Steve Blank
APRIL 10, 2019
A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. VC’s have just changed the ~50-year old social contract with startup employees. In doing so they may have removed one of the key incentives that made startups different from working in a large company. For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Here’s why.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 9, 2019
We all know that starting a business is hard work, and growing it is even harder. Every step has to be thoroughly thought out, because if you miss even one, it could mean everything. New businesses are started all the time, but only a few of them last beyond five years. Now that the internet has fostered such an accessible and easy way for people to connect and run their own start-ups, competition has skyrocketed.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 15, 2019
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The type of disruption most companies and government agencies are facing is a once-in-every-few-centuries event. Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. And these forces are completely reshaping both commerce and defense.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 6, 2019
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. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here.
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
Hearpreneur
NOVEMBER 27, 2019
The idea of exactly what your business is going to usually come first. Secondly, most often, is giving a title to your idea. What exactly is going to be the name of your business? Some people turn to their childhood for inspiration or a beloved family pet. It could be a made up word you dream of one night and feel it has the right ring to it. Even still there are some people who study foreign words for the perfect meaning behind their chosen business.
ConversionXL
APRIL 1, 2019
Marketers are intimately familiar with their industry and product. But that familiarity isn’t always an advantage. Often, they unknowingly overwhelm or confuse the same visitors they seek to persuade (with long, jargon-filled product pages, for example). Your knowledge, in other words, can become a curse—a barrier that keeps you from communicating what customers care about in language they understand.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
The Next Web
FEBRUARY 8, 2019
Italy may be a latecomer to the booming startup scene but it’s fast becoming a hotbed of new tech talent. Red tape and bureaucracy were some of the biggest challenges new companies faced. But the government is now on a mission to cut down barriers, launching several new initiatives focused on making it easier to grow hi-tech companies, including the Italian Startup Act and Visa scheme.
This is going to be BIG.
FEBRUARY 18, 2019
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. Twenty-five of them have at least one female co-founder. Fifteen had co-founders over 40. Five have LGBTQ+ founders. Three teams have African-American founders. Three of the founding teams are married couples. All were backed based on the sole criteria that they had the potential to make my limited partners a lot of money.
The Startup Magazine
DECEMBER 30, 2019
It’s better to have it and not need it, rather than need it and get caught without it. Insurance is one of the oldest financial businesses, but it’s not what it used to be. Like other sectors such as banking and law firms, insurers are receiving a makeover. The traditional methods now include accuracy, personalization, and efficiency like never before.
Reid Hoffman
FEBRUARY 21, 2019
CAMBRIDGE I / ALEJANDRO GUIJARRO. Over the past two decades the internet has reshaped our daily lives and the world of business—so it’s not surprising that it’s transforming how companies develop talent. The emergence of a “personal learning cloud” makes it convenient and affordable for people to access new ways to learn. And that’s a necessity: To keep pace with change and avoid disruption, business leaders must become what we call infinite learners—those who not only enjoy learning but feel a
Board Effect
DECEMBER 20, 2019
All organizations are unique in their own right. Even so, every board of directors has some of the same basic fundamental responsibilities. Organizations may operate for profit or charity. They may be membership-based or non-membership based. Organizations may be new or long-standing. They may have a strong financial base or they may be a struggling start-up.
Duct Tape Marketing
JUNE 6, 2019
Why A Small Business Needs A Responsive Website written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Responsive websites are a necessity in today’s digital marketplace. That isn’t surprising when statistics state that 51% of time spent online in the United States took place from a mobile device, rather than a personal computer. Your website should be mobile-friendly and responsive any time a user visits.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 12, 2019
This article previously appeared in War On The Rocks. There was a time when much of U.S. academia was engaged in weapon systems research for the Defense Department and intelligence community. Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 11, 2019
These days, it is almost impossible to find a small business where everything is done at the home location, by full-time employees. We are in the age of outsourcing, by any of many popular names, including subcontracting, freelancing, and virtual assistants. These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure.
Hearpreneur
MAY 15, 2019
Each business has a story. No matter if the business is a Goliath like Wal-Mart, or a local business owned by a couple or family, the business has roots in an idea. For each business owner, the story of their journey can range from monetary needs or the passion for a unique project. Each story is different though the reasons may be the same. No matter the tale, the background behind each and every business is what fuels each and brand.
ConversionXL
JANUARY 9, 2019
Website redesigns are a huge risk. You can throw away years of incremental gains in UX and site performance—unless you have a battle-tested process. But what does that process look like? And how do you know if your team—or the one you’ve hired—is focusing on the most important things ? Many areas yield minor improvements, but to make a real difference, and protect past progress, you need a repeatable, evidence-based approach.
deal architect
DECEMBER 12, 2019
I had been invited to an SAP Analytics influencer summit earlier in the year. Many of the sessions were under NDA, so I had not written about it. However, my notes showed: Ambitious, exciting vision, but fragmented execution across portfolio.
View from Seed
NOVEMBER 14, 2019
I sent a tweet out last week that elicited quite a few responses from both founders and investors: seed funds that don’t invest pre-traction =. — Rob Go (@robgo) November 4, 2019. I could hear the internet nodding in violent agreement. I thought I’d share a few additional thoughts on what may be driving this. First – there are a lot of seed investors out there that don’t actually want to invest in seed.
YoungUpstarts
MARCH 28, 2019
Being a handy-man offers a lot of mobility and freedom. You develop relationships with all your clients and become known in the neighborhood as someone trustworthy. Plus, you know how to fix everything in your own house. This is a huge benefit if you’re trying to do remodeling. No outside costs or discounted costs from co-workers who know parts of the craft that you don’t.
