Up and Running

JANUARY 2, 2013

If your financial chart shows “hockey-stick growth,” be sure to explain what happens to cause those inflection points. You’ll see investors taking out their smartphone calculators to make sure your numbers make sense, so give them the information they need to see that your calculations are accurate.

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Due Diligence 164

Up and Running

MARCH 14, 2018

If your financial chart shows “hockey-stick growth,” be sure to explain what happens to cause those inflection points. You’ll see investors taking out their smartphone calculators to make sure your numbers make sense, so give them the information they need to see that your calculations are accurate. Your competition.

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Angel Investor 164

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

All investors want to see real evidence that the dogs will eat the dogfood before they give any credibility to your hockey-stick projection curves. Small real revenue today is better than large later projections. Funding to support a rollout is much harder to procure than funding to support a scale up, after an initial hint of success.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Startup Agile Stealth 120

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 2, 2014

There is no champagne-popping, no hockey stick growth, and no overnight success. From the honeymoon period of “green field” development to the sleepless nights of database failures, Launch captures the real-life angst of building a startup. Only a couple years of hard work and uncertainty documented for your listening pleasure.

Audio 60

Audio Hockey Stick Database Startup 60

Where to Play

JULY 18, 2019

Hockey sticks. Initial indications showed that hockey sticks production and Prosthetics might be considered as “Gold mine” opportunities, while Drones and Bridges were defined as “Moon shots”. These were: Prosthetics. Mast for super yachts. Composite bridges.

Hockey Stick 67

Hockey Stick Switzerland Marketing Technical Review 67

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This wasn’t very impressive, but we had two things going for us: A hockey stick shaped growth curve. People often forget the most important part of the hockey stick: the long flat part. For example, I’ve talked a few times about how IMVU raised its first venture round with monthly revenues of around $10,000.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Customer Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion. Investors seeking equity for cash typically want more control and cash-return quickly. Don’t assume you must plan for exponential growth. In fact, you don’t need exponential growth to give you a good return and be declared successful.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Hockey Stick 304

Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 304

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale. Document processes and build online training videos so new people can come online quickly and consistently.

Hockey Stick 386

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 386

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Hockey Stick 266

Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 266

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion. Investors seeking equity for cash typically want more control and cash-return quickly. Don’t assume you must plan for exponential growth. In fact, you don’t need exponential growth to give you a good return and be declared successful.

Equity 349

Equity Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity 349

thebarefootvc

DECEMBER 16, 2011

Discovery, in contrast to search, took center stage as Pinterest displayed hockey stick growth (and raised VC money near a $200M valuation in late 2011). The viral nature of social media no doubt aided this growth, as did improvements in the online shopping experience.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review India Mobile Hockey Stick 110

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Most important slide: hockey stick Micro-scale results Key questions: who is the customer, and how do you know? Most important slide: valuation Promising results Key questions: can you monetize that traffic? (or or drive traffic to that profitable destination?) do you know why youve achieved those results?

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2023

Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale. Document processes and build online training videos so new people can come online quickly and consistently.

Hockey Stick 339

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 339

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

Founder 325

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 31, 2016

As an investor and former founder, I know that scalable growth (and the pretty hockey stick graph) is the holy grail for every startup. More than 75 marketplace founders and investors attended the event – coming from as far as South Africa and Nova Scotia. And Andrew understands growth strategy as well as anyone in the industry.

Software Review 60

Software Review South Africa Hockey Stick Viral 60

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale. Document processes and build online training videos so new people can come online quickly and consistently.

Hockey Stick 278

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 278

Gust

APRIL 11, 2024

Yielding 10x growth or more, known as “hockey-stick growth,” remains the goal for many investors. But only one percent of startups become unicorns; in fact, most VC-backed companies don’t reach their expected rate of return.

Hockey Stick 172

Hockey Stick Cofounder Founder Startup 172

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 265

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Startup 265

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 263

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 263

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 2, 2014

There is no champagne-popping, no hockey stick growth, and no overnight success. From the honeymoon period of “green field” development to the sleepless nights of database failures, Launch captures the real-life angst of building a startup. Only a couple years of hard work and uncertainty documented for your listening pleasure.

