Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for a disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to InvoiceTracker. Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Even non-profits need revenue to cover their costs, and continue to provide services. Find a strategic partner to accelerate growth.

Forecast 120

Forecast Startup Stock Options Technical Review 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2023

Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” Make sure allocation amounts are reasonable.

Elevator Pitch 228

Elevator Pitch Salary Angel Investor Viral 228

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

In the aftermath of the recent pandemic, which caused many businesses to close, a new raft of business workers and entrepreneurs are deciding to pursue their own dreams of being a new business owner, and controlling your own destiny. Network extensively for partners, investors, and suppliers.

Intellectual Property 245

Intellectual Property Social Media Angel Investor Metrics 245

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Neither would have achieved virality had customers not received something tangible for their efforts. 500 Startups founder and entrepreneur Dave McClure created this model as a way for growth hackers to optimize the speed of their sales and marketing efforts in generating results. This helped grow revenue by 637%. Image source.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for that disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to Gallup. Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially.

Social Media 329

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 329

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” Bill and his partner Fred Wilson have invested in ~30 or so companies with 27 still active.

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 223

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2020

Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” Make sure allocation amounts are reasonable.

Elevator Pitch 336

Elevator Pitch Salary Angel Investor Viral 336

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2012

Based on my experience as a mentor and an entrepreneur, if you fail on your first startup, you are about average. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Of course, a real entrepreneur always takes a failure as a milestone on the road to success. How can you improve your odds?

Intellectual Property 274

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Viral Early Stage 274

mashable.com

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Many successful entrepreneurs learned how to run a business as they built one, and they had the educational benefit of being able to make mistakes and learn from them as they went along. These nine websites will help you track down the appropriate entrepreneurs. There’s no substitute for experience.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Social Media Technical Review Social Network 94

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality. We asked some entrepreneurs what they loved about “being their own boss.”. #1

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Fresno LLC Community 48

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

This partnership speaks to a core philosophy of the program where we encourage entrepreneurs to get as much customer validation as possible before raising too much money, use other people's channels if you can get to them, don't burn too much cash, and all that good fiscal conservative stuff. million in revenue. LetsGiftIt. SOCO Games.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

It would have been easy to explain the difference by changes in the 2010/2011 revenue growth projections but unfortunately that is not the case. revenues while large caps are trading at 6.4x. Philippe Botteri Accel Partners London, UK My Bio. Bessemer Venture Partners Expands BVP VII Fund. Wednesday, February 23, 2011.

Software Review 101

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Europe 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2014

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. Viral marketing costs real money these days, which usually means adding at least an extra zero to budget estimates. Establish partners and referrals. business entrepreneur funding marketing budget mission startup'

Marketing 257

Marketing SEM Viral Social Media 257

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Based on my experience as a mentor and an entrepreneur, if you fail on your first startup, you are about average. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Of course, a real entrepreneur always takes a failure as a milestone on the road to success. How can you improve your odds?

Intellectual Property 251

Intellectual Property Startup Viral Early Stage 251

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

× At Greylock , my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time. Entrepreneurs often ask me for help with their pitch decks.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Up and Running

AUGUST 2, 2017

As the founder of a publishing company focused specifically on serving entrepreneurs, I see the same problem over and over: When a business owner decides they want to write a book (or do anything else, for that matter), their goal is to be the best. As an entrepreneur, attention is the pathway toward better clients, employees, and investors.

Viral 88

Viral Video Metrics Non-Compete 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2014

Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” business entrepreneur funding investor startup'

Elevator Pitch 285

Elevator Pitch Salary Angel Investor Viral 285

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. The terms and valuation for both offers were comparable and when the team debated which path to choose, we all agreed both firms would have made good partners.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

The company has just missed its quarterly revenue forecast. Lets take an example, and look at how they might do this: They will be able to tell you that revenue is composed of deals. To compute revenue, you multiply average deal size by number of deals. Bookings is the pre-cursor to Revenue. Obvious, isn’t it?

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

Gust

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Based on my experience as a mentor and an entrepreneur, if you fail on your first startup, you are about average. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Of course, a real entrepreneur always takes a failure as a milestone on the road to success. Image via TheSocialRobot.com.

Intellectual Property 183

Intellectual Property Startup Viral Early Stage 183

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2018

Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” Make sure allocation amounts are reasonable.

Elevator Pitch 139

Elevator Pitch Salary Angel Investor Viral 139

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 8, 2011

Any success as an entrepreneur? He hasn't founded or built either a successful, let alone innovative company, and he hasn't raised $ to invest in those entrepreneurs. I've never been at a company that is scaling up to $20 million in revenue, so I'm not about to tell someone how to do that. what has this guy done? What did I do?

Venture Capital 110

Venture Capital PR Hiring Networking 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2012

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. Word-of-mouth and viral marketing are popular terms these days, but are rarely adequate to initiate a new business. Revenue model. Sales/Marketing.

Business Model 242

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 242

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We have two great teaching assistants , plus we’ve rounded up a team of 25 mentors (VC’s and entrepreneurs) to help coach the teams. There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.) Why Teach This Class? to optimize this search.

Wiki 312

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 312

Hearpreneur

JULY 3, 2019

Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality. We asked some entrepreneurs what they loved about “being their own boss.”. #1-

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Thailand Arizona Technical Review 106

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

Customers go there to check on the details of your offerings, investors look there to check out your management and sales approach, partners go there to see how they might fit, and suppliers expect to find contact information. Viral marketing needs a website. But word-of-mouth and viral marketing doesn’t work without a web site.

Customer 225

Customer Viral Web Small Business 225

Gust

MARCH 9, 2014

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. Viral marketing costs real money these days, which usually means adding at least an extra zero to budget estimates. Establish partners and referrals. Invested Interests entrepreneur funding marketing budget startup'

Marketing 146

Marketing SEM Viral Social Media 146

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2011

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. Word-of-mouth and viral marketing are popular terms these days, but are rarely adequate to initiate a new business. Revenue model. Sales/Marketing.

Business Model 246

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for that disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to Gallup. Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially.

Social Media 120

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2016

Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” Make sure allocation amounts are reasonable.

Elevator Pitch 120

Elevator Pitch Salary Angel Investor Viral 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2010

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. Viral marketing costs real money these days, which usually means adding at least an extra zero to budget estimates. Establish partners and referrals. Figure out what is valuable to your audience.

Marketing 235

Marketing SEM Startup Viral 235

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 30, 2010

I'm really fortunate that I'd found a wonderful development outsource partner in them. TokyoYuki Question: What about giving an added incentive to potential developers, in exchange for part of up-front fees, a percentage of the revenue generated from the app/program? 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch [MASHA.

Software Developers 79

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Software 79

Cracking the Code

MARCH 12, 2010

Given the predictability of SaaS GAAP revenues on a quarterly basis, the fact that the 08/09 projections were unchanged is not a surprise. Given that the revenues are not growing very fast, this means that most of the companies have reduced their sales force and focused on productivity improvement. Favorite VC and Entrepreneur blogs.

Software Review 63

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Forecast 63

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. I had been confused for years why I had to update an income statement each board meeting that said zero for 18 months before we had any revenue. Who are our partners? Viral Acquisition Ratio.

Balance Sheet 300

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 300

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Rarely do entrepreneurs launch businesses without intending to succeed. There’s a lot at stake, and entrepreneurs need to build an arsenal of techniques to fight adversity and overcome the challenges that stand in the way of their success. Content doesn’t have to “go viral” to benefit your business. It’s personal, too.

Social Media 113

Social Media Sales Cycle Audience Media 113