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.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

mashable.com

MAY 9, 2011

This is especially true when it comes to tech companies hiring the wrong chief technology officer. Today, CTOs are multi-taskers that aren’t just coders locked in some basement — they play a vital role in a tech company’s strategic plan and growth. Have an account? Zach Cutler , The Cutler Group.

CTO Hire 73

CTO Hire Fractional CTO CTO Technical Review 73

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Its common to find a hacker at the heart of almost any successful technology company. When a startup encounters difficult technical problems, this is the guy you want solving them. As the company grows, hes the go-to person for almost everything technical, and so hes very much in demand. All is not lost, though.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer. I explained it to people this way: agile lets you make the trade-offs visible to whole company, so that they can make informed choices. Even worse, agile wasnt really helping me ship higher quality software.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

I was the junior guy on a project team; I was called in to do some technical due diligence for reasons that were obscure to me, because the team already had much more senior engineers assigned to it. As a technical fix, it was brilliant. I remember one such meeting vividly. So they react in two ways.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now A great checklist of techniques and tools for making your development more agile, written from a Rail perspective. Expo SF (May.

Software Review 68

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 2, 2008 Paul Graham on fundraising I have found no better primer on the current realities of starting a new technology company in a startup hub like Silicon Valley than Paul Grahams essays. but rest assured they would be. . Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

And a special thanks is due to all of our presenters, panelists, and mentors. 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. If thats true, its primarily due to your hard work, building companies and testing new ideas. We all owe you.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Institutional and individual investors have clearly been shying away from risky assets in favor of those with less risk (actual or perceived)… hence $1800 gold, Swiss franc frenzy, and record low yields on US treasuries and Germand bunds. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC.

IPO 100

IPO Marketing Silicon Valley Private Equity 100

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

Build a world-class technology platform, with patent-pending algorithms and the ability to scale to millions of simultaneous users. This is why agility is such a prized quality in product development. As far as I know, there are no products that are immune from the technology life cycle adoption curve. We can skip the chasm.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Lean Agile Continuous Deployment 150

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

Refreshing to finally see lean and agile thinking emerge in product/business-floors and not only in technology. While it is still possible - and recommended to experiment with customers in order to determine the minimum that they need, the exercise is bit more complicated due to the formality of the release process. Thank you.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

for Harvard Business Review) Im excited to have just published the first of several articles on entrepreneurship for the Harvard Business Review online. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For most of us, the phrase management science conjures up a decidedly non-entrepreneurial image, and for good reason.

San Francisco 119

San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 13, 2009 The Principles of Product Development Flow If youve ever wondered why agile or lean development techniques work, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald G. Wow, great review! Thanks for the informative review.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

Recent economic events, technological change, and the rapid diffusion of information about the old models have combined to help us all realize just how important entrepreneurship is - and just how little we really know about it. My success is due in no small part to their early and enthusiastic endorsement.

Lean 146

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup 146

Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

—————- The next piece of the Secret History of Silicon Valley puzzle came together when Tom Byers , Tina Selig and Mark Leslie invited me to teach entrepreneurship in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program ( STVP ) in Stanford’s School of Engineering. My office is in the Terman Engineering Building.

Silicon Valley 199

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 199

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 15, 2008 The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time Split-testing is a core lean startup discipline, and its one of those rare topics that comes up just as often in a technical context as in a business-oriented one when Im talking to startups. First of all, why split-test? Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and whats changed since then) My recent article on technical debt and its positive uses generated a fair bit of controversy. It had a pretty good technical design. That "good design" turned out to be technical debt, after all.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, January 15, 2010 Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Harvard Business Review) The next part in the series I am writing for Harvard Business Review is online. They are long-term bets on the development of a new line of business, a new technology platform, or the creation of a new market.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 13, 2011

In France, the decline was – 4% [link]. What You Need to Know About Agile UX – [link]. An Interview With Twitter’s Forgotten Founder, Noah Glass – [link]. YouTube starting to roll out a live service – [link]. US newspaper revenues faced a 30% decline 2007-09.

Social Media 91

Social Media Small Business Design Media 91

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Yes, you may be more familiar with the term open source, but lets give credit where credit is due , at least for today). Ignore the famous people who are busy giving lots of speeches about how technology X will change the world. Heres the short version: hire people from the online communities that develop free software. Expo SF (May.

