Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. Today with every city, state and country trying to build out a technology cluster, following Dino’s progress can provide others with a roadmap of what’s worked and what has not. Tech investing is risky.

Early Stage 292

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 292

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

What does your Chief Technology Officer do all day? Often times, it seems like people are thinking its synonymous with "that guy who gets paid to sit in the corner and think technical deep thoughts" or "that guy who gets to swoop in a rearrange my project at the last minute on a whim." But along the way, something strange happened.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

At the time, I spent most of my time describing the metrics themselves and how VCs and their LPs evaluate performance based on these measurements. If you aren’t familiar with these metrics, I recommend reading the original post to get a sense of the numbers that I’ll be reviewing here. So, is this good or bad?

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review) I continue my series for Harvard Business Review with the Lean Startup technique called Five Whys. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Our categorization is not a technical one. Additionally, Flexible VC can accommodate all types of companies, not just asset-lite, tech-enabled companies.”. This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. .

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

You’ll find exceptions to this rule, like Snapchat, which was operating at a loss at its IPO, when it experienced high initial trading prices due to its huge popularity and untapped monetization capabilities. Another important metric is churn. Few buyers will get excited about a company currently operating at a loss.

Valuation 145

Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. On top of all this it was considered very bad form not to have at least four additional consecutive quarters of profits after an IPO.)

Silicon Valley 235

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 235

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. I acknowledged this in the article.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Jeff Clavier was the first tech investor I ever met; he was introduced to me years ago by some hip engineers in a bar as "one of the few cool VCs." Kedrosky: "In the 90's I was an analyst through all this [tech investment and IPO] madness. You want to build your own IPO and exit. Think about when LinkedIn went public.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Gust

JANUARY 31, 2013

The move came as a shock to many in the tech business community, in which we’ve become accustomed to real-time disclosure by company executives through social media. To understand the SEC’s point of view , it’s necessary to review the principles underlying securities law in the United States.

SEC 158

SEC Prospectus United States Technical Review 158

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Notice that none of those five reasons deals with TDD or automated testing, which have changed the game. This is the approach of test-driven-development (TDD). I really enjoyed the aspect of TDD that had me learning about _how_ to test software and it coerced me into writing better, more fault tolerant, code.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 25, 2011

73 Essential Social Media & Tech Resources for Small Businesses – [link]. Interesting perspective on LinkedIn’s IPO – arguing that the IPO price was reasonable – [link]. And here’s another side – suggesting that LinkedIn shareholders might have been scammed in the IPO – [link].

Social Media 86

Social Media Small Business Design Media 86

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. And obviously all the liq prefs went away in the IPO when pref stock converted to common. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

I was the junior guy on a project team; I was called in to do some technical due diligence for reasons that were obscure to me, because the team already had much more senior engineers assigned to it. As a technical fix, it was brilliant. I remember one such meeting vividly. So they react in two ways.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 12, 2016

So when an investment thesis becomes popular, when a new technology becomes available, when a new media consumption platform becomes dominant, if we believe in the trend, we have to “seed” an investment within the first three years and hope to “harvest” 5–10 years later.

Harvest 60

Harvest Vertical IPO Early Stage 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 2, 2008 Paul Graham on fundraising I have found no better primer on the current realities of starting a new technology company in a startup hub like Silicon Valley than Paul Grahams essays. but rest assured they would be. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 15, 2008 The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time Split-testing is a core lean startup discipline, and its one of those rare topics that comes up just as often in a technical context as in a business-oriented one when Im talking to startups. First of all, why split-test?

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

And we knew technically it would be a much more challenging build. If we couldn’t sell our first product for that, which was Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews, then it probably wasn’t worth selling in the first place because we could have never built into a SaaS company that had a viable financial profile. million to date.

Bootstrapping 52

Bootstrapping IPO Business Model Software Review 52

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, January 15, 2010 Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Harvard Business Review) The next part in the series I am writing for Harvard Business Review is online. They are long-term bets on the development of a new line of business, a new technology platform, or the creation of a new market.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Of the techniques he mentioned, I think four are fundamental and critical for any lean startup: TDD (or the even more politely named TATFT ) Continuous integration Automate your deployments Collect statistics The tools to help you do these things are getting better and better every day, but dont confuse tools with process.

