Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

Defective prototype code was as often thrown out (because customers didnt want it) as it was fixed (when customers did). Defective prototype code was as often thrown out (because customers didnt want it) as it was fixed (when customers did). Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Thats the conclusion Ive come to after watching tons of online products fail for a complete lack of customers. Our goal is to find out whether customers are interested in your product by offering to give (or even sell) it to them, and then failing to deliver on that promise. Just load them all in and choose a low cost-per-click.

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Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

We wanted an agile approach that would allow us to build our software architecture as we needed it, without downtime, but also without large amounts of up-front cost. Labels: agile , continuous deployment 1 comments: timothyfitz said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean 94

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 16, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 16, 2009 Continuous deployment with downloads One of my goals in writing posts about topics like continuous deployment is the hope that people will take those ideas and apply them to new situations - and then share what they learn with the rest of us.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

It is becoming easier and cheaper for companies to bring products to market, leveraging free and open source software , cloud computing, open social data (Facebook, OpenSocial ), and open distribution (AdWords, SEO). Lean startups have the ability to use this commodity stack to lower costs and, more importantly, reduce time to market.

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Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

It costs not just the time of the actual meeting, but the time getting there and back, and the time preparing for it beforehand and thinking about it afterward. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight. If youre interested in being part of my "customer advisory board" for this presentation, please get in touch. And thats where the call for help comes in.

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Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, January 19, 2009 Lean hiring tips In preparing for the strategy series panel this week, I have been doing some thinking about costs. I want to talk specifics, and when you come right down to it, most technology startups dont have a very interesting cost structure. That depends.

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Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

But if you want to practice rapid deployment, you need to be able to deploy that build in one step as well. If you want to do continuous deployment, youd better be able to certify that build too, which brings us to. For more on continuous deployment, see Just-in-time Scalability. Can you make a build in one step?

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

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. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

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. So we tried to craft a strategy that would give us the product development leverage we needed to serve all customers.

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Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

We can choose to continue paying the interest, or we can pay down the principal by refactoring the quick and dirty design into the better design. Although it costs to pay down the principal, we gain by reduced interest payments in the future. Unfortunately, customers hated that initial product.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Each part of the program is organized around one phase of the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop and begins with a keynote address from a heavy hitter: Steve Blank on Customer Development, Randy Komisar on "Getting to Plan B" and - a third person, not-yet-announced-but-extremely-cool-trust-me. Is design important to lean startups?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

bigs : @ericries says Stealth dev is a (undesirable, failure-presaging) customer-free zone. Another recent meme that I hope more and more startups will take to heart: "stealth is a customer-free zone." ericries #leanstartup Another new idea in the section on continuous deployment and the cluster immune system.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

That’s because the model is based on assumptions about customers that are totally unproven. If we already knew who the customer was, how they would behave, how much they would pay, and how to reach them, this wouldn’t be a disruptive innovation. If it costs $0.10 But $10.00?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight. Continuously discover what customers want to buy before building or making follow-on investments in new features.

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Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

It cost us a few hundred thousand dollars to get our app up and running, but none of that was dollars spent on software licenses or professional services. We just had our app support a few tens of thousands of customers, and it did well. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

And lastly, it removes the engineering team’s ability to find breakthrough solutions that might deliver most of the value at a fraction of the cost. Because the art team was considered an internal customer (and “friendly&# to boot), we didn’t waste a lot of time making the tools easy to use. Startups are companies.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

You delight customers just like before. In an eyeballs business, you just cant seem to acquire or activate that next step-up of customers. Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

He has a good team, and theyve shipped a working product to many customers. But they are pushing for the things that matter to customers - features. And they are cognizant that their funding is limited, and if they dont find out which features are absolutely critical for their customers soon, they wont be able to survive.

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Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Customers will get to consume the content they want, and support the producers of that content directly, rather than having to rely exclusively on intermediaries. Now, helping potential customers discover new things they might like is the job of the discipline of marketing. There are just too many of them out there.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. That process involves rapid hypothesis testing, validated learning about customers , and a disciplined approach to product development. Truth: The Lean Startup methodology applies to all companies that face uncertainty about what customers will want.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Its a strange thing, to be asked by a potential customer if they can give you copious amounts of money, and then to have to refuse. Also included is the incredible Venture Hacks Bible, which is worth the price of admission on its own, and The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development (which I previously reviewed here). Dont panic.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

I spent some time with his company before the conference and discussed ways to get started with continuous deployment , including my experience introducing it at IMVU. Moreover, approaching the problem from the direction that I had intuitively is a recipe for never reaching a point where continuous deployment is feasible.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 23, 2009

Customers say,&# Give me feature X,&# “Give me feature Y,&# and sometimes you do what they want, maybe sometimes you’re going to do what you want, and then they get mad at you. We’re not moving in the right direction. In fact, we’re past the point of minimum viable product. This just isn’t a viable product.&#

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Audio 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Introducing the Lean Startup Cohort subscription program Over the past few months, I have been engaged in another customer discovery exercise with passionate early adopters of the lean startup methodology. I am now ready to move into the customer validation phase.

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Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

In this model, your free users trade their time for the benefit of your paying customers. Both currencies are valuable, and free users can trade theirs to the paying customers, who are allowed to access benefits that would otherwise take a long time to achieve. Free trial. 8comments: Anonymoussaid.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 14, 2009 Business ecology and the four customer currencies Lately, I’ve been rethinking the concept of “business model&# for startups, in favor of something I call “business ecology.&# Let’s begin with the four customer currencies. And this is true outside of games.

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Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

In my presentation this morning, I emphasized three key areas: reducing the personal cost of failure for entrepreneurs, innovation-friendly legal reforms, and access to the digital means of production (slides from my White House presentation are available at the end of this post). Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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San Francisco Founder DC Washington 150

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Why do Citizens of Humanity jeans cost $200 , when physically similar pants can be had for one-tenth the price? Paying a premium for a branded pair of virtual jeans is actually a pretty similar experience for most customers. This is always true, because modern economies have become increasingly virtual over the years.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 17, 2009

Last I heard from the venue, there are still some seats available; the ticket cost is only $25 if you register online. The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 11, 2009

This model has not translated well to the world of social networking, because customers of social networks engage sites in a different way than customers of search engines. These cost-per-install ads are a reasonable way to jumpstart traffic to a new app, which is what theyve been used for so far.

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San Francisco Social Network Lean Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 12, 2009

So far, we have limited registration at the workshops to people who can afford the admittedly high cost of entry. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Pivot, don't jump to a new vision Why Continuous Deployment?

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Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Unfortunately, after months or even years of development, many companies discover that customers arent willing to buy their new wares. It isnt until a customer actually clicks or calls to place an order that TPGTEXs developers will build the software. "We The biggest is the confusion over why this tactic is useful.

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San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

For example, heres him discussing our collective blindness to queues: To understand the economic cost of queues, product developers must be able to answer two questions. Second, what is the cost of these queues? Today, only 15 percent of product developers know the cost of delay. But, what is the cost of this buffer?

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Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

First, a definition: the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. In a lot of cases, this requires a lot of energy invested in talking to customers or metrics and analytics. Some caveats right off the bat.

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San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 22, 2009

For example, the agile practice of an in-house customer or product owner that can make authoritative prioritization decisions seems like it doesnt translate very well to startups. If your startup is growing (or aspires to grow), then the costs of a mistake are always going up. But with 100 million customers, it could be catastrophic.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 76