Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Metrics – Mine is Bigger Than Yours The first thing SuperMac needed to do was to change how our potential color desktop publishing customers viewed our products versus our competitors’ products. As hokey as it is, when confronted with uncertainty or unknowns, human beings like to be reassured by comparative metrics.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review) I continue my series for Harvard Business Review with the Lean Startup technique called Five Whys. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

What I really liked in my conversations with The Hive is that they are willing to work with and fund ventures that would never get VC dollars. This company was started by Victoria Duff (who many of us know from back in the late 90s), Phillis Lane (who I have known for quite a few years) and Jon Bukosky.

Incubator 150

Incubator Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 31, 2016

Since it was part of the Version One marketplace meetup, we geared the conversation toward marketplace companies , but many points apply to software/SaaS startups as well. Here are some highlights from the conversation. . In other words, if you’re looking at generic metrics, you’ll end up with a generic strategy.

Software Review 60

Software Review South Africa Hockey Stick Viral 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, January 7, 2010 Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Although much of it will sound familiar to readers of this blog, whats new is my first step towards the " new entrepreneurship " that is my goal for 2010. Id be honored to have you join the conversation. Without further ado.

San Francisco 119

San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Most of the time, the experiments you run will have a zero percent conversion rate - meaning no customers were harmed during the making of this experiment. I would aim to get no more than 1o0 clicks per day - over the course of a week or two, youll get pretty good conversion data. Measure conversion rates.

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 25, 2011

If you somehow missed SLLCONF 2010 , you can get caught up with a complete video recording here.) Bring your tough questions – Brad and I will be having a conversation on stage and you’re invited to join us. No BS, no vanity metrics, no launches, no PR. The Lean Startup movement has made tremendous progress in the past year.

San Francisco 146

San Francisco Silicon Valley Lean Agile 146

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. Once again, we revisit the topic of Actionable metrics and their nemesis: Vanity metrics. For more, read on.

Metrics 121

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, January 15, 2010 Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Harvard Business Review) The next part in the series I am writing for Harvard Business Review is online. They are on-schedule and on-budget, but their gross metrics are way off. Leave a comment or reply to someone else.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

And the final lesson was that we were keeping score on our packaging with the wrong metrics – it wasn’t about awards, it was about sales in the retail channel. If you look at the top 3 online retailers by conversion rate, none of these are award-winning designs : [link] [link] [link] However, they convert ~25% of visitors to customers.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

Im constantly frustrated by conversations that take place in discussion groups that cant cross the border into the blog world. Interaction: * Not much right now between LinkedIn and my blog. Certainly my LinkedIn profile provides a better public profile for me. Otherwise, Ive not seen much. * And, I dont like to copy and paste.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

It is written in a conversational tone, doesnt take itself too seriously, and avoids extraneous fluff. It is written in a conversational tone, doesnt take itself too seriously, and avoids extraneous fluff. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, I think theyve succeeded. I think theyve succeeded.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Our goal is to eliminate the friction between individuals by ensuring that people are empathetic, good listeners and speak the truth in a diplomatic manner, leading to clear and appropriate conversations. I’ve lived in the Middle East with the grandiose idea of serving the Syrian refugees when the bombs hit in 2010!

Leadership 166

Leadership Founder Technical Review Entrepreneur 166

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Focus on the output metrics of that part of the product, and you make the problem a lot more clear. To promote this metrics discipline, we would present the full funnel to our board (and advisers) at the end of every development cycle. Max Levchin of Slide and Paypal has noted that 10% of Slides headcount is devoted to metrics only.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, March 29, 2010 New conference website, speakers, agenda The Startup Lessons Learned Conference on April 23 is fast approaching. The way forward requires getting everyone together in a room, and having a conversation about where were headed. Earlybird Admission pricing ends in just two days.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Im excited that well get more than the usual few minutes of Q&A, so come with a healthy appetite for conversation. If you or your company is interested in sponsoring someone with a scholarship to travel to the expo and contribute to the conversation, please leave a comment or let me know. You heard me right.

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

Life Beyond Code

JULY 10, 2010

CEREBRATE Silicon Valley 2010 happens during July 30 – Aug 1, 2010 at Mount Madonna. The event typically begins with no agenda and quickly develops into a a series of conversations finally resulting in deep relationships with a small number of people. Please nominate them here: Nominate for CEREBRATE Silicon Valley 2010.

Silicon Valley 73

Silicon Valley Metrics Conversion Networking 73

Occam's Razor

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

In blue is how much time we spent in 2010 and in blue the time spent in 2014. was the dramatic shift between 2010 to 2014 to mobile content consumption. They will need two different implementations, it is quite likely that you will end up with two sets of metrics (more people focused for mobile apps, more visit focused for sites).