Software Review 68

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Heres my diagnosis of his problem: He has some automated tests, but his team doesnt have a continuous integration server or practice TDD. And has the tension goes down, it will be easier to get the whole team (including the MBAs) to embrace TDD and other good practices as further refinements. I'm a die hard believer in TDD.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

And a special thanks is due to all of our presenters, panelists, and mentors. Although many of the non-technical folks in the room didnt understand what was happening in the moment, plenty of hackers were on high alert. If thats true, its primarily due to your hard work, building companies and testing new ideas. We all owe you.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and whats changed since then) My recent article on technical debt and its positive uses generated a fair bit of controversy. It had a pretty good technical design. That "good design" turned out to be technical debt, after all.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

While poised with a limited number of transactions this year, the world of public Cloud Computing and SaaS companies has been marked by two events in the past few months: the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe and the high profile IPO of LogMeIn, a leading provider of PC remote access and support with a very interesting freemium model.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

for Harvard Business Review) Im excited to have just published the first of several articles on entrepreneurship for the Harvard Business Review online. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For most of us, the phrase management science conjures up a decidedly non-entrepreneurial image, and for good reason.

San Francisco 119

San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. 20th Century Tech Liquidity = Initial Public Offering.

Founder 274

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The other revels in the world as we all know it will be someday: limitless distribution enabled by new technologies, the importance of collaborative filters, and on-demand availability of all content for end-users. But the same technologies that make life difficult for traditional marketers also offer them unprecedented new opportunities.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

Recent economic events, technological change, and the rapid diffusion of information about the old models have combined to help us all realize just how important entrepreneurship is - and just how little we really know about it. My success is due in no small part to their early and enthusiastic endorsement.

Lean 146

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup 146

Growthink Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

In that same time frame, United States IPO volume declined 75% in real terms and now accounts for less than 11% of the global total. 7 Companies in China have raised more than $1 billion in an IPO this year. IPO by far this year will be the government ward General Motors. • How can they find you? In the U.S. This is HARD.

Africa 104

Africa Brazil China India 104

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

What are the biggest areas of technical risk? What technology research is required? What technologies will we use? What do we need to do to make sure we can survive technical due diligence by investors and partners? What specific technical innovations might make sense? How can we address this risk?

CTO Hire 231

CTO Hire Technical Review Developer Software Review 231

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Playing with new technologies. Growth - when you have existing customers, the pressure is on to grow your key metrics day-in day-out. We also try to communicate the initial due date with as few people outside our company (investors, customers, etc) as possible to avoid losing credibility. Seeing whats possible.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. So Groupon obviously filed their S-1 the other day to formally being the IPO process. Many believe that their margins will erode from 40-50% over time due to competition, merchant fatigue, or other factors. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

They take things like unit testing, design documents and code reviews more seriously than any other company Ive even heard about. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

Agile 76

Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 27, 2009

In search of Europe's next tech stars. Churchill Club 2008 Top 10 Tech Trends. SaaS business metrics: why are they different? Best Venture and Technology Podcasts for 2007. My Yelp reviews. Venture Capital. (3). Blog Archive. ► 2012. (1). ► 01/15 - 01/22. (1). BlablaCar - Travel Revolution.

Software Review 48

Software Review Partner United States Venture Capital 48

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Im also excited to share two long-form reviews from actual attendees. Inspiring ideas: real-time biz metrics; safe continuous deployment; A/B split testing. Technically you argue it goes back 30 years when StorageTek was founded. Articulate, inspirational. jdegoes : Great talk from @ericries last night.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

In this posts I review the potential risks for the Israeli tech ecosystem and the mitigating factors that counter some of them. According to the 2021 Tech Review report by IVC , Israeli tech startups attracted a record of $25.6 Israeli tech investments 2015-2021 (source: IVC ). What comes next? China: $104.4

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 158