Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

Id be honored to have you join the conversation. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For most of us, the phrase management science conjures up a decidedly non-entrepreneurial image, and for good reason. Read the rest at The Conversation - Harvard Business Review. Id be honored to have you join the conversation.

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San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

I am grateful to everyone who helped make this event a success, especially my co-organizers Charles Hudson and David Sachs. Unfortunately, the video of our sllconf conversation is not online (due to technical problems), but we have a physical tape backup which we are endeavoring to get online soon.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

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. Expo SF (May.

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Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read. It is written in a conversational tone, doesnt take itself too seriously, and avoids extraneous fluff. I think theyve succeeded. The Entrepreneur’s Guide is an easy read. Expo SF (May.

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Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

The same has been true of an unfortunate number of startups, they manage to generate a lot of hype, raise a lot of money, and sometimes make some of their investors, employees, or founders rich. Ive been there: is it me or my cofounder thats crazy? Yet, I think this definition is too important to leave out. Iterating at whiteboard !=

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Way back when the money was doled out, the team made a compelling pitch about the large market that was going to adopt their new innovative product or service. Leave a comment or reply to someone else. Fostering that dialog is important. Expo SF (May.

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Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. Go on an agile diet quickly. More on that in a moment.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). Yes… he was a very successful PayPal exec and previously co-founder & VP Product of SocialNet. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO.

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Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Most important slide: about the founders In a pitch meeting, try to spend as much time as possible talking about the key questions for your pitch. If you find yourself getting asked non-key questions, try to use your answers to steer the conversation back to the key questions. who is the competition? will they fail fast? Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Weve gone from total obscurity to something people are beginning to misunderstand and even co-opt. The way forward requires getting everyone together in a room, and having a conversation about where were headed. If a relatively small number of highly-motivated entrepreneurs attend, then well have an intense and intimate conversation.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Yet other agile principles suggest the opposite, as in YAGNI and DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork. Reconciling these principles requires a little humility.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

It was actually my co-founder Will Harvey who taught me to present this data in the simple format weve discussed in this post. You need to make sure you dont get away from trying bold new things, using some combination of your vision and in-depth customer conversations to come up with the next idea to try. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Most importantly, if you know a high-quality entrepreneur who you think would add to the conversation, would you be willing to try and convince them to attend? We changed our model to B2B and adopted Agile around 2002. Would you be willing to link to the Master Class info page from your blog? Expo SF (May.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

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%. That’s not too surprising, because our product was pretty bad in those days. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Returning to our example of the beleaguered founder who still has the pager, before hiring an operations guy, try promoting someone from within to take on the job. Given that most recruiting channels are pay-for-performance, its usually cheaper, too, because it has a lower conversion rate. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 2, 2010

By all accounts, the conversation was a success. By all accounts, the conversation was a success. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 149

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So I generally feel right at home in these conversations. If you want to get ahead in this new world, agile is already not agile enough, lean is too fat and investing money in processes which tell you whether you're doing the right thing will put you on the right track but not out in front. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The visionary’s lament The Superbowl ad test Lo, my 57692 subscribers, who are you? Expo SF (May. Amazon PostRank

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Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 11, 2010

The Conversation - Harvard Business Review : Still, startups develop some kind of process — whether its disciplined, haphazard, bureaucratic or empowering — because building a great product depends on it. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 28, 2010

This conference will be the first of its kind: an opportunity to have a conversation about the future of the lean startup movement. We want everyone who can contribute to that conversation to be there, regardless of their ability to pay. Im hopeful that other companies will step up and become scholarship sponsors, too. Expo SF (May.

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Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 109

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 6, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, March 6, 2010 Startup Visa update As I write this, I am traveling at 30,000 feet on Virgin Americas excellent IAD->SFO nonstop, following an intense few days of conversations in Washington, DC about the Startup Visa. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco DC Washington Startup 113

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review : The idea is simple. Read the rest of Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics at The Conversation on Harvard Business Review. Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review : The idea is simple.

