Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Burr, Egan, Deleage [Boston] –> Huge wins in the 1980s and early 90s included Continental Cablevision (sold for $5.3B – now a big chunk of what is Comcast), Qwest Communications, Cephalon (biotech IPO, acq by Teva), and Powersoft (Burr, Egan made 35x when it went public and then was acquired by Sybase). link] Dave Sandrowitz.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

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.

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

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. Although many of the non-technical folks in the room didnt understand what was happening in the moment, plenty of hackers were on high alert. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

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. And how do you pick a new direction? Both are lethal outcomes. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

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. I think theyve succeeded. The Entrepreneur’s Guide is an easy read. I think theyve succeeded. Expo SF (May.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). Not long after the product launch we began the initial conversations with VCs for a Series A round. And obviously all the liq prefs went away in the IPO when pref stock converted to common. is the leading consumer internet company with Terry Semel as CEO.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

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.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

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 13, 2008

And then we would use that simple analytics system I mentioned to monitor the conversion rates of customers from each campaign. ► 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.

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164

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.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

The way forward requires getting everyone together in a room, and having a conversation about where were headed. My aspiration with the Lean Startup methodology has always been to provide such a framework, so that we have more intelligent conversations about what works and what doesnt for startups. Thats what this conference is for.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

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. ► 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 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Go on an agile diet quickly. With a product development team that is not shipping, any agile methodology will surface major problems quickly. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said. Whats the right set of materials, conversations, etc. Great post! You do a great job articulating. Expo SF (May.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

The advantages of cross-functional teams are well documented, and for a thorough treatment I recommend the theory in the second half of Agile Software Development with Scrum. I want to focus here on one particular strength: the ability to operate semi-autonomously. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 74

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

I thought we were having a successful conversation. Back to my conversation with the company I met recently. Labels: agile , product development , Test-driven development 11comments: William Pietri said. I was told they werent sure, because all of their engineers were currently busy refactoring. Great post, Eric. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

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.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

He summarized that conversation well, so rather than re-tread that material, Ill quote it here: One thing that I was surprised to learn was that IMVU started out with continuous deployment. They were deploying to production with every commit before they had an automated build server or extensive automated test coverage in place. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review Lean 131

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.

San Francisco 149

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 149

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

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. But where do those ideas come from in the first place? Split-testing doesnt have to be limited to micro-optimizations, either. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Each of those levers -- conversion rate, action/user, msgs/action, etc. -- are important when thinking about how and why users engage with your product. Combining agile development with customer developm. So, in summary: 1. always think carefully about which lever of engagement to use in your situation 2. Eric, Oh, yes, ok.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

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.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Given that most recruiting channels are pay-for-performance, its usually cheaper, too, because it has a lower conversion rate. ► 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.

Lean 140

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

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. Remember that we can use split-testing for both the problem team and solution team, and that causes a lot of confusion. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

At least, not in the traditional sense of trying to squeeze every tenth of a point out of a conversion metric or landing page. At least, not in the traditional sense of trying to squeeze every tenth of a point out of a conversion metric or landing page. Instead, we try to accelerate with respect to validated learning about customers.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

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.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers. Agile project management tool that enables real time collaboration. Agile project management. agile product management. agile product management and Scrum tool. Agile project management tool collaborative product life-cycle. Agile eLearning.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

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.

San Francisco 120

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.

Lean 109

Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 109

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Beyond just those who will be hearing about the lean startup for the first time, Im expecting to shake a lot of hands and have a lot of interesting side conversations. Im especially curious to gauge the reaction of the civilian and military representatives of our government. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

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.

San Francisco 113

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

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2008

Youll need bundles, promotions, category and segment managers, and algorithms for upsell, cross-sell, and conversion optimization. ► 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 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Of course a VC firm that has stellar performance will often attract new LPs interested in investing, or conversely one that performs poorly will have existing LPs drop out. But inevitably there’s some shifts in the LP composition of a VC firm’s funds over time, either due to circumstances with the firm or particular LPs or both.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

For example, does an Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificate gain higher conversions than a standard SSL? Does having an expensive Verisign branded SSL and site logo gain higher conversion than the low-cost GoDaddy equivalent? The visionary’s lament The Superbowl ad test Lo, my 57692 subscribers, who are you? Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 132

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 132

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.

Lean 74

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.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121