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. ericries #leanstartup Another new idea in the section on continuous deployment and the cluster immune system.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read. I used to give copies of Four Steps out to my employees, in the hopes that it would instantly indoctrinate them into the methodology of Customer Development. for Harvard Business Revie.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

This post was written by Sarah Milstein, co-host of The Lean Startup Conference. Often, in very young organizations, those people are simply the founders. Last year, the co -founders of B ack to the Roots talked about their innovation accounting and how they were ignoring sales metrics in order to grow.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Instead, we do everything possible to validate the founders belief. Most people cant sustain more than a few of these iterations, and the founders rarely get to be involved in the later tries. In order to do this, we have our customer development team work hard to find a market, any market, for the product as currently specified.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Consider the classic project that was essential to the creation of extreme programming , the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System. In the case of C3, that was to run payroll for 87,000 employees, who were presumably receiving payroll before the project began. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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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?

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Its a wonderful filter for people who are intrinsically motivated by the art of programming. Thats all helpful for recruiting, retaining, and ramping-up a new employee. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Most of the best programmers Ive known are been active in at least one free software project.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

These problems can be anything: development mistakes, site outages, marketing program failures, or even internal missed schedules. 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. If new employees are causing problems, that will be a routine topic.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

If done right, a programming interview serves two purposes simultaneously. On the one hand, it gives you insight into what kind of employee the candidate might be. For software engineers, I think this absolutely has to be a programming problem solved on a whiteboard. If it doesnt require a whiteboard, it doesnt count.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Most important slide: about the founders In a pitch meeting, try to spend as much time as possible talking about the key questions for your pitch. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. is this team the one to back?

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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. So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?"

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

The full formula works like this: runway = cash on hand / burn rate # iterations = runway / speed of each iteration Very few successful companies ended up in the same exact business that the founders thought theyd be in (see Founders at Work for dozens of examples). Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

They had their own private forum, and a company founder (aka me) personally ran the group in its early days. 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. You can read how well that went in another post here.)

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, January 12, 2009 Why PHP won When I first learned to program on the web, Perl + CGI was the dominant platform. For example, I have repeatedly taught PHP to complete novices in several companies, including people who had never before programmed at all. Thats simply impossible on most platforms.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

I believe this is one reason why the myth of the dictatorial startup founder has such enduring appeal. Its easier to believe in a glorious future when you have only zeroes, for everyone: founders, investors, and employees. I believe this is one reason why the myth of the dictatorial startup founder has such enduring appeal.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. More on that in a moment. They are close to breakeven.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

It has to balance competing goals of establishing clear ownership, while avoiding talented employees getting stuck. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

They are leaders, visionaries, founders and managers having tremendous success. 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. Yet talent organized improperly can lead to failure.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

For startups that are tempted to mimic this behavior, I suggest reading the great account of the early Apple in Founders at Work.) The videos are Steve explaining the company's path forward to Next employees. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. August 3, 2009 2:58 AM Phil Winkler said.

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

TDD plus continuous integration works as a natural feedback loop: if the team is working "too fast" to produce quality code reliably, tests fail, which requires the team to slow down and fix them. Use pair programming and collective code ownership. Pair programming is the most radical, but also the most helpful.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Although customers didnt flock to this offering at first, we had enough of a developer program active to start recruiting early adopters to start creating 3D objects for sale in our catalog. Its an amazing thing when you can hire an employee who knows more about your code base than you do, and this turned out to be a big source of advantage.

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

I believe that having the whole team work from a common task list, in priority order, lets everyone feel that "all hands on deck" sense that the founders experienced in the early days of the company. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Lots of little projects erodes teamwork and builds up work-in-progress.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Founders push for it. In some ways, founders are even worse. They spend so much of their time trying to convince everyone around them that their idea is great and the company is doing well: employees, investors, partners, friends, family, significant others - its a long list. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

When I was working my first programming jobs, I was introduced to the following maxim: "time, quality, money - pick two." When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer. Whats wrong with this picture? And why is the engineering manager suffering so badly?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Its pretty easy to optimize our business to serve one of employees, customers or shareholders. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. I think Drucker said it best.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

Thanks to those of you who were willing to fill out the survey, I learned my net promoter score (about 25) as well as some clear other segmentation insights: about 80% of you are founders of or work at a startup, you read many of the same other blogs, and many of you would like to engage with Lessons Learned in formats and venues beyond this blog.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, September 19, 2009 Support the Startup Founders Visa with a tweet Its been an exhilarating first day here in Washington DC for the Geeks on a Plane tour. We can remedy it by creating a special visa for startup founders. I think the benefits are a no-brainer. 2gov.org will take care of the rest.

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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. If you are an immigrant founder who has helped build a company that has created jobs in the US, we need you to tell your story. This is especially true if you live outside the echo chamber of Silicon Valley.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Voluntary salary reduction program. 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. Offer equity instead of cash.

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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. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Pivot, don't jump to a new vision Why Continuous Deployment?

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 23, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Audio 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

By only releasing vanity metrics , companies co-opt the press into helping them mislead others. Are employees paying more attention to those reports than to the positive press coverage? Your employees probably read the same press you are trying to influence. The solution? Vanity metrics. Is that really news? I sure hope so.

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San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 31, 2009

Do you know when will the final price be determined as I am really hoping i can bring my co-founders to the event as well. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

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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 word institution connotes bureaucracy, process, even lethargy. How can that be part of a startup?

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