Metrics 121

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 121

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

The names of these once great, now defunct firms may not be terribly familiar today but here are just a few examples: American Research & Development [Boston] –> Founded by George Doriot and depending how you count it, either the first or second formal VC firm in the US. But it’s not quite that simple. link] Fred Destin.

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Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Agile VC

JANUARY 12, 2012

When a startup doesn’t match the stage where a particular investor focuses, founders may get a response along the lines of “This is interesting to us, but come back once you get from X phase to Y phase” That could be from seed stage to a larger Series A financing need, or to progress from pre-product to post-revenue.

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Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 100

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 22, 2009

Loved it and great speaker, but disagree with portrayal of agile only dealing with known problems #leanstartup Im really interested in perspectives on this point. For example, the agile practice of an in-house customer or product owner that can make authoritative prioritization decisions seems like it doesnt translate very well to startups.

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 76

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

If you and all the people around your startup (co-founders, advisors, existing investors) feel strongly that the company A) could benefit from additional equity capital at this time and B) you’ve accomplished value accretive milestones since your last round of funding, then it might make sense to talk with potential new investors.

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Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 16, 2010

Rashmi Sinha, co-founder and CEO of SlideShare , describes an early version of the analytics package that’s part of the Pro accounts the company announced today. ’&# They removed the core plan, and conversions went up. ’&# They removed the core plan, and conversions went up.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Analytics Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 23, 2009

fbFund REV featuring Eric Ries The Lean Startup Host: fbFund Type: Education - Lecture Network: Global Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009 Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm Location: fbFund REV Garage Street: 164 Hamilton City/Town: Palo Alto, CA RSVP Here So, if you are in the Bay Area and want to swing by Palo Alto on Thursday afternoon, come join the conversation.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

How do you drop a phrase like "voluntary salary reduction tool" and then not describe it :) Unless youre simply talking about the standard "hey, take less cash and Ill give you more options" type conversation. When you said "tool" I thought you actually meant you had a tool. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

A lot of conversation was about what "the federal government" should do. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Startup=Experiment. link] Amen! Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco DC Washington Lean 92

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

For founders, I think it also has another big attraction: the ability to avoid a lot of " free vs paid " arguments. Do it right, and your conversion rates might be as high as 20%. These are companies that generate revenue by offering a free product with an upsell or premium version. Do it wrong, and your LTV gets very close to zero.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Paul quotes one of his founders like this: “Thats the actual beauty in the off-the-record-ness: you hear just how screwed up most of these successful startups were on the way up.&# It makes successful founders famous. It makes successful founders famous. It sells newspapers and magazines. It helps companies with PR.

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San Francisco Lean PR Metrics 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. Some startups fail because the founders cant have this conversation - they either blow up when they try, or they fail to change because they are afraid of conflict. Thats why its so essential to have a co-equal problem team.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 1, 2009

My challenge for the new year is getting the word out about our product (AwayFind), while of course improving on conversions, etc. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 19, 2008

Those conversations are the best way to look for patterns in the noise. Im Community Manager at VenCorps, co-host of commandN. I worked at Flock, ConceptShare and co-founded Raincity Studios in Vancouver. Stevey's Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile Learning from Obama: maneuver warfare on the campa.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2009

For those whove heard it, it contains a length discourse on the subject of agile software development and extreme programming, including its weaknesses when applied to startups. As Im pontificating about agile, I see the name Kent Beck in my peripheral vision. Conversion optimization is a form of kaizen.

Lean 140

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 140

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

LIKED: Y startups fail, cont deployment vs waterfall vs agile, small batches & learn fr biz metrics #leanstartup As concise a summary as Ive ever seen. With so many deployments how do you deal with database schema changes and data conversion for these schema changes? farazq : Awesome session @ericries. Expo SF (May.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60