YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 26, 2016

Despite being a bootstrapped company with little revenue, we over-invested in a central New York City office at a rate of 15% rent to revenue. There are also unforeseen disasters, such as the 2008 financial crisis, that businesses need to be agile enough to overcome.

Software Review 100

Software Review New York City Salary Employee 100

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. Choose one. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 25, 2020

42:07) On how the 2008 financial crisis prepared banks for the pandemic. (44:25) And half our clubs were in the state of California in 2008, so was a very interesting time to be a CEO and learned a lot. I think about this in customers and protecting your employees and customers, always protect your P&L, your revenue.

Technical Review 148

Technical Review Balance Sheet Texas Austin 148

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

How They Make Money: Majority of Kayak’s revenue actually comes from advertising on their site (55%), not lead generation or referral fees to travel suppliers as you might think (more on this below). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $170 million. Revenue growth: 51% YoY (2010), 1% YoY (2009), 131% YoY (2008).

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development. November 9, 2008 5:40 PM Chris said.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. Since the financial crisis of 2008, policy makers have kept interest rates at near zero, flooding the market with cheap money in an attempt to restart growth. But they have also stacked the deck against investment in long-term innovation.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Lean Planning started with Tim Berry ‘s 2008 “ Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan ” which was a new way for entrepreneurs to think about planning. Here at Palo Alto Software in 2007 and 2008, we embraced these planning concepts and moved towards a more agile planning process. Do startups have a manual?

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. 1970 – 1995: The Golden Age. Thus began the 5-year dot-com bubble.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, November 17, 2008 The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part one Ive written before about some of the advantages startups have when they are very small, like the benefits of having a pathetically small number of customers. And if you neglect maintenance, you may not have a business left at all.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Altgate

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

But did you know that founder Markus Frind has just 3 employees for his $10MM+ revenue business? Unfortunately they will be very expensive (30-50% or more of gross revenue). The key is to get the outsourced team locked in for the long term and to build your own lean/agile culture. He basically outsources everything.

Software Review 65

Software Review Offshore Startup Boston 65

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2009

We were even more embarrassed by the pathetically small number of customers we had, and the pathetically low amount of revenue we had earned so far. We’d always cringe as we admitted that, no, we really only had a few thousand customers and a few thousand dollars in monthly revenue. Retention cohort analysis. I am chugging along.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, September 13, 2008 SEM on five dollars a day How do you build a new product with constant customer feedback while simultaneously staying under the radar? And one day a remarkable thing happened: we started making more than five dollars a day in revenue. SEM is a simple idea. Expo SF (May.

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Heck, thats what it says right there in the agile manifesto. In a lot of cases, thats just a fancy name for revenue or profit, but not always. Labels: agile , continuous deployment , lean startup , product development , Test-driven development 4comments: Nivi said. But, unfortunately, startups cant afford to adopt that standard.

Continuous Deployment 123

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 123

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 28, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, September 28, 2008 The lean startup comes to Stanford Im going to be talking about lean startups (and the IMVU case in particular) three times in the next two weeks at Stanford. September 28, 2008 6:13 PM Eric said. September 28, 2008 7:26 PM Jeff Hammerbacher said. Can I go to one of them?

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 68

ReadWriteStart

JULY 5, 2012

The survey found that the “leaders of small businesses launched during the Great Recession are dramatically different than those who launched their company prior to 2008.” A deeper dive into the numbers shows that many entrepreneurs who started post-2008 businesses were motivated by profit, not necessarily passion. The Profit Motive.

Founder 121

Founder Entrepreneur Cloud Exit Strategy 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Usually, they are delivering only a fraction of the revenue they promised. Usually, they are delivering only a fraction of the revenue they promised. Lets return to our team thats failing to hit their targets. They are on-schedule and on-budget, but their gross metrics are way off. Expo SF (May.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Sounds very similar to agile development which is the way. If you can start getting ROI on a feature in month one of a twelve month project versus waiting until the end, youve comparatively reduced the cost of development by the revenue generated by that feature over 11 months. February 21, 2009 7:39 AM Rocky1138 said. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

wordsting.com

APRIL 4, 2013

Too often Agile development methodologies are used to excuse lack of process and planning (still possible, just only as far as you can see). Remember in grown-up SaaS companies, the marketing budget, as a percentage of revenue, is typically twice that of R&D. Copyright 2008-2012, Business Case Pro. Next Post The copywriting.

Lean 61

Lean Startup Software Review San Francisco 61

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

To increase the number of iterations you have left, you can either increase cash on hand (by raising money or increasing revenues), reduce burn rate, or increase the speed of each iteration. Combining agile development with customer developm. The key is to be able to refute as many major hypotheses as you can. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

They were accustomed to measuring their progress primarily by gross revenue compared to their targets. They were accustomed to measuring their progress primarily by gross revenue compared to their targets. Naturally, they had just raised money, and their new investors were understandably pissed. Expo SF (May.

