Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Quick summary: Be careful not to have too many co-founders. I don’t think VCs care as much about co-founders & economics as people think. Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use. Don’t hire a homogenous team. For the wrong reasons.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2019

Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have no idea how dramatically your own role has to evolve as you develop a solution, start a business, and expect it to scale into a successful self-managed company. Thus my job as a small business advisor really is really more about getting you developed than perfecting the business.

Leadership 248

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Social Media 248

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. Like a teenager with a million-dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a startup with too much capital and no product-market fit will become capable of making larger mistakes. Hire the wrong people.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

” Below are our favorite pieces from the past few years, divided in to a few key categories: fundraising, company building, product development, industry trends, and the life of a VC. Doing Reference Checks on VCs “Try to speak to at least one founder that the investor has worked with in a failed investment.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Its a key lean startup concept.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study a decade ago, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Small Business Force

AUGUST 27, 2017

In fact, three key elements have to be in sync for your sales to succeed – the right product, the right sales team, and the right sales process. "I They were selling a new product, in a relatively new space, with little training. Not even close. "I coached good; They played bad."

Sales 30

Sales Sales Cycle Product Technical Review 30

Version One Ventures

AUGUST 26, 2016

There’s a lot of debate surrounding the right time to bring executive level hires into your start-up. With that said, here are some general guidelines I have developed over the years for building a management team. First, your hiring/team building strategy should follow two key rules. 2 nd hire: VP of Finance.

Part-Time VPE 60

Part-Time VPE Management Finance Vertical 60

YoungUpstarts

MAY 3, 2017

by Bob La Loggia, founder and CEO of AppointmentPlus. From product development to market research, many startups are one-person operations in their early days. Perhaps you don’t have the budget to hire an assistant, or you’re simply reluctant to give up control of even the most mundane jobs. The result?

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Management Arizona Software Review 113

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

They had wasted a lot of money because they had raised a lot of money and therefore hired a large staff. The CEO helped identify the one key product that had huge value as confirmed via customer feedback and he built the organization around this. I just knew that our sales sucked wind and we were burning through tons of cash.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

The Next Web

MARCH 6, 2014

Here’s a problem I bet every non-technical founder has experienced: the communication gap between what the biz dev team wants and what the tech team thinks they want, and vice versa. It’s disruptive, and for founders, very frustrating to watch. Hire T-Shaped People. Make sure to hire T-shaped individuals.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Development Team Review Developer Agile 129

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

Exactly three months after its $48 Million funding announcement, Smooth-Stone today detailed its company momentum, including significant new executive hires, new office space and renaming the company. Bob Baughman, previously with Polycom and Marvell, as Vice President of Business Development and Sales.

Naming 59

Naming Hiring Technical Review Virginia 59

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Alternative Capital. “

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

To create this first year in business checklist, I turned to our in-house experts here at Palo Alto Software: Sabrina Parsons, CEO; Noah Parsons, COO; Josh Cochrane, Vice President of Product Development; and Josh Fegles, Academic and Government Channel Sales Director, and founder of gluten-free cookie company Jude’s Foods.

Forecast 60

Forecast Software Review Lean Finance 60

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

The investors, founders, and “community” are all super excited about ASC. They close on the $750k, hire a buddy or two, buy some Macs, and get to work. ASC starts building product, but as they get into the thick of it, the team realizes executing on their vision is going to be extremely hard. There is $350k left in the bank.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Steve is the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines. 18:05] How does the Founder Space operate? [20:21] He's the CEO of founders space.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 15, 2022

If all else fails, your advisor may be able to salvage the sale by reengaging other interested parties. Whether they were critical to product development, marketing, or a successful exit, each of these individuals can have a significant impact on the amount of money the business is worth. Preparing for the sale.

Merger 128

Merger Acquisition Due Diligence Valuation 128

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

Any dispassionate observer would recognize that on Day One, a start-up has no customers, and unless the founder is a true domain expert, he or she can only guess about the customer, problem, and business model. Founders, presuming they know their customers, assume they know all the features customers need. Focusing on the launch date.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Feld Thoughts

MAY 5, 2011

This approach worked much better, but by this point one of the co-founders was frustrated with the customer dynamics (all business facing) and decided to leave to start a new consumer-facing business (he left on good terms, we are still good friends, and he’s much happier today).

CTO Hire 131

CTO Hire Cofounder Architecture Product Development 131

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Hiring is a chapter unto itself, but it deserves to lead off any discussion of context. Compensation decisions obviously affect hiring and retention. You can’t be too careful in determining comp packages for your new hires. Kalanick, former investor BFF turned highly disappointed by founder behavior.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

Although every organization faces some uncertainty in developing new stuff, the conditions are not always extreme. For example, when your company adds ano ther blade to its disposal razors , the product’s technical development, marketing and sales will follow relatively predictable paths. in ten years?

Lean 165

Lean Technical Review Startup Software Review 165

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. In fact, this company hasn’t shipped any new products in months.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

ConversionXL

APRIL 13, 2017

Call it whatever you like, but when businesses are hiring for any of those titles they simply want somebody who can generate lots of quality leads for as little cash as possible.”. The Growth Manager usually reports either to the CEO, the vice president of Product Management, or the vice president of Marketing.

Analytics 99

Analytics Engineer SEO Channel 99

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 24, 2017

4- Hiring amazing team. At Cave, our biggest accomplishment this year was hiring impressive new people. We pride ourselves on offering our clients the best marketing services possible, and our most recent hires are a perfect fit for our mission. 15- Feature and interview by SCOOP Founder Phil Stoten. environment.

Las Vegas 85

Las Vegas Entrepreneur Software Review Community 85

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 29, 2019

Transcript of Bringing Marketing and Product Development Together written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Klaviyo is a platform that helps growth-focused eCommerce brands drive more sales with super-targeted, highly relevant email, Facebook and Instagram marketing. They’re focused on building product.

Product Development 31

Product Development Product Developer Marketing 31

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and Founders being replaced, to their chagrin. According to one study , only 45% of Founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Hire more help than helpers.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

This was my time at a Wall Street firm that had hired me after I applied for their Junior Stockbroker position, a little while after I graduated from college. Having just moved to Austin from Boston, she thought adding African car sales could help, maybe thinking Africans looking for used cars can use it to find car deals.

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

AUGUST 12, 2021

Real expertise is expensive and many second stage companies get sticker shock when faced with hiring expertise. CEO’s and founders of these companies are used to the high performance/low pay model they got used to in the first phase of growth. New ideas need to integrate product development with marketing and sales as well.

Framework 71

Framework Agile Product Development Hiring 71