ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

How to create a growth hacking strategy using the pirate metrics model. Growth hacking in marketing incorporates the five stages of the customer lifecycle into the “ AARRR Framework ,” otherwise known as the “Pirate Metrics model.”. But it’s not a channel you can scale as easily as LinkedIn , which offers a similar audience.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

I learned this the hard way, when I left IBM a few years ago to share what I had learned with the exciting world of startups in Silicon Valley. Adopt a project-based revenue model with metrics. Startups need outside experts who can do the work, as well as relate to the challenges of a new business.

Silicon Valley 140

Silicon Valley Social Media Software Review Leadership 140

David Teten

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

Instead of budget approvals, monitor key metrics and give managers more flexibility. The next most important set of metrics are sales by category; working capital (cash and other current assets, less current liabilities); EBITA; and gross margin. Traditional budgets can be destructive and a huge waste of time.

Agile 60

Agile Management Forecast Silicon Valley 60

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

For much of 2014 and 2015, I banged my head against a plane window flying back and forth between Austin and Silicon Valley while trying to raise institutional VC money for Localeur. Are there amazing Silicon Valley VCs out there with whom entrepreneurs should work to partner? but it’s true. Most definitely.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Technical Review Venture Capital San Francisco 48

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— 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. Typically, this caliber of bankers wouldn’t talk to you unless your company had five profitable quarters of increasing revenue.

Founder 269

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 269

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

This form of planning condensed the business model onto one page and is most useful for high-growth, technically focused startups (think Silicon Valley). Finally, while the Business Model Canvas asks for a basic list of expenses and revenue streams, it doesn’t help entrepreneurs determine if their company is truely financially viable.

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

A Progress Graph on the right visually shows how far you’ve come (in whatever units of goodness you’re tracking – revenue, units, users, etc.) Good if you have your own money, better if the cash comes from investors, but best if it’s revenues from customers. Did the VC’s like your team ? Get back up and running.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. The process of raising money in Asia is very different from raising money in Silicon Valley and, frankly, it’s not nearly as easy. Set your expectations – VCs in Asia are different from the Valley.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. There was now a public market for companies with no revenue, no profit and big claims.

Silicon Valley 233

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 233

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

And it was going to mention the two words that SuperMac marketing needed to live and breathe: revenue and profit. And the results weren’t the traditional PR metrics of number of articles or inches of ink. We were constantly creating metrics to see the effects of different PR messages, channels and audiences on end-user purchases.

Silicon Valley 268

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 268

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. million post-money valuation with no revenue. I acknowledged this in the article.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

The term “Growth Hacking”, invented by Sean Ellis , and made popular by Andrew Chen , a Silicon valley marketer and entrepreneur, is a combination of two disciplines – marketing and coding: Growth hackers are a hybrid of marketer and coder, one who looks at the traditional question of “How do I get customers for my product?”

API 167

API Viral Startup Retention 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

This week, the startup tribe from Harvard Business School is making their annual trek to Silicon Valley. It’s a common refrain around Silicon Valley to disparage the role of MBA’s in entrepreneurship. They’ll hear from a variety of experts and get to see many startups firsthand. You’d be better off just selling ads.”

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2013

So we spent some time iterating--leanly, we thought--on the revenue model. He gave us a quick rundown on two major growth challenges he’s faced: Challenge #1: Vanity Metrics. The problem of vanity metrics seemed to exacerbate itself as we added more employees. Product team velocity is a great example.

Lean 152

Lean Startup Metrics Silicon Valley 152

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Reading the articles and the comments is probably worth it, but I personally think that the NY Times is overstating the advantage of being in Silicon Valley with a couple of exceptions. Of course, thats probably even more true in Silicon Valley. eHarmongy) as an acting CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

Our venture was selected for competitive accelerator spots & recognition from media and mentors from Austin, Chicago and Silicon Valley to work on this problem and capture the value its solution provided. You might notice what’s not on that list above: revenue, investors. He then called me “a real bone-crusher of a founder”.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

During the last three years he’s worked with over 100 companies, many of which established Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley. He’s now helping companies get the most out of their relationships with Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

For the deputy secretary, such a dialogue in Silicon Valley is not a matter of charity, but necessity. At the same time, it’s a chance to expose some career State Department employees to Silicon Valley thinking.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

For the deputy secretary, such a dialogue in Silicon Valley is not a matter of charity, but necessity. At the same time, it’s a chance to expose some career State Department employees to Silicon Valley thinking.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. Online social networking is a concept still being evangelized even in Silicon Valley… Friendster is in private beta (wasn’t until Oct 2003 they received Google acquisition offer which they turned down for Kleiner/Benchmark round).

