Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

1x hacker in charge of product/development. 1x hipster working with both product and growth. Your customer acquisition cost and lifetime value are the two magical numbers you need to calculate for each one of your campaigns. Cost of Acquisition (CAC): The total cost of acquiring a user through a given channel.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. Alpaca VC shares their Master Agency List.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

David Teten

MAY 1, 2013

A startup called Corpora made headlines for all the wrong reasons after tech bloggers ran an image search to find the company logo. You want your company to show up first in the search results whenever someone is looking for a product you sell. There are three main factors to consider: Fit. The name needs to match the business.

Naming 114

Naming Semantic Venture Capital Startup 114

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

Past Product: Lackluster Marketing Causes Growth Stalls, Too. These pitfalls are not limited to product development. Often, erosion of customer loyalty has been going on for years but the company has failed to perceive it—until it’s too late. Swimming with Sharks. Growth teams are like those sharks.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Product marketers own a variety of marketing responsibilities, which can be roughly divided into two broad categories: pre-launch and post-launch. During product development and before launch, product marketing responsibilities revolve around the GTM strategy, positioning, and developing messaging. Image Source.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And when we do make bets, they’re small bets on incremental products or acquisitions that simply add to the bottom line.”. I suggested the best place to start the conversation is with the 21 st century definition of a startup: A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

The Enterprise: Business Model Execution We know that a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. It describes the product/service, who is it for, what channel sells/deliver it, how demand is created, how does the company make money, etc. The question is – why?

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Geoffrey Moore Author of Crossing the Chasm and four other books, Geoffrey Moore has been thinking about high-tech product development longer than most of have been doing anything on a computer. These highlights focus on the key points I took away from my favorite talks.

Software Review 47

Software Review Software San Francisco RSS 47

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 7, 2012

make a list of all the features customers want before they buy your product. hand Product Development a features list of the sum of all customer requests. hand Product Development a detailed marketing-requirements document. run focus groups and test customers’ reactions to your product to see if they will buy.

Startup 116

Startup Matching Acquisition Product Development 116

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Its the same with acquisitions. If an investor knows you have other investors lined up, hell be a lot more eager to close-- and not just because hell worry about losing the deal, but because if other investors are interested, you must be worth investing in. The key to closing deals is never to stop pursuing alternatives.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. Their product development team is hard at work on a next-generation product platform, which is designed to offer a new suite of products – but this effort is months behind schedule.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

techcocktail.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

be the manager and product developer). Team Roles: There are six main roles that most new organizations need to consider in some capacity. In a new venture, it’s typical that each team member will likely wear multiple hats (i.e. Just make sure that at any given time, each person knows what they are responsible for.

San Francisco 44

San Francisco Startup PHP San Diego 44

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

In a subscription business, maybe your attrition starts matching your acquisition, balancing like magic. Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value. Thoughts on scientific product development Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you? Nothing seems to matter.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

The Equity Kicker

JULY 16, 2015

In the first couple of months the focus should be on making sure the idea is valid, requiring the following activities: Development of the company vision and strategy. Search for a point of deep emotional resonance with customers – research work. First iteration of the product vision. First iteration of company messaging.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce Burn Rate Early Stage Hiring 60

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2021

These are the four stages of a product we’ll be focusing on. . However, on a more granular graph, the introduction phase would be preceded by a product development stage. This stage is used to determine the viability of your product and confirm when it should go to market. These channels should take priority.

Product 142

Product Marketing Software Review Social Media 142

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 23, 2015

Anyone who is familiar with the ResearchXL model will know that the two go hand-in-hand to deliver insights… Let’s say your problem is customer acquisition (you’ve seen the numbers). What has been the most frustrating part of your search today? What gives? You decide to set up a quick, one question exit survey for visitors.

Conversion 48

Conversion Retention Audience Software Review 48

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Others would go even further and say it is better to launch half a product than a half-assed product. The Four Steps to the Epiphany (highly recommended book by Steve Blank) preaches for customer development before product development, advocating a quick launch with a minimal feature set rather than a full fledged product offering.

Lean 120

Lean Customer Development Audience Viral 120

ConversionXL

AUGUST 30, 2018

It slows product development. To find allies, ask : Which departments indirectly use your product and have connections to people in the user roles you’re targeting? Include notes from your internal team that explain how insights are influencing product development. It costs money. It has no clear ROI.

Design 111

Design Framework Product Development Technical Review 111

Hunter Walker

MAY 20, 2013

Being one of the first Googlers to join YouTube after the acquisition taught me a lot about what works, and doesn’t work, when you bring a fast growing community property into a larger entity. Avoid Locality Bias in Product Development. When Google purchased YouTube there was lots of skepticism and outright derision.

