Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

These growing national companies were challenged to figure out how to organize an organization of increased complexity that resulted from their large size, and geographic scale as well as their horizontal and vertical integration. Venture capital firms, as we know them only date back to the 1970s.)

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

Then before long all dentists will be using a system like this and an entire mini-vertical will have been transformed. The second vertical to go was hearing aids where I’ve heard up to 90% of high end hearing aids are now 3D printed. A company called Sirona sells the machines dentists use to 3D print crowns.

Vertical 142

Vertical Audio Venture Capital Channel 142

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.) Sales people cost money, and when they’re not bringing in revenue, their wandering in the woods is time consuming, cash-draining and demoralizing. Something else?

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

In How To Defend Your Dream Against All Odds , Alex and I explore the company's journey to $200 Million in revenue, while their VCs wrote them off. Zoho is already over $100 million in revenue and is seeing tremendous traction. In that case, the verticals of choice could be manufacturing, wholesale and retail.

North Carolina 116

North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In many cases, a deeper focus on a particular category or vertical allows these marketplaces to distinguish themselves from broader marketplaces like eBay. In November of this year, the company announced that it had achieved “substantially” more than $1B in revenue in the third quarter. billion of GSV (gross services revenue) across 2.0

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . 645 Ventures released a cap table simulator to help level the playing field. Capital has built a free online tool for founders to calculate their cost of capital.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

It will be the 105th deal out of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the firm I started back in September 2012, and it will be the last deal I’ll be making out of my third fund. It will also be my last venture capital deal. For me, I don’t mind sharing how I think about it. Consider this.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. In the Early Days.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Don’t take my word for it – in the roundup of venture capital predictions for 2017 , I found it to be the top recurring theme. Many large companies will be built (Michael Wolfe, Point Nine Capital). Venture Capital investments in AI, Europe 2016 (Source: Dealroom ). Billion in VC funding.

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Startup 122

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 17, 2013

With each hand, a small percentage of the pot is scraped off by the dealer, which in essence becomes the “revenue” for the casino. While casinos use the term “rake,” a plethora of interesting word choices exist which all describe the same thing – keeping a little bit of the revenue for the company that is running the service.

Europe 101

Europe Social Network Technical Review IPO 101

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” They’re putting money into web services/business – most without early revenue. End of theory.&#

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 8, 2019

This focus has helped me recruit the best and the brightest in the field, build a world-class operation, and most of all, with all the knowledge in a specific vertical, help build a leading agency for food & beverage manufacturers that are looking to build a direct to consumer channel. Photo Credit: Matt Daigle.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 120

VC Cafe

MAY 18, 2022

venture capital and private equity) the VC index (by Refinitiv) shows a nearly 40% decline. After the crazy year that was 2021 in venture capital, the tone has rapidly changed in May 2022. David Sacks offers a few benchmarks on growth rates (revenue), gross margins, CAC payback and burn. Multiples by vertical.

Term Sheet 190

Term Sheet Startup Valuation Ukraine 190

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

Entrepreneurs will concentrate their efforts on going small, in which businesses have the adaptability to generate revenue while holding true to their core values. Studies have shown that Millennials and Gen Z are as motivated to pursue careers that align with their purpose. Thanks to Matt Miller, Embroker ! #19-

Artificial Inteligence 108

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Global 108

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Generative AI will really become magic when it moves from 'playful' to 'useful' – we will use multiple generative AI tools at work in the future, like we use grammarly and canned responses today… AI will become more vertical, and specific per role — Eze Vidra (@ediggs) November 5, 2022.

Generative AI 195

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence API Vertical 195

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

Instead of arguing why Dallas might be better than Houston we should be talking about how we can work together to get our share of venture capital dollars more in line with our population size and startup activity by unlocking additional capital sources that have been previously inaccessible to tech.

Texas 97

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I was consulting for the two venture capital firms who between them put $12 million into my last failed startup. (My Yet when I talked to my venture capital friends, they said, “Well, that’s just how startups work. My mother kept asking if they were going to make me pay the money back.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. would look in each of the verticals. Business and Revenue Model – How do we organize to make money? Marketing – How do you create end user demand?

