Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

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 does require a full confidence in your own passion to make decisions and change the world with no investors to lean on or blame. Marty Zwilling.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

I owe it originally to lean manufacturing books like Lean Thinking and Toyota Production System. The batch size is the unit at which work-products move between stages in a development process. Similar results apply in product management, design, testing, and even operations. Interesting post.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative. We have a passion for product and out-of-the-box thinking.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Passionate – is the company/product/customers the most important thing in your life? Yet for every founder there are 10-20 other employees who take the near-equivalent risks in joining an early-stage company. If you’re not a founder (by choice, timing or temperament,) you may be an early employee or a later stage startup employee.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

We come in after a product has landed and found product market fit and has some escape velocity. I think every company’s portfolio is different, so they’re all different sizes, different stages, different geographies, different cash positions, and different market leadership positions. . That’s not what we do.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. Like any sale you first need to plan your “prospects” and qualify whether or not they’d be a good fit for your product?—?an To be clear?—?your

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 12, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, June 12, 2009 Lean Startup Workshop scholarship program I havent had much time to write lately, and so havent been able to share much about the Lean Startup Workshop series I have been producing with OReilly in their Master Class division. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

Lean 60

Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 22, 2017

Later-stage companies are in operating mode. Approaching the market while leaning forward, and with eyes wide open, increases a company’s ability to attract the right talent. And ensures this talent will be building the right products using a strategy that reinforces your ability to deliver sustainable value.

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Later Stage IPO Early Stage 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. You have to be able to “willfully suspend disbelief” and be an eternal optimist to take on the task of being an entrepreneur.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 30, 2010

We have a good sense of what later stage VCs are going to look for and can help think about how much you need to raise to get additional interest down the line. Sometimes, we even have good product feedback. Here's an area where I think entrepreneurs could make more productive use of LinkedIn. A powerpoint deck, however?

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Later Stage 106

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 ? Who Do They Hang With?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But the larger funds usually have lower returns because they are often investing bigger dollars at later stages with less risk and therefore lower returns. As you can see in this Cambridge Associates data, early-stage investing beat later stage investing in returns in 70% of the past 30 years. Yeah, true.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

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 does require a full confidence in your own passion to make decisions and change the world with no investors to lean on or blame.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

View from Seed

MARCH 8, 2016

Jesse: First and foremost, they need to commit to the idea that brand is important and recognize that product isn’t everything. In today’s world, product is necessary but not sufficient. In addition to a great product (again, which you absolutely need—whether it’s physical, platform, services, etc.),

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Conversion Startup PR 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

If you have board members you respect you owe it to yourself to run more productive sessions where board members contribute. If you’re slightly later stage it might be 5–6 hours. It ought to lay out the key issues, provide 3 options per issue and state which one management is leaning toward.

Metrics 196

Metrics Strategic Investors Later Stage Management 196

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

It comes as no surprise as technology today enables companies to prove product-market fit much earlier in their lifecycles. Having said that, there are times when it’s wise for the startup not to work with the parent company…or to hold off until its product is mature enough. Now practically everyone is getting involved in Series A.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan realized that the traditional centralized management structures (like General Motors had in 1920) were poor fits for the management of GM’s already diverse product lines. Finally, GM created the notion of perpetual demand within brands by continually obsoleting their own products yearly with new models rolled out every year.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Automation allows you to spend less time on tedious tasks and will help boost productivity, especially within a small marketing team. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. They read reviews of the products of target investments.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

This required more product evangelism and customer wins. The median figures for each strategy should give you an idea of which program to lean towards. How complex is your product? Use intent to add an extra layer to this data by researching information or triggers that signal a target account is interested in your product.

Customer 98

Customer Marketing Channel Acquisition 98

The Next Web

JULY 29, 2013

There was no need for an office, we built our product right from our living room. We decided to go for Berlin also because we want to shape Berlin’s startup culture, always with the goals to expand to the US at a later stage. As founders we all have a ton of new product ideas, each and every day. Find the right location.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Cofounder Germany Europe 125

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.&# They should start “lean.&#

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, December 6, 2008 The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part three Those startups that manage to build a product people want have to deal with the consequences of that success. Lets start with the most important thing you can do to help product teams succeed: make them cross-functional.

San Francisco 74

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 74

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. Does our product or service solve a customer problem (product-market fit)? Focus on product – market fit. It never makes me happy.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 333

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Display is a completely different audience as they might not have any recognition of the brand or even be actively looking for your product or service. Will likely need only the essential product / service information. They may not even be aware of the pain point your product / service addresses. Needs a frictionless experience.

PPC 48

PPC Matching Campaign San Francisco 48

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. Does our product or service solve a customer problem (product-market fit)? Focus on product – market fit. It never makes me happy.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 225

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

As a boot-strapped founder aka our biggest investor, one of the things I leaned into uncovering was the unknown. Lean into it. If you’re a founder/product manager/business owner, I encourage you to find that out! that a sub-par product/execution is very likely to win the market. What did our customers think?

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 6, 2012

This is true at early stages but also true at later stages. When I look at what drives my decision to invest, it’s the entrepreneurs and the product. This sentiment is driven by our individual interactions with the entrepreneurs and their product.

Syndicate 136

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Angel Investor 136

View from Seed

MARCH 10, 2015

Tamiz Ahmed is a former product manager at Bleacher Report, where he helped build the successful app for sports fans, Team Stream , prior to the company’s nine-figure sale to Turner. Below, he shares product management lessons from his time at BR. The entire product team on the app was just me and my boss at the time.

Mobile 120

Mobile San Francisco Curation Seed Stage 120

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

So for this first post, here’s the best advice I can give you: join an awesome founding team and get your product out the door ASAP. 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. I don’t know any developers. Need proof?

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Peter: I’m feeling agile, I’m feeling lean, nice and spry. Jonathan: I don’t know about the agility thing, but you’re looking lean. Jonathan: Yeah, demand based pulling instead of pushing the product down the line errors and all, right? Audio transcript: Peter: Hey, good afternoon Jonathan. Peter: Sure.

SCRUM 60

SCRUM Agile Employee Small Business 60

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

And to today, when its major product is simply innovation. When the product and channel are bits, adoption by 10’s and 100’s of millions and even billions of users can happen in years versus decades. The second thing that’s changed is that we’re now Compressing the Product Development Cycle.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

But at a macro level, widespread failure this early is far less painful than if it came at later stages. Goldman joined other analysts who have recently become more positive about the company’s outlook, citing optimism over the company’s forthcoming BlackBerry X — a make or break product for RIM. ” - MC.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93