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Reid Hoffman

JULY 23, 2020

This strategic value-oriented approach is one of the things that gives Silicon Valley its crazy reputation among traditional investors, who live and die by financial metrics. That focus on short-term financial metrics is shortsighted. You don’t need to focus on your IPO financial metrics from day one.

IPO 36

IPO Exit Strategy Acquisition Technical Review 36

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 20, 2023

12:22] Would you look at the value derived by digital technologies differently than by producing customer value or revenue? [14:23] But there isn't actually a top down roadmap of how to do it with real milestones and metrics and uh, around it. (07:01): 16:32] Are there organizations that are significantly behind in this rewiring ?

Technical Review 65

Technical Review Silicon Valley Generative AI Arizona 65

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

They’ve grown from nothing to >$2B in revenue in 30 months time, making the company among the fastest growing businesses in the histroy of the world. How They Make Money: Groupon keeps a share of the coupon value (typically 40-50%) as its net revenue (1). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M. to the merchant.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

A year goes by, you miss your revenue plan, and you’ve burned through your first VP of Sales. The notion of “Market Type&# is there so startups have a metric of when to spend marketing and sales dollars. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. What happened? Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 140

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 140

A Crowded Space

SEPTEMBER 18, 2015

Notice the distinct absence of little things like revenue, customers, engagement metrics, or gross margin. They can create temporary growth in vanity metrics like downloads. We look for strong SaaS metrics (see this great post on SaaS metrics from my friend at Cueball Capital, Ali Rahimtula).

San Diego 60

San Diego Software Review San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

All teams raised their hands and screamed: we hundreds of angels and dozens of VCs, all of them say they will only fund deals with prototypes, beta customers, first revenue and executive teams all in place, and they say it will be 2 years from now because their coffers are out of cash and LPs in default. Yeah, I said. Bootstrap for years!

Vertical 154

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 154

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2013

As Eric puts it in the webcast, “I’ve met now the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world, and I still spend time with the CEOs of high-growth Silicon Valley companies from the garage on up, and what all those people have in common is that they are seeking out sources of sustainable growth….

Lean 167

Lean Silicon Valley Agile Cofounder 167

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

While the average forward revenue multiple has declined slightly since its February 2020 peak (19x), it’s still higher today than last year at 17x vs 15.8x The firm was founded more than 35 years ago and the team quickly realised that innovation was not confined to Silicon Valley. The Index added another $0.9T in Sept 2020.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Luckily (or maybe because we were in Silicon Valley where there was a domain expert for everything) there was a very smart consultant in the retail computer space, Seymour Merrin, who preached about the importance of packaging. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Worry about the sales results.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics | by Ben Kunz – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR. Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics | by Ben Kunz – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR. The Pricing Model That Increased Our Free Trial Signups by 358% (and Revenue by 25%) – crowdspring.co/1alarDV. 1aU48no.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

5:01) Brian's thoughts on the human dimension to his approach and how that sets him apart in Silicon Valley. (6:06) 59:03) The need for creativity, intuition and compassion in Silicon Valley and business. (1:00:23) 59:03) The need for creativity, intuition and compassion in Silicon Valley and business. (1:00:23)

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

The Next Web

DECEMBER 12, 2013

In the early days of e-commerce, sales were typically the most important metric for success. It’s easy, especially in Silicon Valley, to get hung up on all the whizbang new technologies available to developers. Myth #4: It’s all about the technology, not the service.

Mobile 136

Mobile Silicon Valley Viral Technical Review 136

Steve Blank

JUNE 10, 2010

Both my parents worked as hard as any Silicon Valley entrepreneur but with a different definition of a successful business model; when they made a profit, they could feed our family. Scalable startups in technology centers (Silicon Valley, Shanghai, New York, Bangalore, Israel, etc.)

Silicon Valley 330

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur United States New York City 330

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 11, 2020

Sam is one of the most prolific company builders in Silicon Valley. Eric Ries : You were one of the first people who when the crisis was breaking, I saw your name all over Silicon Valley, in the Y Combinator forums. I would encourage people to just reach out to the normal crew of Silicon Valley Investors [for].

Silicon Valley 68

Silicon Valley Technical Review Government .Net 68

Up and Running

MARCH 21, 2016

Get them to agree that the metrics make sense and then hit them. Share user engagement and metrics. See Also: 7 Key Metrics Every Business Owner Should Monitor. If your business has best-in-class metrics for your industry, you will be able to raise money.”. Do it as scrappy as you can, and get users and revenue.

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Metrics Angel Investor Silicon Valley 60

YoungUpstarts

MAY 5, 2017

Decide On, and Obsess About, Your North Star Metric. That’s when Facebook established a team dedicated to growth, and more importantly to a North Star Metric that enabled the entire company to focus its efforts and establish a systematic growth engine. Competition had been vanquished, revenue reached $3.7

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley IPO Metrics Global 150