Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, March 25, 2009 The Lean Startup at Agile Vancouver April 21st A surprising number of respondents in the latest Lessons Learned survey hail from one of the flourishing startup hubs in Canada. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Department Mission Statements – What am I Supposed to Do Today It wasn’t that we somehow had inherited dumb employees. But what I wanted was an agile marketing team capable of operating independently without day-to-day direction. We hired union laborers to do that. Titles are not the same as what your job is. This is a big idea.

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Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. They hired a world-class team with co-founders and early employees who shared their vision. After that, there was no doubt to existing employees and new hires what the company was aiming for.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

I know plenty of people who prefer more advanced source control system, but my belief is that many agile practices diminish the importance of advanced features like branching. Its not that the idea behind them is wrong, but I think agile team-building practices make scheduling per se much less important. Youd better.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

You’re Hired, You’re Fired. My first job in Silicon Valley: I was hired as a lab technician at ESL to support the training department. The manager of the training department who hired you wasn’t authorized to do so – and he’s been fired. Could I work here if he wanted to hire me?&#

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Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should be articulate and agile in describing and demoing the products.) If your don’t have enough employees on the payroll, hire relatives, friends, or part-timers and train them. Where can I read about the training to give for employees who will be at a booth? Messages, themes, demo’s.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This is why companies often get out-competed by former employees (Palm vs Handspring to name just one), even though the upstart lacks all of the familiar resources, tools, processes, and support they used to have. Go on an agile diet quickly. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Although Im not a developer, I am captivated by the lean and agile start-up model that you write about. I plan to apply these models to my own ventures, especially within new contexts separate from software and web development. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Although Catalyst folded with the dot-com crash, Ries continued his entrepreneurial career as a Senior Software Engineer at There.com, leading efforts in agile software development and user-generated content. That institution will touch many people in its life: customers, investors, employees, and everyone they touch as well.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

As I evolved my thinking, I started to frame the problem this way: How can we devise a product development process that allows the business leaders to take responsibility for the outcome by making conscious trade-offs? When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. But along the way, something strange happened. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers. With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers. Expo SF (May.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Initially your job is to understand each of the parts of your business model before you hire someone to do it. Hopefully you and your co-founders are experts in one or two parts (agile development, SEO/SEM, etc.) But the rest; sales, marketing, bus dev is actually customer development that the founder needs to understand.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

The team hired only the best and the brightest. Not to be outdone, the technologists on the team had also brought their big guns, and the meeting was packed with employees of every level – from VP’s all the way down to me. The team hired only the best and the brightest. The engineering team wasn’t happy either.

Technical Review 164

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Usually we think of pitches in the context of raising money, but that is only one of many pitch situations. Expo SF (May.

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YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 5, 2016

While many small business owners made preparations such as hiring support staff, placing advance orders, checking inventory and promoting their business, they may not have thought through one important element – how to ensure these holiday customers want to come back long after the season is over.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Other companies accomplish this by hiring a large staff of content production experts - and get a very good result. Plus, we saw some of the intrinsic limitations of supporting such a large staff: slower cycle times, higher cost basis, and - most importantly - the ability to serve only a limited number of customer segments.

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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. bigs : @ericries says Stealth dev is a (undesirable, failure-presaging) customer-free zone. Use some customer development to find out.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Every two months, the company would have a big end-of-milestone meeting, with our Board of Directors, Business Advisory Board, and all employees present. And at each meeting, we’d also include an unedited, uncensored report direct from the Customer Advisory Board. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? Expo SF (May.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

Things Change In 1956 Hewlett Packard (HP) was a 17-year old company with $20 million in test equipment sales with 900 employees. The original Hewlett Packard which made test and measurement products was spun-out and renamed Agilent. Agilent is a $5.8 I’ll show you the memo in a second. But first some background.)

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Employees should be masters of their own time Every startup should have a culture of learning. The rule is simple: every employee is 100% responsible for how they spend their time. Now he really thought I was nuts, replying "from the recruiter who hired me, of course!"

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, February 11, 2009 The free software hiring advantage This is one of those startup tips Im a little reluctant to share, because its been such a powerful source of competitive advantage in the companies Ive worked with. This approach gives you an edge in hiring. Instead, engage with the project.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 29, 2008 The ABCDEFs of conducting a technical interview I am incredibly proud of the people I have hired over the course of my career. On the one hand, it gives you insight into what kind of employee the candidate might be. The six key attributes spell ABCDEF: Agility.

San Francisco 146

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Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

We need our own cafeteria so employees don’t have to leave the building. We hired an interior designer and a great facilities person to manage the process. The new building telegraphed to our employees, “We’ve arrived. I didn’t need to look much further than the “new building&# debacle I had a hand in.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 23, 2009

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 167

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

Yet, the real stories of successful startups are full of activities that can rightly be called institution-building: hiring creative employees, coordinating their activities, and creating a company culture that delivers results. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ▼ June (3) What is a startup?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Over-communicate with employees, investors, customers. Ive also used the voluntary salary reduction tool - its particularly useful as a way to get passionate employees who dont have a lot of personal expenses to buy into the mission of the company at a deep level. Pay attention to where your cash is. Dont sugar coat.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

In fact theyd cause there to be more jobs for Americans, because the companies they started would hire more employees as they grew. In fact theyd cause there to be more jobs for Americans, because the companies they started would hire more employees as they grew. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 31, 2009

If youve been following my efforts in figuring out the best way to evangelize the lean startup , youll know that I am trying to apply customer development principles. And if you know those principles, you may notice that I am trying to pass from the "customer discovery" phase to the "customer validation" phase.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

Whether youre a US citizen or an immigrant, entrepreneur or investor, founder or employee, theres something you can do. Whether youre a US citizen or an immigrant, entrepreneur or investor, founder or employee, theres something you can do. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 23, 2009

Priority will be given to employees of companies participating in the fbFund REV program, but I am confident that there will be room for members of the general public who want to attend. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? If youd like to reserve a spot, please RSVP.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It isnt until a customer actually clicks or calls to place an order that TPGTEXs developers will build the software. "We We do not develop a product until we get a paying customer," says Orit Pennington , who co-founded the six-employee company with her husband in 2002.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2013

We hoped to start acquiring customers mostly through responsible, focused SEO, where we would target a variety of high-value search terms and provide relevant, useful content to users. Lean Start-up Connection: Customer Development. Staying Agile. Lean Start-up Connection: Agile Development. Validation.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

For example, I often cite a real example of a problem that has as its root cause a new employee who was not properly trained. I pick that example on purpose, for two reasons: 1) most of the companies I work with deal with this problem and yet 2) almost none of them have any kind of training program in place for new employees.

San Francisco 164

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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. I think Drucker said it best. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 20, 2009

Its unit of progress is that of validated learning about its customers. Because this radical notion of progress is located firmly in the heads of its employees, and not in any artifacts they produce, the lean startup is employee-centric and knowledge-obsessed. It is a truly fun place to work. Expo SF (May.

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