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

Whats striking about these stories, if you get past the PR hype, are two very important themes: These prodigies were self-taught, and had a fundamental fascination with technology from a very young age. January 14, 2010 12:43 AM wesley chun said. January 14, 2010 12:43 AM wesley chun said. Wow, this sounds familiar.

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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

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Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Lean Startups/Back to Basics (2000-2010): No IPO’s, limited VC cash, lack of confidence and funding fuels “lean startup” era with limited M&A and even less IPO activity. 2001 – 2010: Back to Basics: The Lean Startup. Startups could now get a first version of a product out to customers in weeks/months rather than months/years.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

In the meantime, I think we have a good explanation for what all those PR dollars are being spent trying to obscure. Labels: product development 2comments: Anonymoussaid. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Great post!

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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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Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

Reply Sujoy Neogi , on August 14, 2010 at 10:12 pm Said: Good one, but i feel you need to listen to Steve Blank more if you are a startup. ?domiausias However, the CEO as the “Rock Star&# always reminded me of why I fired any PR agency that was getting more press than the company it represented. carry on reading.

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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?

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

In a startup, these channels of communication are critical to understand for advertising, launch and PR purposes. But beyond the obvious, its also important to know where customers go to get answers to pressing questions. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 68

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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

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.

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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?

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2009

about the earliest days of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, it’s worth checking out this post from serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. If you want to refer to PVO by name, call it just PVO (acronym for “Air Defense&# in Russian). Reply Nelson A.

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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

MARCH 13, 2009

Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. Do your customers really read TechCrunch? Do some Customer Development instead. Spend your time with renewable sources of customers and iterate.

San Francisco 168

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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. era&# , but really interested in your take on these “free&# models through the prism of Customer Development. We all know how that ends up.

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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

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.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

What happened when we got early press (circa 2004) in violation of our own no-PR rule. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Bring your questions.

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The Next Web

JANUARY 27, 2013

It’s been slightly over two years since I attended Startup Weekend in September 2010, which literally changed my world for the better. Now, two years later, it is a good time to share some important lessons that I learned after taking the Red Pill that day in September 2010. Of course, not all my fears from 2010 have disappeared.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

Journalists, PR firms, investors, and the public at large love a scrappy come-from-behind story about two guys in a garage who figured out how to take down Goliath. Customer Development : a disciplined approach to finding out if there is a market for your product before its too late.

San Francisco 117

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

We go to mixers, buy fancy offices, focus on PR, and try to one-up each other. Instead, lets focus on building companies that matter , on creating real value for customers, and learning. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

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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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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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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. ESL had no marketing people. It shunned publicity.

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Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Joe Kindness, co-founder at Agency Analytics, says, “Since Blake and I were both developers (and still are), we were able to create this company without any funding or additional resources. After about a six-month development cycle, we launched a beta version in July 2010 and three months later, started earning revenue that grew each month.

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ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

2010 – Sean Ellis, who currently runs Qualaroo , coins the term “growth hacking” in his article, Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup. PR and publicity drive attention…to drive sales. It is simply getting customers. Conducted Customer Development. Established a Customer Success philosophy.

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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. The PR firm helpfully left out that context.) The PR firm helpfully left out that context.)

San Francisco 154

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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.

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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. Sometimes you have to state the obvious, I guess :) April 28, 2010 2:45 AM JakeR said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? It sounds a bit like spam.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

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. Labels: agile , customer development 5comments: William Pietri said. Great post!!!

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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.

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techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

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. So frequently embarrassing failures are masked by spinning PR or fudging numbers to give the illusion of success.

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steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Reply steveblank , on September 16, 2009 at 7:00 pm said: Greg, The Google Group “Lean Startup Circle&# at [link] is a wonderful repository of Customer Development/Lean Startup success and failure. It’s more reference material. Thus, these pages. I’ll add more as time goes on. Thanks a million.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Why do you think outsources have been happy to generate all this PR the past few years about people losing their jobs to India? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

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