Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Paid - if your product monetizes customers better than your competitors, you have the opportunity to use your lifetime value advantage to drive growth. In this model, you take some fraction of the lifetime value of each customer and plow that back into paid acquisition through SEM, banner ads, PR, affiliates, etc.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, February 22, 2009 Please teach kids programming, Mr. President Of course, what I really mean is: let them teach themselves. February 22, 2009 5:54 PM CapnCleaver said. February 22, 2009 10:14 PM Aleks said. February 23, 2009 2:22 AM Clement said. February 23, 2009 9:23 AM Clement said.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Labels: product development 2comments: Anonymoussaid.

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Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

The Message Sitting around a conference room table brainstorming messages that might resonate with customers, or worse having a PR agency doing that for you, is a firing offense in a small company. You should be brainstorming messages with current and potential customers. Plus tips on overall trade show strategy.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Lo, my 2295 subscribers, who are you? Ive previously written about the advantages of having a pathetically small number of customers , and how to get started with customer segmentation. it seemed time to return to the subject of investigating who my customers are.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

It was priced at $22,000 – equivalent to about $140,000 in 2009 dollars. Reply Vincent Chan @Power of Scale , on June 22, 2009 at 9:35 am Said: Thanks for showing this letter. That year HP introduced its first computer, the HP 2116A , as an instrument controller for HP’s test and measurement products.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

While I love TechCrunch, the post and the quote about the PR agency (“one PR firm has discovered a dynamite strategy, throw ethics out the window&# ) left me wondering; how do PR agencies interact with TechCrunch and other blog and review sites? Is this behavior an outlier or is it the norm in the PR industry?

Silicon Valley 184

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2009

Reply Mark Essel , on August 3, 2009 at 12:58 pm Said: I think any engineer just hopping into aerospace or defense work would greatly benefit this background Steve. Reply gene , on August 3, 2009 at 5:23 pm Said: Thanks for picking up this series again, it is my favorite of all the ones you are writing.

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Yet our customers said they got their company and product information from only three publications: MacWorld, MacUser and MacWeek. They said the product reviews in these publications were by far the biggest influence on which card to buy. (This made our PR problem manageable and focused.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 8, 2010 Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Review) The next article in my series on entrepreneurship for Harvard Business Review is live today. This "success theater" is occasionally useful for PR or getting through a tough board meeting. Dont forget to leave a comment.

Metrics 121

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 17, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, April 17, 2010 Sneak preview, KISSmetrics (and more) Hear the CEO of KISSmetrics give a sneak preview of what hell be presenting at the Startup Lessons Learned conference on April 23 (were less than a week away!): The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 107

San Francisco Romania Cleveland South Africa 107

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 4, 2010 Stop lying on stage Entrepreneurs crave information about successful startups, and they should. The higher the vanity ratio, the more effective the PR. It helps companies with PR. And companies crave positive PR and control over their message – all for rational reasons.

San Francisco 167

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Do your customers really read TechCrunch? If not, do not launch there.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Not being able to hear negative customer input is an extremely bad idea. Out of the Ashes A few of the key tenets of Customer Development , came from the ashes. Which at this stage of the company was marketing and financing. So while the words may have passed through my ears I couldn’t “hear&# it.

Silicon Valley 122

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Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Customer Development There was nothing wrong about Rocket Science having a vision radically different than the conventional wisdom. Customer Development says having a vision, faith and a set of hypotheses are a normal part of the startup experience. The mistake isn’t having a vision and taking risks.

Silicon Valley 207

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, February 24, 2009 The lean startup at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Image by Jessica_Mah via Flickr Last week I had the opportunity to lecture again in Steve Blank s entrepreneurship class at Haas, which is always a great learning experience - for me at least! Nice talk, thanks for sharing.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

This is completely analogous to the situation elsewhere on the internet, where launching a new website, product, or service with PR is getting harder and harder. Customers and prospects are overwhelmed by the number of media and companies clamoring for their attention. Acqusition competition is how new apps get new customers.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 9, 2009 10 years of entrepreneurship I recently passed my ten-year anniversary of becoming an entrepreneur. We go to mixers, buy fancy offices, focus on PR, and try to one-up each other. July 9, 2009 7:32 AM Peter Kane said. July 9, 2009 8:46 AM Anonymoussaid. Great post.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 27, 2009 Cash is not king Cash on hand is just one important variable in a startup’s life, but it’s not necessarily the most important. Customer Development : a disciplined approach to finding out if there is a market for your product before its too late.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 22, 2010 Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Diversity is the canary in the coal mine for meritocracy. Engineers are offenders in this category too, but so is any gender-segregated activity, like an all-female PR or marketing team. Hint: it doesnt.

