View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

Or, if you can’t skip a round, when should you try to work extra hard to minimize dilution and when should you be prepared to take more dilution for the right partner/situation? Also, the benefit of raising a pre-seed from great partners probably outweighs the cost. Founders with limited experience. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

In January, we introduced a new graduate course at Stanford called the " target="_blank">Lean LaunchPad. Over the quarter, teams of students would put the theory to work, using these tools to get out of the building and talk to customer/partners, etc. The Lean LaunchPad class was scheduled to meet for three hours once a week.

Lean 303

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 303

Up and Running

JULY 31, 2015

This week Peter and Jonathan talk to Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software, about lean business planning, strategy, tactics, specifics (milestones), and the forecast. Listen to Episode 9: Show notes: What is Lean Planning? Lean Business Planning by Tim Berry – (31:21). What’s the lean mean? – (:25).

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Forecast Software Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

why the hell has seed financing declined so much in the past 3 years?? You might like to think that a bunch of savvy venture capitalists saw a market niche for raising smaller funds or perhaps there was a generational shift where disgruntled junior partners spun out of bigger firms to start their own gigs.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he’s responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. Learning everything you can about VC first is important for that reason, but also to ensure it’s the right form of financing for your business. And last, a question about how you manage all of the above.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

I was an early adopter in financial operations and software of lean operational and product development techniques that originated at Toyota, and then of agile as it was promulgated in the Manifesto. My team had already successfully adopted lean operational processes in a very large manufacturing-like process, as well as early agile ideas.

Agile 113

Agile Leadership SCRUM Lean 113

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2021

Go lean with your planning. A startup is about execution and speed, so you need to start lean. More often than not, whatever it is you are building will require a complementary skill set, whether that’s business/finance, sales/marketing, or design/engineering. That’s the tricky part.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Lean Colorado Engineer 132

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2015

I was in New York last week teaching my annual 5-day version of the Lean LaunchPad class at the Columbia Business School. While some venture firms have been around for awhile, perhaps the newer partners have a different model of what a successful founder looks like than their west coast peers.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley New York City New York Venture Capital 120

David Teten

MARCH 5, 2021

Of course, one could rebut that by saying traditional VC is all about investing in outliers: Seth Levine analyzed data from Correlation Ventures (21,000 financings from 2004-2013) and writes that “a full 65% of financings fail to return 1x capital. However, there is still work to be done.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 78

Steve Blank

JANUARY 11, 2022

We wanted to give our students hands-on experience on how to deeply understand a problem at the intersection of our country’s diplomacy, information, its military capabilities, economic strength, finance, intelligence, and law enforcement and dual-use technology. If you can’t see the presentation click here. .

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Technology Taiwan Venture Capital 296

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann Miura-Ko is a founding partner at Floodgate , a seed-stage VC firm. Ann will be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October about all of this and more. There were none in the firm, so I remember asking him if he knew of any general partners who were women in the Boston area. I've been in venture now twice.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. Since then, Brant and Patrick have been tireless advocates for the whole Lean Startup movement. Illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. You can pre-order it starting today.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2020

Jeff Epstein is on the board of Shutterstock, Twilio, Kaiser Permanente, and was the CFO of Oracle, DoubleClick, Nielsen and King World and is an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. He teaches the Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford with me. And the minute he talks about financing I shut up and take notes.

Salary 330

Salary Lean Equity Government 330

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. Here’s my take: 1.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 7, 2023

The finance industry is laden with intricacies. Core Tactics of Risk Management Companies To navigate the turbulences of the finance industry, institutions increasingly lean on risk management companies. As we move forward, this partnership between finance and risk management will not just be desirable but indispensable.

Security 148

Security Management Forecast Finance 148

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 21, 2020

It will require greater transparency and record-keeping, but in addition to giving consumers greater protection, Reg BI can also protect finance professionals. They don’t get a salesperson who offers a fix for one problem, but rather they find a partner who’s looking to address their needs holistically. Technology is a great example.

Technical Review 244

Technical Review SEC Affiliate Technology 244

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. The Lean LaunchPad was designed to fill that void. The Lean LaunchPad class was built around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Syllabus is here. This is the End. in one quarter.

Lean 284

Lean Business Model Agile Customer Development 284

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

“Lean” is great in the early days but if you discover an attractive market opportunity you need to get “fat” really quickly or somebody else will. And the “stay lean” argument isn’t only good for entrepreneurs, it can be good for VCs, too. It is VC math, like it or not.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Being an outsider, I also wanted to lean heavily on the actual research available on the subject, as well as the voices of women both in the tech space and who have successfully received venture funding. What about “leaning in”? There is an argument that women need to “ lean in ” (thanks, Sheryl Sandburg).