Metrics 167

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

And so the spreadsheet is built with conservative assumptions, including a final revenue target. No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable. In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

You’re asking someone to take a chance that with the code they deliver you can get funding or gain some revenue traction. You can add to it after you begin to generate revenue or find your investment partners, but if you can build it and launch it cheaply, you’ve kept the concept simple and got your project off the ground.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Fractional CTO Partner CTO Hire 40

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

billion in revenues (growing 39% year-on-year) and $25B of market cap. Compared to Salesforce, the industry leader, the stats were not too dissimilar over the same period: its market cap grew by $19B and its revenue increased by $3.3B. From a revenue standpoint, 58 companies have already crossed the $5M per year mark and 29 are $15M+.

Europe 83

Europe Cloud API 83

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 29, 2008 Q&A with an actual reader One of my favorite things about having a blog is the feedback I get in comments and by email. Today, I thought Id answer a few questions that came in from a very thoughtful comment from Andrew Meyer. Hes also a blogger, at Inquiries Into Alignment ).

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

They asked for my advice, and we went through a number of recommendations that readers of this blog will already be able to guess: adding revenue opportunities, engagement loop optimization, and some immediate split-testing to figure out whats working and whats not. Great post, Eric. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

ReadWriteStart

JULY 5, 2012

Necessity Is the Mother of Invention The survey found that the “leaders of small businesses launched during the Great Recession are dramatically different than those who launched their company prior to 2008.” The “accidental entrepreneurs” are a bullish lot - 75% project revenue will grow more than 10% in the next two years.

Founder 65

Founder Entrepreneur Cloud Startup 65

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

The agile software movement has made numerous contributions: continuous integration, which helps accelerate feedback about defects; story cards and kanban that reduce batch size; a daily stand-up that increases tempo. In fact, excess time pressure is exactly why they think they have these problems in the first place. Expo SF (May.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Up and Running

DECEMBER 5, 2016

Lean Planning started with Tim Berry’s 2008 book, “The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan,” which was a new way for entrepreneurs to think about planning. Here at Palo Alto Software in 2007 and 2008, we embraced these planning concepts and moved toward a more agile planning process. See Also: Business Planning Guide.

Lean 60

Lean Silicon Valley Business Model Forecast 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

What is the right revenue model? Aside from the dramatically shorter development cycle that browser games enjoy, the split testing of features (which is intuitive to web application makers) is something that propelled Zynga's games and revenues to the top of the social games vertical. August 24, 2009 2:17 PM Norbert Mocsnik said.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Hearpreneur

JUNE 21, 2017

It was March 2008. It helps me have the agility to make adjustments on the fly that benefit brands. It’s important to stay confident and agile in an environment where you have a million opinions be forced on you. You should rest easy knowing that there is a path that doesn’t require $1M in seed pre-revenue.

Entrepreneur 51

Entrepreneur Africa Cofounder CTO Hire 51

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Not even if its generating revenue. So I don't think the Apple experience should be used to discount lean, agile, or customer development-type approaches. Most executives, especially in startups, dont have the courage to hold their teams to a high standard for new products or features. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Good Times” presentation (Oct 2008). Year over year revenue growth rates are measured in multiples not percentages. Startup pitch decks now have an obligatory unit economics page, not just an up and to the right revenue graph. We’re only a few months past Sequoia’s famous “R.I.P. Image from Sequoia Capital presentation.

IPO 100

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 100

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

Finally, we’ll zoom out and assess the big picture: how various categories of company may be impacted long-term, how this crisis compares to 2008 (and what that means for early-stage founders), and the industries and business models that are now prime for growth. We’re not going to book any revenue for the next 12 months.

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 28, 2009

Some of these benefits are shared by agile systems which have continuous integration but large batch releases, but others are unique to continuous deployment. No automated test is going to catch that, but it still will drive revenue to zero. No automated test is going to catch that, but it still will drive revenue to zero.

Continuous Deployment 122

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Metrics 122

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Now, Andrew’s excellent piece that I quoted from above correctly diagnoses two situations where consumer internet companies often get in trouble: They focus too much on short-term revenue, getting caught in a local maximum via constant optimization. The real value we create is learning how to craft profitable ecosystems. Expo SF (May.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, October 30, 2008 John Doerrs 10 lean startup tips I just saw video of John Doerrs talk yesterday at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn&# roundtable event. Not just about expenses, about increasing revenue. Everyone from the receptionist to engineers is selling.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121