Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 3, 2009 Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up Last week I had a real blast meeting with the companies at the fbFund incubator at Palo Alto. The Lean Startup fbFund Edition View more documents from Eric Ries. Yet, I think this definition is too important to leave out. Without further ado.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, June 5, 2009 It’s a startup, not a spreadsheet Some people, when they start to realize the power of using data to inform their decisions, become obsessed with optimization. Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. But this is wrong, too.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

The basic idea is to extend agile, which excels in situations where the problem is known but the solution is unknown, into areas of even greater uncertainty, such as your typical startup. Can this methodology be used for startups that are not exclusively about software? Talk about waste.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Continuous deployment and continuous learning At long last, some of the actual implementers of the advanced systems we built at IMVU for rapid deployment and rapid response are starting to write about it. At IMVU it’s a core part of our culture to ship.

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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? In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. Let’s start with a simple question: why do early-stage startups want revenue?

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Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. I would definitely be interested any scholarship opportunities that might be made available.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, November 17, 2008 The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part one Ive written before about some of the advantages startups have when they are very small, like the benefits of having a pathetically small number of customers. A "startup within the startup" feeling is a good thing.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Ill exclude those non- lean startups who basically exist for the purpose of raising bigger and bigger sums of money. Now there was nothing wrong with their analysis: anyone who invents a technology as sophisticated as The Transformers is definitely going to make a lot of money. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development. I highly recommend this book for all entrepreneurs, in startups as well as in big companies. Very few startups fail for lack of technology.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Startups especially can benefit by using technical debt to experiment, invest in process, and increase their product development leverage. In a startup, we should take full advantage of our options, even if they feel dirty or riddled with technical debt. Startups are always moving, so invest in moving faster and better.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

In other words, they are facing conditions of extreme uncertainty, just like startups. But, as any startup can tell you, this opens up a tremendous set of opportunities for the rest of us. So let’s turn our attention from what may happen in the future to what is definitely happening in the present. Is that a lot?

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www.subelsky.com

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Mike Subelskys Blog Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Lean startup tools for Rails apps A few months ago I was invited to dinner with the Geeks on a Plane crew when they stopped in Washington, and had the opportunity to meet one of my heroes, Eric Ries , author of the Startup Lessons Learned blog. Email This BlogThis!

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, June 21, 2010 What is a startup? I think most people have a fairly specific image that gets conjured up when they hear the word startup. It leads people to mistakenly believe that any time they see two guys in a garage attempting the impossible, that’s a startup. Wrong again.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. After all, our startup is on a fixed budget. October 21, 2008 8:40 PM Eric said.

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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. Its actually part of a lean startup story. Will you join us?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Lean startups vs lean companies Venture Hacks has a great article today on lean startups. If youre not familiar with their work, and how it relates to startups, this is a great place to start. But I do think it is a misconception of what lean startups are all about.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, May 1, 2009 Lean Startup webcast post-game Wow, what an incredible turnout for webcast this morning, right on the heels of a phenomenal crowd at startup2startup last night. Its been a great twelve hours for the lean startup! In a future post, Ill attempt to unpack this definition in detail.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, August 3, 2009 Minimum Viable Product: a guide One of the most important lean startup techniques is called the minimum viable product. I was delighted to be asked to give a brief talk about the MVP at the inaugural meetup of the lean startup circle here in San Francisco. Thanks Eric, great blog!

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 31, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 31, 2009 A new way to recruit for (and find) startup jobs In my work, I come across a lot of great startups. Similarly, I get pinged by many colleagues, friends, and fans who are looking to find a job with a startup. Great startups are always hiring, if the fit is right.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