Software Review 68

Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Playing with new technologies. One approach to the issue you bring up that's worked for us is to set an initial due date that’s overly aggressive, and expect that we’ll probably blow through it (while suspending disbelief as much as possible). Seeing whats possible. Building and testing prototypes. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2009

Due to an interaction effect between your hardware, solar flares, and quantum flux, this virus will crash your computer and erase your hard drive sometime soon. And I’ve seen companies fail the other way – the so-called Friendster effect: having a high-profile technical failure just when customer adoption is going wild.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Architecture Lean Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Code reviews and pairing Great practices. Heck, thats what it says right there in the agile manifesto. So that you can learn from our mistakes, Chad has helpfully listed ten reasons why you want to manage this dirty-code (sometimes called "technical debt") problem proactively. But it worked. We made it. So can you. Expo SF (May.

Continuous Deployment 123

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 123

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The other revels in the world as we all know it will be someday: limitless distribution enabled by new technologies, the importance of collaborative filters, and on-demand availability of all content for end-users. But the same technologies that make life difficult for traditional marketers also offer them unprecedented new opportunities.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

Part of this is due to their determination to overtake us, but part is due to structural changes in the nature of entrepreneurship. For example, over 25% of the technology companies founded between 1995-2005 had a key immigrant founder. But today, it is getting harder and harder to maintain. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 121

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

That’s because Five Whys will often pierce the illusion of separate departments and discover the human problems that lurk beneath the surface of supposedly technical problems. But if we stay stuck at the technical parts of the problem, and never uncover the human problems behind them, we’re not going far enough.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Im also excited to share two long-form reviews from actual attendees. Thank you @ericries for drastically altering my perception of agile startup Thank you all so much for your kind words. Technically you argue it goes back 30 years when StorageTek was founded. I was really overwhelmed this time. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

So when we start checking in code more often, release more often, or conduct more frequent design reviews, we can actually do a lot to make those steps dramatically more efficient. Sounds very similar to agile development which is the way. However, a technological solution cant necessarily resolve all human root causes.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. I joined a financial services tech startup in 1999. May 14, 2009 5:23 AM David said.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Over time, such teams either explode due to irreconcilable differences or dramatically slow down. Lean manufacturing , agile software development , and Theory of Constraints are all examples of this idea in action. Even in the narrow field of giant tech companies, their early products were wildly different.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

From a technical point of view, its amazing. All I see is a name, an icon, a price, the developers name, and a review star-rating. The reviews are all over the map. But even clicking through to see a screenshot and some reviews is incredibly time consuming, given the hundreds of apps in most categories. Expo SF (May.

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

That data is completely consonant with the people I know who are successful technologists today, and similar patterns are documented in each recent wave of technology innovation. There would be no Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, or countless other job-creating tech companies today if early computers required corporate authorization to use.

Programming 143

Programming San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 143

mashable.com

MAY 5, 2011

Another way is get behind the power blogs such as mashable, techcrunch and get them to write a review or do an interview for your solution. Have an account? In April, “stealth” social media startup Kohort announced its upcoming launch. Within a few days, the site received thousands of user signups, according to its founder Mark Davis.

Pakistan 94

Pakistan Social Media Startup Stealth 94

mashable.com

MAY 24, 2011

Discovery by social and webapp html5 is more agile and less icon-find-item-search. With more than 40 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new Web sites and services, and offering social media resources and guides. Have an account?

Mobile 90

Mobile Web Social Media Software Review 90

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Thanks to a phenomenon called the Fundamental Attribution Error in psychology, humans tend to become convinced that other people’s behavior is due to their fundamental attributes, like their character, ethics, or morality – even while we excuse our own actions as being influenced by circumstances. Expo SF (May.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 16, 2009

Its design goals arent geared towards efficiency in terms of technical costs. It would carefully monitor their behavior, and especially their technical metrics, like crashes and freezes. Then we could render the whole site with much less latency, bandwidth usage, and server cost. Expo SF (May. Expo (and a call for he.

Continuous Deployment 68

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2009

However, it made me remember that Im tired of technology arguments. I believe that if you practice TDD, continuous integration, and active refactoring from the start, you can write maintainable code in any language. January 16, 2009 2:02 PM Chrissaid. Nice article. Dont get me wrong, the right tool should be used for the right problem.

PHP 166

PHP Software Review Ruby San Francisco 166