Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

We had endless arguments internally about what features it should include, how the avatars should look, and how much it should cost. Just load them all in and choose a low cost-per-click. Seems like a fairly low-cost method of gauging customer interest for a would-be product. We finally settled on a $1.99 I used to use $.05,

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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. Although there is cost and overhead associated with continuous deployment, the benefits are immense. Danger, Will Robinson.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

It seems many startups these days are under a lot of pressure to outsource their development organization to save costs. ► 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

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.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

There are three fundamental situations that change what your company needs to do: creating a new market (the original Palm), bringing a new product to an existing market (Handspring), and resegmenting an existing market (niche, like In-n-Out Burger; or low-cost, like Southwest Airlines). The root of that mistake is premature execution.

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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. Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

Lean startups have the ability to use this commodity stack to lower costs and, more importantly, reduce time to market. The biggest source of cost/time advantage that all lean companies have is avoiding building features that customers dont want. Agile software development. This speeds up the Ideas-Code-Data feedback loop.

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Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" If the CEO wants to completely change the product in order to serve a new customer segment, you need someone in the room who can digest the needs of the new (proposed) business, and lay out the costs of each possible approach.

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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. Expo San Francisco 2009 The current macroeconomic climate presents unparalleled opportunities for those that can thrive with constrained resources.

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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. Ship new software at a dizzying pace: multiple times a day while improving quality and lowering costs. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics. Luckily, we also discovered that certain other metrics, like LTV and CPA were much better than we initially projected. If it costs $0.10 Even that early, it became clear that 4% was not an achievable goal. But $10.00?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

If you can start getting ROI on a feature in month one of a twelve month project versus waiting until the end, youve comparatively reduced the cost of development by the revenue generated by that feature over 11 months. Small batches also help deliver value earlier in the project. February 25, 2009 8:12 PM Anonymoussaid. Small is beautiful.

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San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

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. I cant really imagine how much it cost our "grownup" counterparts at other dot-com startups to get their first app up and running. Looking back, that was a special moment.

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San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Weve gone from total obscurity to something people are beginning to misunderstand and even co-opt. And do I still need to get out of the building if Ive got great metrics and surveys?" Of course, readers of this blog know that the lean in "lean startup" doesnt refer to cost, but - rather - to Lean Thinking. Congratulations.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

As the costs of production fall, it’s getting easier and easier to send in a proposal or even a complete work. Despite all the energy invested in talking to authors about the size of their platform, very few gatekeepers have a rigorous set of metrics for measuring it. I’ve met a lot of gatekeepers in the past few months.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

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. In the end, I believe they co-created our product with us. We didnt think wed able to compete with that.

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Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value. ► 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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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

They are leaders, visionaries, founders and managers having tremendous success. 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. They are leaders, visionaries, founders and managers having tremendous success.

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Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Who will ultimately bear the cost of their mistakes? One of the distinctions that has helped at the executive level is to stress that you're reducing the COST of failure, rather then its PROBABILITY. If the cost of each failure is dirt cheap, then you can afford to make a lot more failures in the course of learning.

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Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Automated testing dramatically reduces the cost of certifying changes, because it removes all of the grunt work QA traditionally does in software. ► 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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Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Although it costs to pay down the principal, we gain by reduced interest payments in the future. In addition, third-party services and API’s enabled us to do more with less, but at a cost: taking on the technical debt of products and teams outside our direct control. For example, how fault tolerant should it be?

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Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

I now believe that the "pick two" concept is fundamentally flawed, and that lean startups can achieve all three simultaneously: quickly bring high-quality software to market at low cost. Those are the kinds of indefinite costs that make our team grind to a halt over time. First of all, its a myth that cutting corners saves time.

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Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

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.

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San Francisco Founder DC Washington 150

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. ► 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

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 8, 2009 What would you want to tell Washington DC about startups? Im writing this post from an airplane headed to Washington DC, where Ill be presenting at the Government 2.0 So heres my simple question: What do folks in Washington need to know about the global community of entrepreneurs?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2010

But," you are sure to ask, "how much will all this bundling cost me?" But," you are sure to ask, "how much will all this bundling cost me?" ► 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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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 23, 2009

There is a lot to be said about the opportunity cost of perfection, iterative evolution and the difference between shipping a lemon and shipping a band aid. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Audio 167

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. You can register online here.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

For founders, I think it also has another big attraction: the ability to avoid a lot of " free vs paid " arguments. Here the key is for your free customers to get value from the site that is greater than the costs they perceive by the fact that youre selling access to them. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

In particular, we would cover customer development, continuous deployment, minimum viable product, and actionable metrics. Because of the cost and intensity of this program, it is designed for startups with significant venture backing or who have reached profitability. The cost is equivalent to an entry-level FTE.

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Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 6, 2009

The first event is January 21, and is being put on by Dealmaker Media as part of their Strategy Series events: In the Trenches: Cutting Costs in a Tight Economy. One of the other speakers is someone I know well: Seth Sternberg , founder of Meebo. The format is Q&A around a conference table with four "speakers" and a moderator.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 22, 2009

If your startup is growing (or aspires to grow), then the costs of a mistake are always going up. Since the cost of failure is monotonically increasing, it actually makes sense to fail sooner, not later. Eric, do you have any discussions planned for the co-founding dynamics of a successful lean startup? Keep up the great work.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 76

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

In a lot of cases, this requires a lot of energy invested in talking to customers or metrics and analytics. ► 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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San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

dalelarson : "Metrics are people, too." leanstartup ericnsantos : #w2e #leanstartup Metrics should be Actionable, Accessible and Auditable. Metrics are a key questions startups face. Metrics are people too" is a reminder I constantly needed when I was a manager. ericries s talk on Lean Startups absolutely fantastic.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean Agile 132

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. ► 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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Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

"We do not develop a product until we get a paying customer," says Orit Pennington , who co-founded the six-employee company with her husband in 2002. Development time is typically no more than two to three weeks, and it generally takes just a few orders to cover development costs. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

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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