Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

For the many entrepreneurs that send me cold emails asking for me to review a business plan or answer a strategic dilemma: Im much more likely to answer if youve already tried getting an answer on the mailing list. Youll probably get a better result, anyway. Youll probably get a better result, anyway.

Lean 146

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup 146

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2009

My startup business (web development) is being shunned by virtually every other potential investor I approached thus far. The only folks who invested in me were the ones who barely understood the business plan. My 2008 revenues were over $100k on a 35k inventory. They just havd faith in me. I am chugging along.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Certainly venture-backed startups don’t have this luxury – every business plan has a model in it. And yet, it’s not really fair to ask that the company’s money be spent without anyone bothering to build a financial model that can be used to judge success.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Figuring this out takes time, and few entrepreneurs have the patience to wait it out, because the business plan does such a good job of explaining what customers are going to think. The problem is that customers dont read your business plan. Combining agile development with customer developm.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 5, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, November 5, 2008 Getting educated about advertising, agencies, and media buyers I see lots of startups whose business plans revolve around selling high-value ad space to brand advertisers. At first glance, this makes a lot of sense. 1 comments: Desoja said.

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Advertising San Francisco Media Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Startup founders need to use their own judgment to ask: which is the riskiest assumption underlying my business plan? In each of the ecosystem examples I gave above, the tactics of the minimum viable product are quite different. It doesn’t say anything about which risks it should be used to mitigate.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Ali G meets with business leaders and investors on Wall Street to learn how to create a new company around a new product idea. After some general lessons, he then proposes his first product idea, complete with flip charts, business plan, and marketing plan.

San Francisco 104

San Francisco DC Continuous Deployment Lean 104

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Or it might mean selling a few products on a site like eBay to see how well they perform before ordering in bulk from a wholesaler. What sets this approach apart from practices like using focus groups is that companies base product development decisions not just on what customers say they want but on how they vote with their wallets.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

One can see how it ripples through the entire business plan. I think its critical technologists understand market segments, even more than market types. I recently took a stab at explaining segments, based on Moores definition Sean mentions above. Expo (and a call for he.

San Francisco 89

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean 89