing 289
article thumbnail

Letting Go of Perfection in Order to Achieve Your Goals

Duct Tape Marketing

Letting Go of Perfection in Order to Achieve Your Goals written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Petra Kolber. Podcast Transcript. This week on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I speak with Petra Kolber. She is an expert in positive psychology and fitness, and she uses this unique background to help companies and individuals find joy, passion, and productivity.

article thumbnail

Our Investing Manifesto at NextView

Rob Go

Despite rumors that the VC business slows down in the summer, we’ve had one or our busiest periods in quite a while. During June, July, and August, we’ve closed 4 new investments and several follow-ons, with a number of companies gearing up to go out in the fall. Although we had a busy summer, I was fortunate enough to take a bit of time off as well, and to step back for a moment and reflect on Nextview’s strategy and market position going forward. .

article thumbnail

7 Ways to Maximize the Productivity of Your Employees

The Startup Magazine

Every supervisor wants to get more out of their employees. With a cohesive team in place, you’ll be more likely to hit your goals, you’ll spend less time on annoying tasks, and you’ll probably boost morale—after all, morale and productivity are positively correlated. Source: Pixabay. So what can you do to effectively improve the productivity of your employees, without significantly disrupting your current processes or investing too much time or money?

article thumbnail

Implementation Ground Hog Day

deal architect

I was recently introduced to Bonnie Tinder, founder of Raven Intel. Her startup is on a mission to “quantify the quality” of HCM implementation projects, especially the role of the SI partner. As her site says “We’re amplifying the voice.

Partner 301