Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

In this model, you take some fraction of the lifetime value of each customer and plow that back into paid acquisition through SEM, banner ads, PR, affiliates, etc. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Thats because a marketing launch is a one-time event, and rarely translates into renewable audiences. Even if you must launch to your customers, avoid the urge to also launch in extra places, just because your PR firm can do it at the same time.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

But part was a recognition that we could gain substantial competitive advantage by leveraging a community of like-minded visionary customers to serve a wider (and more mainstream) audience than we could alone. In the meantime, I think we have a good explanation for what all those PR dollars are being spent trying to obscure.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

.&# But we also invalidated a hypothesis that customers wanted an avatar; we had to learn a whole new way of explaining the benefits of avatar-mediated communication because our audience didn’t know what that word meant. What the PR stories tend to leave out is that we can get attached to every part of our vision, even the dumb parts.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The higher the vanity ratio, the more effective the PR. It helps companies with PR. face an overwhelming incentive to say whatever it is that will sound good to their audience, regardless of whether it is true. And companies crave positive PR and control over their message – all for rational reasons.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Metrics PR 167

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

This time, I was lucky enough to have my friend Nivi from Venture Hacks in the audience, and he was recording. What happened when we got early press (circa 2004) in violation of our own no-PR rule. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0,

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

The CAB, DC (aka the C3) and the APC fought hard to help you guys please the general audience, and at many times, the moderators as well, heck there were forum mods on the councils. Same goes for the AP products that the General Audience consumers (whicn includes teens) get their hands on. Desperately. Eric, people were PANICKING.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158