Engineer 87

Engineer PR Leadership Community 87

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

Nearly all of the ones who''d been successful went through a natural process of customer development—what we call the “empathy” stage—followed by a tight focus on stickiness, then virality, then paid acquisition, and finally scaling. Alistair: There are plenty. The Magic 8-Ball seldom says “Ask again later.”

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

The App Store is a channel for customer acquisition. 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. Having that data will let you pick an acquisition strategy that is appropriate for your app. So what can you do?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

Take the search for a hat as an example. Uncovering what led them to search for X product or Y service helps inform the customer journey and buyer motivation. For some, this process will be a product development exercise, finding the best way to differentiate a new product or feature release.

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Marketing demand creation programs (Search Engine Marketing, Public Relations, Advertising, Lead Generation, Trade Shows, etc.) are all expensive and potentially fatal distractions if done before you have found product/market fit and a repeatable sales model. Where is the budget for purchasing the type of product you’re selling?

Lean 257

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 257

ConversionXL

JUNE 25, 2021

This plan is your go-to-market (GtM) strategy , which should be informed by: Market conditions and competitive positioning Ideal customers and target audience Product offer and pricing Lead generation and customer acquisition process. How a product launch strategy creates awareness and earns consideration from potential buyers.

Product 96

Product Social Media Audience Software Review 96

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

We had that luxury—we had three other profitable companies (focused on web design and development) when we decided to launch Chanty. We wanted to spend money on product development, not market research. Instead, we saved most of that money for product development. Chanty was, at its outset, a fun side project.

Differentiation 108

Differentiation Non-Compete Audio Algorithm 108

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

An Epic List of 100 Growth Hacks for Startups by Search Engine Journal. Peep Laja , ConversionXL : “I see growth hacking as traffic acquisition + conversion optimization.” Would they agree that growth hacking is essentially traffic acquisition plus CRO? Step 1: Product Development. …Really?

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

I write this post to put you out of your miserable technical co-founder search and give you some realistic options. It’s actually pretty hard to find a good start-up job if you have no real engineering or user acquisition / product management skills. I was in this situation and we barely escaped.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

abovethecrowd.com

OCTOBER 1, 2013

Internet analytics can be roughly broken down into two simple activities – customer acquisition and customer optimization. Nearly every Internet company on the planet has invested in some form of the first activity, customer acquisition. Customer acquisition efforts are pervasive in our industry.

Metrics 93

Metrics Conversion Internet Acquisition 93

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

Even for companies that essentially have only one product, the value the company creates is located not in the product itself but with the people and their organization who built it. To see proof of this, simply observe the results of the large majorities of corporate acquisitions of startups.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

Growth involves, in many businesses, more customer service, product development, support, marketing and so forth – in addition to more R&D. In our first startup, my partners and I built a customer acquisition model and tested it. In our first startup, my partners and I built a customer acquisition model and tested it.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

We had that luxury—we had three other profitable companies (focused on web design and development) when we decided to launch Chanty. We wanted to spend money on product development, not market research. Instead, we saved most of that money for product development. Chanty was, at its outset, a fun side project.

Differentiation 48

Differentiation Non-Compete Audio Algorithm 48

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

Its goal is to take the original idea and search for a repeatable and scalable business model - first by finding product/market fit, then by testing all the parts of the business model (pricing, channel, acquisition/activation, partners, costs, etc.). This is the group who will build the company.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

enabling you to expand on an already working business model), and if you’re in the extremely early stages of building your company, you still need to develop your product. Product development. When it comes to product development and marketing in the early stages of your tech startup, funding is optional.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Startup Forecast Channel 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Why, we just unified acquisition and engagement! But from a pragmatic perspective I think its a dangerous thing to rely on when making concrete product decisions. I do think the concept allows us to unify acquisition and engagement, and is important for that reason. helping you balance engagement vs acquisition.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

You have your general management meeting and in your general management meeting you talk about product development, about marketing and about finance. Jason: Well, look, nobody sits around and goes man, I wish my meetings were too productive. Edwin: I do get a lot of searches for that, by the way. Edwin: I know.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

www.humbledmba.com

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

flavor of a question-and-answer, poll-your-friends site with a distant revenue model and no user acquisition strategy. Ill help with product development ideas, offer feedback, make intros to investors (if I would myself invest.)--anything Some wouldnt, so I just asked them for general advice. Oh, and what was the company?

Stealth 90

Stealth NDA Startup IP 90

Software By Rob

MAY 21, 2010

(I’ve written an entire section on the “#1 goal of your website&# in my upcoming book, Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup ). The bottom line here is to take your launch seriously, as seriously as you’ve taken your product development.

Software Review 55

Software Review Startup RSS Software Developers 55