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Product-market Fit
Product/market fit, also known as product-market fit, is the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand. Product/market fit has been identified as a first step to building a successful venture in which the company meets early adopters, gathers feedback and gauges interest in its product(s). History According to Benchmark Capital co-founder Andy Rachleff, Sequoia Capital founder Don Valentine developed the thinking behind product-market fit, but it was Andy who first put a name to it. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz would later popularize the term in the mid-2000's. Andreesen credits Rachleff for the concept, referring to the idea as Rachleff's Corollary of Startup Success: "The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit." Marc Andreessen defined the term as follows: “Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” Many people interpret product/market fit as creating a so call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benchmark Capital
Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups. History The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company. In 2011, it invested $12 million for an 11% stake in Uber, worth $7 billion in 2019. The firm's most infamous investment was in WeWork, the troubled office rental social networking company. On April 1, 2012, Benchmark became WeWork's first major investor when it led WeWork’s $17 million Series-A seed funding. Companies funded by the firm include Dropbox, Twitter, Uber, Snapchat, Instagram, Discord,Takahashi"Fates Forever mobile game maker Hammer & Chisel raises funding from Benchmark and Tencent" ''Venture Beat'', February 10, 2015. Domo, New Relic, Nextdoor, Stitch Fix, WeWork, Yelp, Zendesk, Zillow and Zipcar. Partner structure Benchmark is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners. The "maverick" firm differs fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Value Proposition
In marketing, a company’s value proposition is the full mix of benefits or economic value which it promises to deliver to the current and future customers (i.e., a market segment) who will buy their products and/or services. It is part of a company's overall marketing strategy which differentiates its brand and fully positions it in the market. A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services. A value proposition can be written as a business or marketing statement (called a "positioning statement") which summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. A compellingly worded positioning statement has the potential to convince a prospective consumer that a particular product or service the company offers will add more value or better solve a problem (i.e. the "pain-point") for them than other similar offerings will, thus turning them into a paying client. The positioning statement usually co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cohort Analysis
Cohort analysis is a kind of behavioral analytics that breaks the data in a data set into related groups before analysis. These groups, or cohorts, usually share common characteristics or experiences within a defined time-span. Cohort analysis allows a company to "see patterns clearly across the life-cycle of a customer (or user), rather than slicing across all customers blindly without accounting for the natural cycle that a customer undergoes." By seeing these patterns of time, a company can adapt and tailor its service to those specific cohorts. While cohort analysis is sometimes associated with a cohort study, they are different and should not be viewed as one and the same. Cohort analysis is specifically the analysis of cohorts in regards to big data and business analytics, while in cohort study, data is broken down into similar groups. Examples The goal of business analytics is to analyze and present actionable information. Large, undifferentiated datasets may include a varie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Customer Churn
Customer attrition, also known as customer churn, customer turnover, or customer defection, is the loss of clients or customers. Banks, telephone service companies, Internet service providers, pay TV companies, insurance firms, and alarm monitoring services, often use customer attrition analysis and customer attrition rates as one of their key business metrics (along with cash flow, EBITDA, etc.) because the cost of retaining an existing customer is far less than acquiring a new one. Companies from these sectors often have customer service branches which attempt to win back defecting clients, because recovered long-term customers can be worth much more to a company than newly recruited clients. Companies usually make a distinction between voluntary churn and involuntary churn. Voluntary churn occurs due to a decision by the customer to switch to another company or service provider, involuntary churn occurs due to circumstances such as a customer's relocation to a long-term care f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lean Startup
Lean startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products that aims to shorten product development cycles and rapidly discover if a proposed business model is viable; this is achieved by adopting a combination of business-hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. Lean startup emphasizes customer feedback over intuition and flexibility over planning. This methodology enables recovery from failures more often than traditional ways of product development. Central to the lean startup methodology is the assumption that when startup companies invest their time into iteratively building products or services to meet the needs of early customers, the company can reduce market risks and sidestep the need for large amounts of initial project funding and expensive product launches and financial failures. While the events leading up to the launch can make or break a new business, it is important to start with the end in mind. This means t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
False Positive
