Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Its had tremendous impact in many areas: continuous deployment , just-in-time scalability , and even search engine marketing , to name a few. I owe it originally to lean manufacturing books like Lean Thinking and Toyota Production System. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Small is beautiful. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

The region’s other strong VC presence resides in Japan, which has the typical Japanese model of a few large firms dominating the market. The rest of Asia is still developing with far more angel and early-stage investors than mid-to-later stage folks. Valuations are based more on typical later-stage type of metrics.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

Instead, that’s the sort of pre-series-A investment where companies or founders have visions of where they think there are underserved market needs, and they’re coming up with something super excited to try to solve that. . We come in after a product has landed and found product market fit and has some escape velocity.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

Ask 10 people what account-based marketing (ABM) is and you’ll get 10 different answers. Some see it as a sales tactic, while others view it as a content marketing strategy. In this article, you’ll learn how to define your ABM strategy so you can target the right accounts and increase your revenue. Coordinated.

Customer 98

Customer Marketing Channel Acquisition 98

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

It’s a marketing deck and nothing in it should reveal some “secret sauce” that your competitors could magically copy and destroy you. Compelling. Visually stunning (in this day and age this is becoming a sine qua non ). But what about the privacy / confidentiality concern? Poppycock. Don’t send these?—?go go back and present them.

Portfolio 261

Portfolio IP Later Stage Email 261

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

It’s equally easy to go online and incorporate your new entity, register some intellectual property and have some fun with social media for marketing and interacting with customers. Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. If you have a mediocre meeting with a high-quality prospect and you don’t think they’re likely to lean in they drop to a B or C. To be clear?—?your

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage. Lean Startups ?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

In liquid markets, most of the calories expended on technology and analytics are focused on trade selection, or “ origination ”. I use another live Google doc to maintain my database of companies I’m marketing to other VCs. 2) Market . Many tools designed for B2B marketing in general are also relevant to investors.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

The Entrepreneurial Mind

JUNE 14, 2010

They do play a role, but only a limited one with later stage businesses that have good cash flow. Remember that the Great Depression saw the start-up of many businesses that later thrived and became industry giants, including Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Publix Super Markets, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, just to name a few.

Kentucky 56

Kentucky Washington Nashville Bootstrapping 56

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Top management was trying to coordinate all of the operating details (sales, manufacturing, distribution and marketing,) across all the divisions and the company almost went bankrupt that year when poor planning led to excess inventory (with unsold cars piling up at dealers and the company running out of cash.) car market.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 161

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Some have done earlier-stage deals and done well. Others have chased earlier-stage but lack the skills or relationships to do this effectively. Some have moved into later stage investments in an effort to “put logos on their websites.&# In a bull market many players see drift in their activities.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

Sigh… What I should have been hearing is the search for the business model, specifically the progress on product/market fit, but I hear the fund raising story first at least 90% of the time. The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by more than your expenses?

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 334

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

Sigh… What I should have been hearing is the search for the business model, specifically the progress on product/market fit, but I hear the fund raising story first at least 90% of the time. The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by more than your expenses?

Venture Capital 226

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 226

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

While the journey of JuiceBox Hero is coming to a close, we know that our small but mighty team’s commitment to innovation for women, families, and under-represented markets is far from over. The Skinny: Two years ago I embarked on a mission to bring to market a modern way for parents to find daycares and preschools. We did that?—?and

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. Not everybody can, especially if they need to run with the idea to get to market. By now it is useless except bragging rights as traction and market disruption have been lost.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

I’ve seen the Valley grow from Sunnyvale to Santa Clara to today where it stretches from San Jose to South of Market in San Francisco. But in the 20 th century, dominated by hardware, software, and life sciences, technology swings inside an existing market happened slowly — taking years, not months.

Restful 227

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 227

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Incubators, too, helped flood the markets with even more startups, and AngelList played its part too. At each turn, these market changes were heralded as wonderful developments for entrepreneurs. But at a macro level, widespread failure this early is far less painful than if it came at later stages. November 29, 2012.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93