Audio 27

Audio Hockey Stick Database Green 27

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

Not only did their sales curve look like a textbook case of a VC-friendly hockey stick, but their Lessons Learned funding presentation was an eye-opener.). For its first year IMVU had funded itself with money from friends and family. Now with customers and early revenue, it was out raising its first round of venture money.

Hockey Stick 303

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 303

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Retention The scary reverse-hockey stick chart shows up in this report, too. Overall, MixPanel showed a big spread between top and bottom performers, with apps in the 90th percentile seeing 25% usage, and apps in the 50th percentile seeing 5–10%.

Retention 48

Retention Conversion Hockey Stick eCommerce 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. Transition to a specialist role, plan to exit, be prepared to be pushed out, or plan to fail. The control and growth dilemma.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

More likely, you'll be back for more money in less than 2 years, saying what everyone says: "it's taking longer than we thought" Investors won't believe your numbers anyway, so your over-sized hockey stick betrays your naiveté. See investment criteria #1 from TCA.

Hockey Stick 205

Hockey Stick NPV IRR Valuation 205

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

We asked these companies to tell us the data backed story on how key decisions were made, which growth hacks led to the much loved hockey stick curve, and how this impacted their company. Today, Typeform’s Director of Growth Pedro Magriço shares the story of how Typeform built a Saas-tool that went viral.

Hockey Stick 145

Hockey Stick Netherlands Spain Sweden 145

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

It’s the lie we know you’re telling (along with your hockey stick growth that we sort of accept for some reason. If you can’t resist the temptation to be the best at every category the VC will probably forgive you (but not believe you) – it is the one place I think you can get away with it (even if I don’t recommend it).

Hockey Stick 313

Hockey Stick Differentiation AJAX Vertical 313

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Why do entrepreneurs sometimes resort to the “hockey stick forecast,” especially when they pitch to investors? I first heard the term in the 1980s, at lunch with a venture capitalist friend, when he said he was “tired of all those hockey stick forecasts” he was getting from startups. Forecasting screenshot from LivePlan.

Forecast 114

Forecast Hockey Stick Angel Investor Sales 114

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

As a result, unfounded hockey-stick graphs and unicorn promises give way to financial fluency, realistic expectations, frank conversations about what a business can credibly achieve, and transparency. . Flexible VC creates early liquidity which can be either reinvested or distributed to LPs.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

The "Hockey Stick" is a Great Story, Don't Get Me Wrong. The "hockey stick" is a pretty familiar visualization for startups. It is meant to tell the story of rapid, exponential growth. We know the story. We know the image.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Startup Audience Conversion 120

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Its easy to get high on your own supply as a startup—watching hockey stick growth on an initial launch, knocking down a big biz dev deal, but the road is long and hard no matter who you are. Again, we put our heads down and played our game—great pitching, great defense, and lots and lots of hits.

Hockey Stick 146

Hockey Stick Business Plan Venture Capital Naming 146

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

When I asked the standard “How are you,” he answered: “If I see another hockey stick forecast this week, I’m going to throw something at somebody.”. That was so long ago that I had to ask him to explain the hockey stick metaphor. ” See Also: How to Forecast Sales.

Forecast 130

Forecast Hockey Stick Startup Sales 130

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

We asked these companies to tell us the data backed story on how key decisions were made, which growth hacks led to the much loved hockey stick curve, and how this impacted their company. Today, Typeform’s Director of Growth Pedro Magriço shares the story of how Typeform built a Saas-tool that went viral.

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Netherlands Spain Sweden 113

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Careful about “hockey stick” forecasts. Sophisticated businesses will also create a cash flow projection for the same period, showing cash used and remaining at the end of each period. And note that projections showing “unbelievable” rapid growth are always suspect. How much money can you get?

Hockey Stick 62

Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Dilution 62

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

And there are others that people think are teeny little wannabes with a dozen or so employees…that have $25 million in highly profitable revenues with hockey stick growth and zero debt!

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Hockey Stick Cap Table Liquidation Preference 131