San Francisco 167

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Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2009

It had no PR agency. It was the model for almost every military startup that followed, and its alumni who lived through its engineering and customer-centric culture had a profound effect on the rest of the valley, the intelligence community and the country. Reply Jax , on July 21, 2009 at 3:38 am Said: Awesome story.

Silicon Valley 270

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem) Lean startups don’t optimize. Instead, we try to accelerate with respect to validated learning about customers. and for which customer? Unfortunately, startup success requires getting them all right.

San Francisco 154

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 13, 2010 The Superbowl ad test I am a firm believer in the danger of vanity metrics , numbers that give the illusion of progress but often mask the true relationship between cause and effect. For context "some 740 billion text messages were sent in the first half of 2009."

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

Every marketing communication hire couldn’t wait to produce the next great ad or PR program. In an early stage startup, instead of sales being up front, the point departments are likely to be product development and customer development. In my experience, every marketer with an MBA wants to “do strategy.”

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www.rocketwatcher.com

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Oct, 2010 38 Comments I think people are finally coming around to the idea that good marketing requires good measurement. Oct, 2010 at 9:39 am A comment and a question. Oct, 2010 at 12:09 pm Hi Hakan, Thanks for the comment. Oct, 2010 at 10:36 am Great post. Oct, 2010 at 11:54 am Oh good point.

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market-by-numbers.com

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Market By Numbers on Twitter | Entries RSS | Comments RSS Market By Numbers High-Tech Marketing and Customer Development Home What is Customer Development? Reply O modelo Freemium para Startups – parte II » Manual da Startup says: April 14, 2010 at 12:09 pm [.] Please Share! Feel free to Contact me.

San Diego 40

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

You could try and drive home that positioning with an expensive PR campaign, superbowl ads, and whatnot. May I add that if you are looking to build these loops and need an effective way to deliver your notification emails you should have a look at MxM ([link] January 4, 2009 8:56 AM Lukas Fittl said. June 18, 2009 11:20 PM JakeRsaid.

Viral 140

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www.rocketwatcher.com

DECEMBER 5, 2011

April 30, 2010. |. April Dunford says: April 30, 2010 at 11:14 am. Vandana Puranik says: April 30, 2010 at 11:15 am. says: April 30, 2010 at 11:15 am. JoeyDee says: April 30, 2010 at 11:38 am. aprildunford says: April 30, 2010 at 11:39 am. Tim Johnson says: April 30, 2010 at 1:49 pm. Social Media.

Naming 41

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, January 30, 2009 Achieving a failure We spend a lot of time planning. Launch with a PR blitz, including mentions in major mainstream publications. We can capitalize on new customers. As with many Silicon Valley failures, a flawless PR launch turned into a flawed customer acquisition strategy.

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techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Tweet View Comments Guest Author Sep 20, 2009 This guest post was written by Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg. Everything Seth said is absolutely spot on, except I’d encourage founders to make sure they do some customer development (even in the consumer space) in parallel to cranking out the first product. How To Get There.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, February 12, 2009 What is a market? (a Why do you think outsources have been happy to generate all this PR the past few years about people losing their jobs to India? February 12, 2009 3:30 PM Neil said. February 13, 2009 2:05 PM kareem said. great analogies.

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steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Reply Crystal Williams , on April 12, 2009 at 10:38 am said: Hi Steve! … Reply Avron Olshewsky , on June 10, 2009 at 11:03 am said: Hi Steve, Read your book “The four steps …&# and have enjoyed it and your blog. It is certaintly a great list to motivate me to get reading again. Keep up the great work! … Thanks!

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, September 11, 2009 The cardinal sin of community management Once you have a product launched, you will the face the joys – and the despair – of a community that grows up around it. There are many articles by many experts ( myself included ) extolling the virtues of listening to customers.

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