The Startup Magazine
MARCH 11, 2019
Most of us find it hard to keep up with workplace rules and regulations. We want to work our way, that is working flexibly and with complete control. The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey found that 63 percent of millennials want to move away from traditional employment and start their own business. Source: Unsplash. When you are young, it is easy to dream of being your own boss and going it alone.
Version One Ventures
DECEMBER 3, 2019
Bessemer started the idea of the “anti-portfolio” – the companies that you passed on, but ended up doing very, very well. . After Honey was acquired by PayPal for $4B a few weeks ago, we thought it was a good time to share the Version One anti-portfolio: Honey. We had a chance to invest in a $500K round at a $12M valuation in 2015. We loved the founders, but didn’t have much conviction around the scalability of a browser plug-in and the fact that this was a bridge round.
Feld Thoughts
JUNE 13, 2019
I watched HBO’s Chernobyl the past few nights. I finished it last night, took a deep breath, and said out loud to myself, “that was spectacular.” One of the final quotes that stuck with me is the title of this post. The full quote is “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.” Read it again. “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth.
Duct Tape Marketing
FEBRUARY 6, 2019
10 Things to Consider About Your Website in 2019 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on the 10 Things to Consider About Your Website in 2019. You’ve started a business and created your website. But that doesn’t mean your work here is done. Behaviors and trends change, your needs shift, and your website must continue to evolve so that it’s meeting your goals.
Steve Blank
MAY 7, 2019
Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures: The Business Model Canvas – to write down all the hypotheses about a new business; Customer Development – a process for testing those hypotheses outside the b
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 13, 2019
When you are starting a new business, every resource is precious, including time, funding, and people. Yet we can all look back, after the fact, and realize that we could have been more memorable. Obviously you can’t go back for a do-over , but you can certainly learn from your mistakes as well as all our successes. Most challenges you have are not unique to your business.
Hearpreneur
FEBRUARY 26, 2019
When the going gets rough in business, you’ll need motivation to keep moving. Motivating yourself can be hard but practicing consistent habits such as reminding yourself of why you started can be a major boost. A network of friends and partners can also serve as a great assurance and reminder that you’re not walking. Here’s the various ways entrepreneurs and business owners stay motivated in business. #1- Celebrating the little wins.
ConversionXL
JUNE 20, 2019
Google “video hosting platforms,” and you’ll get about 50 million results, along with several paid ads. How do you choose the platform that suits your needs? There’s no single answer. The best video hosting platform varies business by business, depending on factors like: How often you’re uploading; How you plan to use the video; The viewing experience you want to give your audience; The analytics you need; The cash you have to spend.
deal architect
JUNE 20, 2019
I have heard Zoho talk about doing business in UAE and Nigeria. That is so different from other cloud vendors which tend to mostly focus on N. America and Europe. Over the last decade, their US revenues have steadily declined.
VC Cafe
DECEMBER 12, 2019
With its $135 billion market cap, Netflix has approximately 159 million subscribers globally and the best streaming tech. Today, content is king and Netflix has a big chunk of it (see our post on Entertainment as the new Oil ). But for the first time in 12 years, Netflix is also facing real competition. Disney+ successful debut with 10 million subscribers on day one showed the market that it’s possible to compete, if you have the content arsenal, and with the Disney catalog, Marvel, Star W
Haystack
JULY 4, 2019
The topic of “investor updates” has been debated frequently. Most folks who are not close to early-stage startups and new company formation would be surprised to discover that a high number of companies, after receiving funding from individuals or institutions, do not send updates to their investors. Contrast that with a fund manager, who is often required to issue quarterly capital account statements usually paired with a cover note and updates on specific companies.
ReadWriteStart
JUNE 20, 2019
For years, the business world lived under the false pretense that open plan offices were a killer idea. I myself even bought into the hype. At Netconcepts, the digital agency I founded (and sold in 2010), only the executives had offices with doors that closed. Open plan offices were a win-win for anyone looking to […]. The post Open Plan Offices Kill Productivity.
Version One Ventures
JULY 30, 2019
We raised our first fund in summer 2012. It was a $15m early-stage fund that we invested in 20 portfolio companies over the course of two and a half years. We’re now seven years in and the portfolio is maturing. I plotted the return multiples (as of June 30, 2019) for all 20 portfolio companies in the chart below. The return multiple for a company is calculated by dividing the current net asset value (unrealized and realized dollar amounts) by the invested capital in that company (often invested
Feld Thoughts
JULY 9, 2019
I’ve been thinking a lot about gross profit (and gross margin ) lately. Yeah, I know I can be riveting, but stay with me. When I was in Boston a while ago (it was very cold, so it must have been January), I had a wide-ranging conversation with Eric Paley. This was before the IPO Summer of 2019 when all conventional valuation metrics have entered the land of “suspension of disbelief” which is short-term good and long-term well-we-will-see-…-eventually.
Duct Tape Marketing
FEBRUARY 20, 2019
The Benefits of Including Video on Your Website written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on Including Video on Your Website. Video has become a foundational element in marketing. Why is video so important? It’s how people want to consume content. They want the ability to listen without reading, to be hands-free, and to just have the content coming at them.
Steve Blank
MAY 29, 2019
I was interviewed by Philip Bouchard , Executive Director of TrustedPeer Entrepreneurship Advisory , about how entrepreneurship education has changed, mission-driven entrepreneurship, and what we’ve learned about corporate innovation. Worth a read. Interview highlights: How is the way that universities teach entrepreneurship evolving? Lean LaunchPad class developed for Stanford.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 20, 2019
With the current strong economy I’m seeing a continued resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a better place, rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
332 
Let's personalize your content