Analytics 141

Analytics Metrics Mobile DC 141

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

Take a look at some of the emails between us from 2010: We were attending NYU from 2008–2012. We invest in protocols that meet our quantitative and qualitative metrics. Our Story The two of us met at NYU almost 10 years ago. Although we were studying finance, we were always more interested in tech. We were infatuated with tech.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, May 31, 2010 Thank you The past month has been an incredible roller coaster: #sllconf was a trending topic (briefly topping Justin Bieber before the wifi in the hotel gave out), the Web 2.0 Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0,

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics. For example, say that your business model calls for a 4% conversion rate – as ours did initially at IMVU. After a few months of early beta at IMVU, we discovered that our actual conversion rate was about 0.4%.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Occam's Razor

JANUARY 6, 2010

Before all the excitement of the new year wears out, here are five simple things I would love for you to try so that your company will have a glorious truly data driven 2010! #1: No longer can tools or "analysts" just puke 15 metrics on a report and hope to survive. 1: Don't suck. Seems obvious. 2 Learn basic statistics.

Analytics 99

Analytics Web Campaign PPC 99

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Ive had at least three conversations this week about the relationship between agile methodologies and customer development. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

To give you a sense, for 2002 the entire US online ad market was $6B and had shrunk year over year (it was $25B+ for 2010). Not long after the product launch we began the initial conversations with VCs for a Series A round. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. We’ve been lucky.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So I generally feel right at home in these conversations. Despite all the energy invested in talking to authors about the size of their platform, very few gatekeepers have a rigorous set of metrics for measuring it. In other words, they are facing conditions of extreme uncertainty, just like startups. Is that a lot?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

SoCal CTO

MAY 18, 2010

Some good ones already from May: "Authentic" is dead - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , May 3, 2010 Phrases that should be retired include - “Putting customers first” You Actually Did This? Steve Blank , May 6, 2010 Great presentations from Xobni and Dropbox on how they have gone about building their business.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Flash Startup Metrics 150

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Time-to-complete-a-sale is not a bad metric for validated learning at this stage. Whats the right set of materials, conversations, etc. Thank you for your simple, insightful explanation of why that is the wrong metric to use. And yet, their investors are frustrated.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Business model viability, in the majority of startups, will come down to balancing two variables: Cost to Acquire Customers (CAC) The ability to monetize those customers, or LTV (which stands for Lifetime Value of a Customer) Successful web businesses have long understood these metrics as they have such an easy way to measure them.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

This post is inspired by some of the earliest conversations I have had with the team here at NextView and since the beginning of my VC journey. Warning – this assumes some basic knowledge of VC performance metrics. One thing that jumps out quickly is that TVPI between 2004-2010 (avg 2.6x) has underperformed 2011-2017 (avg 3.0x).

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

trada.com

APRIL 7, 2010

You have to constantly be clear about what you are trying to achieve, what metrics move the business forward, how to learn enough about something to form an opinion of it, and in what order you think doing things will set your business up to scale. Each conversation was invaluable, and we didn’t play hide the ball with them.

Stealth 40

Stealth PPC Advertising Conversion 40

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

If you find yourself getting asked non-key questions, try to use your answers to steer the conversation back to the key questions. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Bring your questions.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

This post is inspired by some of the earliest conversations I have had with the team here at NextView and since the beginning of my VC journey. Warning – this assumes some basic knowledge of VC performance metrics. One thing that jumps out quickly is that TVPI between 2004-2010 (avg 2.6x) has underperformed 2011-2017 (avg 3.0x).

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

This is another sub-optimization caused by incentivizing the wrong metric. Given that most recruiting channels are pay-for-performance, its usually cheaper, too, because it has a lower conversion rate. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Keep them coming.

Lean 140

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Up and Running

JUNE 27, 2018

Take, for instance, a 2010 marketing snafu by Gap. If those are just milestones leading toward the ultimate goals of increasing conversion (or product purchase), did you get your new followers to take the right steps? Define success metrics before your campaign starts, then measure your effectiveness during and after the campaign.

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media Campaign Sales Cycle 109

Cracking the Code

JULY 10, 2009

United apologized, plans to use the video internally to help " change its culture ," and, according to a spokeswoman for the carrier: "We are in conversation with one another to make what happened right." ► 2010. (5). State of the SaaS 13: Q1 2010 Sentiment. Happy New Year 2010! The lesson here? at 10:33 AM.

Software Review 63

Software Review Technical Review RSS Europe 63

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Split-testing is great for linear optimization; making our landing pages, conversion rates, and retention metrics incrementally better day-in day-out. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

There's lots of information about performance and metrics out there, as well as a peer expectation that being concerned about those things is an important part of being a competent engineer. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Bring your questions.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87