A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test result incorrectly indicates the absence of a condition when it is actually present. These are the two kinds of errors in a binary test, in contrast to the two kinds of correct result (a and a ). They are also known in medicine as a false positive (or false negative) diagnosis, and in statistical classification as a false positive (or false negative) error. In statistical hypothesis testing the analogous concepts are known as type I and type II errors, where a positive result corresponds to rejecting the null hypothesis, and a negative result corresponds to not rejecting the null hypothesis. The terms are often used interchangeably, but there are differences in detail and interpretation due to the differences between medical testing and statist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heuristic
A heuristic (; ), or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation. Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, heuristic methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Heuristics can be mental shortcuts that ease the cognitive load of making a decision. Examples that employ heuristics include using trial and error, a rule of thumb or an educated guess. Heuristics are the strategies derived from previous experiences with similar problems. These strategies depend on using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem solving in human beings, machines and abstract issues. When an individual applies a heuristic in practice, it generally performs as expected. However it can alternatively cre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Distribution Channel
Distribution (or place) is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for the consumer or business user who needs it. This can be done directly by the producer or service provider or using indirect channels with distributors or intermediaries. The other three elements of the marketing mix are product, pricing, and promotion. Decisions about distribution need to be taken in line with a company's overall strategic vision and mission. Developing a coherent distribution plan is a central component of strategic planning. At the strategic level, there are three broad approaches to distribution, namely mass, selective and exclusive distribution. The number and type of intermediaries selected largely depend on the strategic approach. The overall distribution channel should add value to the consumer. Definition Distribution is fundamentally concerned with ensuring that products reach target customers in the most d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Business Networking
Networking is the sharing of information or services between people, businesses, or groups. It is also a way for individuals to grow their relationships for their job or business. As a result, connections or a network can be built and useful for individuals in their professional or personal lives. Networking helps build meaningful relationships that are beneficial to all involved parties to exchange information and services. Gaining new significant business acquaintances can be obtained by networking meetings, social media, personal networking, and business networking. In the second half of the twentieth century, networking was promoted to help business people to build their social capital. In the US, workplace equity advocates encouraged business networking by members of marginalized groups (e.g., women, African-Americans, etc.) to identify and address the challenges barring them from professional success. Mainstream business literature subsequently adopted the terms and concepts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Customer Segment
In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as ''segments'') based on some type of shared characteristics. In dividing or segmenting markets, researchers typically look for common characteristics such as shared needs, common interests, similar lifestyles, or even similar demographic profiles. The overall aim of segmentation is to identify ''high yield segments'' – that is, those segments that are likely to be the most profitable or that have growth potential – so that these can be selected for special attention (i.e. become target markets). Many different ways to segment a market have been identified. Business-to-business (B2B) sellers might segment the market into different types of businesses or countries, while business-to-consumer (B2C) sellers might segment the market into demographic segments, such as lifestyle, behavior, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management template used for developing new business models and documenting existing ones. It offers a visual chart with elements describing a firm's or product's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances, With contributions from 470 practitioners from 45 countries. assisting businesses to align their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs. The nine "building blocks" of the business model design template that came to be called the Business Model Canvas were initially proposed in 2005 by Alexander Osterwalder, based on his PhD work supervised by Yves Pigneur on business model ontology. See also: Since the release of Osterwalder's work around 2008, the authors have developed related tools such as the Value Proposition Canvas and the Culture Map, and new canvases for specific niches have also appeared. Description Formal descriptions of the business become the building blocks for its activities. Many different bus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Rachleff
Andy Rachleff is a co-founder and Executive Chairman of Wealthfront. He had previously been the executive chairman of the company after stepping down as the CEO, but then returned to the CEO role on October 31, 2016. Rachleff co-founded Benchmark Capital in 1995 and was a general partner until 2004. Prior to Benchmark, Rachleff was a general partner with Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre. Career Rachleff co-founded Benchmark Capital, a venture capital firm, in 1995. The firm invested in companies including eBay, OpenTable, Snapchat, Twitter and Uber. Rachleff led investments in Blue Coat Systems, Equinix and Juniper Networks. In 2000, Rachleff joined the University of Pennsylvania Board of Overseers for the school of engineering. He retired from Benchmark Capital in late 2004 and began teaching technology entrepreneurship courses at Stanford Graduate School of Business in January 2005. In 2005, he also joined the University of Pennsylvania board of trustees where he is the Chairma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