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

To an entrepreneur, being asked to join a venture firm with an Entrepreneur-in-Residence title means you have been tapped on the shoulder by the VC gods. The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. We understood none of this. More detail in future posts.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

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. Get back up and running.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

More than investment, entertainment is one of the largest industries in the world in revenue terms, projected to reach $2.5 And last year alone Audible generated $1 billion in revenue for Amazon. . Entertainment is more than newspapers, more than Hollywood, and more than the sum of specific verticals jousting for consumer eyeballs.

Vertical 113

Vertical Artificial Inteligence Distribution IPO 113

Hunter Walker

JULY 18, 2022

Your runway is impacted by the absence of projected revenue. And your investors start to worry that you don’t have a great handle on your business, which means any new capital infusion could be eaten up without getting to the next milestone successfully. Similarly, for a variety of reasons, the music stopped.

Valuation 116

Valuation Cap Table Startup Later Stage 116

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Instead of a Sales team and organized to sell with a consistent and successful sales roadmap generating revenue, it is a disorganized and unhappy organization burning lots of cash. Because the company based its headcount and expenses on the expectation that the Sales organization will bring in revenue according to plan.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

John already has a couple of customers, and needs about 50 customers to get to $1M in annual revenue. In fact, in the discussion on JuJu brands is yet another validation of the verticalization and niche-ization of the Internet. So, effectively, at the cost of one full-time sales rep, they can access coverage in four different regions.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2022

AI is exploding not only in research and infrastructure (which go wide) but also in the application of AI to vertical problems (which go deep and depend more than ever on expertise). Helpful for predicting numerical values based on different data points, such as sales revenue projections for a given business.

Artificial Inteligence 417

Artificial Inteligence Software Review Algorithm Technical Review 417

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2018

We wanted to learn more about the nuanced industry market forces before applying the same hands-on investing model we do with tech startups in other verticals. The venture capital market in this category is fairly concentrated among series A and expansion-stage funds that prefer to invest in companies with substantial revenue.

Vertical 120

Vertical Stealth Portfolio Seed Capital 120

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 We’ll also see the emergence of more low code / no code platforms that address specific vertical needs. The Index added another $0.9T in Sept 2020.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

Last week, I wrote about Akamai , a company with strong network effects that successfully transitioned from a single product to build a platform that garners over a billion dollars in revenue and is now a core part of the Internet’s fabric. Expedia grew to account for roughly one third of the company’s revenues. Think about that.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). Network of vertical focused sites: BeachMint, BeachMint, WineMint, etc.;

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

The venture capital industry is so heavily skewed to Northern California, which the remains spilled over Boston, New York & Southern California. So it was wonderful to hear from a leading venture capital firm based in Washington DC. A contemporary analog to this type of vertical integration is Comcast/NBC-U.

Cofounder 277

Cofounder Merger Founder Venture Capital 277

Haystack

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

By all accounts, the Utah-HQ’d company did everything the right way, was an overnight success 16 years in the making, and only raised venture capital as a growth company after years of bootstrapping. Of course, SAP or others could’ve made a run at Qualtrics earlier, and who knows – maybe folks had tried and failed.

Acquisition 105

Acquisition Utah IPO Venture Capital 105

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 14, 2021

Fast forward to today; since we founded Taxfyle in 2015, it has earned the support and investment of numerous venture capitalists and is one of the fastest-growing companies in any sector in the U.S. 5000 list , which lists private American companies based on three-year revenue growth between 2016 and 2019. Magazine’ Inc.

CPA 138

CPA Founder Vertical Cofounder 138

Austin Startup

JUNE 22, 2020

They have a $600k sales backlog that they’ll complete this month, and about 50% or more of that will be recurring revenue. The product is a complex AI service in an industry vertical that is large and growing fast. How could a company only six months old have $600k in revenue this month? What was Oksana’s response?

Vertical 64

Vertical Early Stage Forecast Revenue 64

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Another repeated mistake is attacking verticals where a satisfactory supplier “match” end’s the customer’s need to re-enter the market in search of an alternative. This second point negatively impacts many vertical service provider markets (such as pediatricians) where customers are actually prefer a monogamous relationship.

Aggregator 101

Aggregator Marketing Software Review North America 101

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

This tendency is a two edged sword: by iterating strategy a startup can dramatically improve the size and trajectory of the company, but at times this process can be the bane of venture investors (and why they have prematurely grey hair.) 4) You don’t see any revenue gain past three years.

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

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. If marketing can’t deliver the 40,000 leads what else can we do for sales to still achieve our revenue and profitability?”) They understood the mission intent was our corporate revenue and profit goals.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259