Venture Capital 82

Venture Capital Lean Cofounder Technical Review 82

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 19, 2019

We’ve spent a lot of time this past year running Lean Startup tests on our annual flagship conference to really nail down what you’re most interested in. Our goal—again, based on feedback—is to continue broadening the reach of Lean Startup and embracing the numerous ways people are using it.

Lean 68

Lean Programming San Francisco Silicon Valley 68

Up and Running

JANUARY 24, 2019

Write a Lean Business Plan. Your business plan can be a Lean Plan , meaning that it doesn’t need to be lengthy. If you’ve heard of a Business Model Canvas, a Lean Plan is a much more useful alternative. For more on what should be included in your Lean Plan, check out this article.

Lean 93

Lean Balance Sheet Bankruptcy Business Model 93

The Startup Magazine

MAY 25, 2021

There are plenty of other financing options to launch your new venture. Before you look into alternative financing, it’s important to have the right mindset. This is also called a “soft launch” or “lean startup.” Take on a partner. Perhaps a family member or close friend would be willing to finance you. Ask around.

Finance 158

Finance Equity Lean Business Plan 158

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

At this point, the investor and the entrepreneur work together to develop their perfect list of potential partners, and then do targeted outreach to try to bring this investor into the round. What you sometimes lose is the strength of the syndicate to support the company in the future if intermediate financing is needed.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for T he Lean Startup Conference. We’ve posted the full program for The Lean Startup Conference , and it includes more than three days of events for Gold pass holders and six days of events for VIP pass holders. On the evening of December 8, Ignite Lean Startup kicks off the conference.

Continuous Deployment 162

Continuous Deployment Norway Lean Analytics 162

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Or worse yet they may never get financed. Raise at “ the top end of normal &# but not so high that future financings in a corrected market become impossible. An obvious example is Google who may have gotten less market attention if there would have been 8 well-financed competitors during the 2001-2005 timeframe.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

I’m very worried about any company that has moderate growth plans for 2023 that expects to get another round of financing based on that result. I would figure out a way to default to breakeven while holding on to at least 2-3 real attempts at finding a growth hack that could change your story—one you could lean into hard if it worked.

Lean 166

Lean Aggregator Portfolio Revenue 166

Hearpreneur

JUNE 9, 2023

We are doubling down on our commitment to partner with a diverse range of facilities across North America, including small, family-owned businesses that need the support. We also run a lean business, with regular budgets and reviews of expenses. Thanks to Sonia Gibson, Accounting Heart Chartered Accountants ! #10-

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur North America Employee Retention 124

Up and Running

MARCH 26, 2015

And also, what real business owners want—lean business plans for better management. All businesses start with a lean plan. So, every business is better off with a lean plan. Make this the lean plan and add a regular process of review and revision to keep it fresh. That is what we call lean business planning.

Business Plan 60

Business Plan Lean Forecast Balance Sheet 60

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 4, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. With five days remaining before The Lean Startup Conference , we wanted to lay out what we’re offering that’s unlike any other entrepreneurship conference and explain the different levels of participation available to you.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Conversion Startup 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 19, 2019

Andy and I will be having a fireside chat at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October. It's the only always-equal partnership, and the only way you can have an always-equal partnership, where new people join as equal partners, is for the older partners to get out of the way when they're not as productive.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Lean Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation 159

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 25, 2020

To ensure that you aren’t tempted to blur the lines between your personal finances and your business cash reserves, you need to get the former in order before you go ahead and start your business. Don’t go it alone — partner up with somebody else if you share the same passions with them.

Startup 103

Startup Reputation Social Media Finance 103

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Did the partner have a good or bad day, etc. Your presentation doesn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. Did the VC’s like your team ? In fact, just the opposite.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. What Has Changed in Financing? each with partners as the lead. even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed. how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

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. List key partners and resources you will need, and then list your core team as well as their roles.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 20, 2020

Most young founders lack at least a few of those C’s, making debt financing only feasible under limited conditions (and with plenty of upfront legwork and planning). Innovators can lean on both traditional and unexpected methods to secure seed funding ethically and legally. Consider owner financing.

Indiana 165

Indiana Startup Bootstrapping Finance 165

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance. The startups in our Lean LaunchPad classes and the NSF I-Corps incubator use LaunchPad Central to collect a continuous stream of data across all the teams. data that investors, accelerators and incubators can use to inform selection.

Incubator 315

Incubator Intellectual Property Startup Lean 315

Up and Running

OCTOBER 30, 2017

If you will be seeking outside financing, a business plan is a necessity. But, even if you are going to finance the venture yourself, a business plan will help you figure out how much money you will need to get started, what it will take to make your business profitable, what needs to get done when, and where you are headed.

Venture Capital 166

Venture Capital Business Plan Limited Liability Company Finance 166