I promised to post the slides for my highly abbreviated version of the lean startup presentation, so here they are. 2009 09 08 The Lean Startup Gov 2.0 whorunsgov : Eric Ries: Startups fail not because the technology works, but because no one wants the tech. dhinchcliffe : Lean startups go faster. Startup=Experiment.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 19, 2009 Inc Magazine on Minimum Viable Product (and a response) Inc Magazine has a great new piece up about the increasing use of the Minimum Viable Product by businesses (and not just startups). See “ It’s a startup, not a spreadsheet &# for more.) Read the rest.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, February 28, 2009 Throwing away working code Lean startups work by systematically eradicating waste. But lean startups cant afford to be satisfied with just that definition, because there are situations where working code is itself a form of waste. that justify decisions already made.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

MarkH : Key takeaways from Erics great talk #w2e #leanstartup 1) "building a culture to learn " @ericries Marks point is the one that seems to have had the biggest impact from the talk as a whole: that startups should be built to learn. The lean startup focuses on situations where we have both an unknown problem and an unknown solution.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

In the summer of 1999, I started working on a startup from my college dorm. And the great ideas that became todays successful tech startups dwarf anything that had been done to that point. Nonetheless, my first startup was a tool for college students from elite colleges to create resumes and help them find jobs. And Google?

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Yet startups rely on collective learning in order to find their way. I believe this is one reason why the myth of the dictatorial startup founder has such enduring appeal. Startups are different, leading to this axiom: if you do not know who the customer is, you do not know what quality is. No vanity metrics should be looked at.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, February 11, 2009 The free software hiring advantage This is one of those startup tips Im a little reluctant to share, because its been such a powerful source of competitive advantage in the companies Ive worked with. Especially for a startup, not taking maximum advantage of free software is crazy.

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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.&# A successful startup strives for this latter case. Some companies definitely should.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Now they first had to go through a ritual that involved complex math, reached no definite outcome, and then proceeded to have a battle of opinions anyway! Every experiment has to be evaluated based on a single standard report of 5-10 (no more) key metrics. To their surprise, the metrics didn’t move at all.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

By far the most important thing you want to hire for in a startup is the ability to handle the unexpected. Those people also tend to go crazy in a startup. The "lone wolf" superstar is usually a disaster in a team context, and startups are all about teams. Still, a startup product development team is a service organization.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

One of the most common questions I get about the lean startup methodology is, "but what about Steve Jobs ?" So how do you reconcile his success with the lean startup, which seems to suggest the opposite?" Plus, the premise of the question misunderstands the lean startup, too. And he doesnt shy away from big-bang launch events.

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

As a last disclaimer, please consult the definition of the word hacker if youre not familiar with the controversies surrounding that term.) Those who have the endurance are the ones that tend to lead teams and join startups, because you just cant be successful in a startup situation without empathy. What a waste.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 13, 2010 The Superbowl ad test I am a firm believer in the danger of vanity metrics , numbers that give the illusion of progress but often mask the true relationship between cause and effect. Vanity metrics are generally bigger. Vanity metrics. The solution? Is that really news?

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

Our goal is to understand the metrics, mechanics, and levers of engagement. Lets look at a specific example, and start to think through what the metrics might look like if we attempted to measure it: Customer gets a synthetic message saying: "upload some photos!" No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 22, 2008

It is an essential lean startup tool that combines seemingly irreconcilable attributes: it provides operational, actionable, real-time feedback that is truly representative of your customers experience as a whole. I thoroughly appreciate your "giving back" to increase the likelihood for success for startups.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

The lean startup methodology is based on enlisting customers as allies, which requires honesty and integrity. The following was written an actual lean startup practitioner. It was originally posted anonymously to the Lean Startup Circle mailing list, and then further developed on the Lean Startup Wiki ’s Case Studies section.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

Its an essential discipline of good software development, especially in startups. Nonetheless, I want to talk about a dysfunction Ive seen in several startups: they are literally refactoring themselves to death. Only one occasion was a substantial rewrite justified based on performance metrics.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

(a guide for hackers) (This post was inspired by a conversation with Nivi from Venture Hacks , but is otherwise not his fault) There has been a proliferation of frameworks and metaphors lately that are designed to help startups avoid the all-too-common fatal mistake of failing to find a market. Tough sell. 4comments: Sean Murphy said.

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