Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. They are gaining valuable customer data.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Here again is your chance to make pivots for almost no cost.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Here again is your chance to make pivots for almost no cost.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

The intent is to indicate that founder passion is not a substitute for real customers buying the product. The challenge is to convince investors that your business will attract real customers, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses. Pivoting early, based on real customer feedback, is always cheaper than later.

Angel Investor 147

Angel Investor Distribution Bootstrapping Viral 147

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

I received the following question from a reader: I was wondering if you had any thoughts on cost of customer acquisition for freemium businesses. Our lifetime value of a customer is only around $1 when you factor in a high initial churn and all the free users. And I hate basing a business on luck and outlier-class talent.

Acquisition 56

Acquisition Customer Bootstrapping Viral 56

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Very simply, your cost to acquire a customer needs to be lower than the value of that customer (lifetime value). This is obvious. Marketing first.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Very simply, your cost to acquire a customer needs to be lower than the value of that customer (lifetime value). This is obvious. Marketing first.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Up and Running

MAY 22, 2017

Your business should appeal to customers by solving a problem. What can you do to make life easier for your potential customers? Who are your target customers ? There are tons of resources to help you launch a bootstrapped business. What overhead costs will the business have to deal with at launch? No problem.

Due Diligence 113

Due Diligence eCommerce Cofounder Bootstrapping 113

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). In simple terms the customer's risk of doing nothing has to be higher than the risk of buying software from an unknown startup. Learn the rule of 3.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Here again is your chance to make pivots for almost no cost.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. We didn’t spend any real cash prior to getting our first paying customer,” recounts Arsenault. “I’ll We also got lucky and qualified for some startup benefits with companies like Rackspace, who covered our infrastructure costs for the first year,” continues Arsenault. “We

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

But in today’s world, speed-to-scale entrepreneurship is what we need to improve society, transform industries, and create massive value for customers, employees, and investors. Customers value and benefit from the convenience, price, and selection of Amazon, which is why the company is, by a wide margin, America’s largest bookseller.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 15, 2017

Why take on the costs of space, salespeople, etc? So the short answer is: the costs and burdens of physical retail are acceptable to us since we have a clear and short path to profitability for each location. The viral nature of it has been incredibly fruitful in building awareness and oftentimes conversion as well.

Marketing 48

Marketing Design Acquisition Bootstrapping 48

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

I decided it was time to put pen to paper and lay out what I see as a repeatable path with a higher-than-normal success rate, to bootstrapping yourself to the point of quitting your job. Here’s how it works: Step 1: Your First Product. Getting those initial early sales is a big win. all at once.

Bootstrapping 41

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 41

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

High infrastructure companies Traditionally, software investors have loved being in the software industry because the capital costs are low and also because you can get something into the market quickly. Do you have virality built into the product? In the beginning, this may not be a problem — you can bootstrap.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. We didn’t spend any real cash prior to getting our first paying customer,” recounts Arsenault. “I’ll We also got lucky and qualified for some startup benefits with companies like Rackspace, who covered our infrastructure costs for the first year,” continues Arsenault. “We

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

Software By Rob

MARCH 26, 2015

I decided it was time to put pen to paper and lay out what I see as a repeatable path with a higher-than-normal success rate, to bootstrapping yourself to the point of quitting your job. Here’s how it works: Step 1: Your First Product. Getting those initial early sales is a big win. all at once.

Bootstrapping 27

Bootstrapping Technical Review SEO Revenue 27

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

A description of the problem you’re solving for your customers, and your solution to the problem, which is usually your product or service. The software was sold based on installation cost running on local servers for enterprises—which was very, very expensive. The best way to do this is to get out and talk to your potential customers.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2023

And it's the same thing for individuals because at that early stage of a business, when you don't yet have a product, even sometimes when you don't yet have, um, customers, you don't yet have traction in sales, how are you gonna judge it? Should you bootstrap? Well, you're gonna judge it by the team, by the co-founders. 10:56): Right?

Audio 87

Audio Cofounder Framework Early Stage 87

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

You have to be 1000% dedicated to the mission and the problem you’re trying to solve and always be customer focused, because it is a long ride. — She explains why they turned to Kickstarter and what happened with their campaign: We kept hearing from investors, “Who are your customers? Who’s invested?”

Entrepreneur 260

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 260

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Where they don’t belong is with a bootstrapped founder trying to figure out how many customers she can expect to reach next month on her shoestring marketing budget. Maybe we can’t rely on our freemium, advertising-based, viral revenue model, though. Capital needs are a function of the cost of delivering the product.

Marketing 64

Marketing Software Review Matching Bootstrapping 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2018

In my experience with technical entrepreneurs, they work hard on creating an innovative and elegant solution, and assume that customers will flock to them (“if we build it, they will come”). The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and the perfect customer segment. Look for feedback on how to make it a better fit.

Product 137

Product Advisory Board Business Model Cofounder 137

mashable.com

AUGUST 20, 2011

Startup life is all about bootstrapping, but you need a place to work, right? “There’s simply no budget for [an office], as I bootstrap the company,&# says Paul Molluzzo, founder of Baby Goes Mobile , a web app that lets parents create a private baby book they can view and update from their mobile phones.

Cofounder 81

Cofounder San Francisco Social Media Startup 81

sharkseo.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

RSS Feed 19 Nov 2010, Posted by admin in Featured , Nohat , 26 Comments SEO Advice for Bootstrapped Startups SEO can provide a hugely valuable source of traffic, if done right – especially for a bootstrapped startup where money is tight. Aaron Wall, SEO Book Add a free feature which is accessible, useful, and spreads virally.

Bootstrapping 49

Bootstrapping SEO Startup Widget 49

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

You have to be 1000% dedicated to the mission and the problem you’re trying to solve and always be customer focused, because it is a long ride. — She explains why they turned to Kickstarter and what happened with their campaign: We kept hearing from investors, “Who are your customers? Who’s invested?”

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 120

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Accounting, Billing, Invoicing, Estimating & Contracts LiteAccounting – Invoice and track payment from your customers without a bunch of extra, useless features. Bootstrap – Online bookkeeping software that lets you track sales and expenses, organize your records for tax time, and more.

Software Review 78

Software Review Social Media Social Network Software 78

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 24, 2020

But not when compared to the incredible cost of having our entire economy shuttered. The entire Vaccine Manhattan Project could be underwritten by the cost of the economy being closed for only eight days. Zoom would go from 10 million to 300 million customers overnight. All the schools would be closed.

Founder 60

Founder Technical Review Leadership Software Review 60