Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" I always assumed I wouldnt manage anybody. Being a manager didnt sound fun - deep down, who really wants to be held accountable for other peoples actions? So I wound up learning the discipline of managing other people.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

So one of the first things we did was to hire an Oracle expert and get to work. 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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? yeah, its awesome.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Lean Startup Wiki - including a complete list of local meetups and meetup organizers.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean 94

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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Lean Startup Wiki - including a complete list of local meetups and meetup organizers.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

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,

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

devver.wordpress.com

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

On any idea, keep track of what is near term, what resources are needed, what is the cost, and what does the related market look like. (I Ben and I keep a wiki, which has grown to be an incredibly useful resource and was the initial starting point for our last two companies) Ideas should have an “Aha! I highly recommend this!

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CTO Hire Part-Time VPE Architecture Ruby 40

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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0,

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Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Similar results apply in product management, design, testing, and even operations. 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 is beautiful.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Other companies accomplish this by hiring a large staff of content production experts - and get a very good result. 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.

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Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Lean Startup Wiki - including a complete list of local meetups and meetup organizers. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

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Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

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Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

The team hired only the best and the brightest. 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. The team hired only the best and the brightest.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Who will ultimately bear the cost of their mistakes? Managers start to make a note of who’s on which faction, and then assign projects accordingly. At IMVU, we would occasionally hire someone from a more traditional organization who had a hard time letting go of their “best practices&# and habits.

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Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 22, 2006

As I started thinking about his question, I remember what it was like setting up our office in 1998 and the headaches and cost of buying a Nortel phone system and phones and hiring a Microsoft networking expert to get our office set up for file sharing, back up, and email. What a nightmare!

Small Business 60

Small Business Wiki Startup Email 60

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. This presentation will empower entrepreneurs and managers to: -Identify a profitable business model faster and cheaper than your competitors.

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Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

I am convinced one of Joel Spolskys lasting contributions to the field of managing software teams will turn out to be the Joel Test , a checklist of 12 essential practices that you could use to rate the effectiveness of a software product development team. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Imagine a general manager that has read The Innovator’s Dilemma and related books, and is therefore trying hard to help her organization make a transition to a new product category via disruptive innovation. Still, this manager is going to spend the company’s money, and needs to be held accountable. If it costs $0.10

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

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). Otherwise it is just Management By Wandering Aimlessly.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

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. You'll still waste a lot of time attempting to debug them.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Lean Startup Wiki - including a complete list of local meetups and meetup organizers. we dont talk enough about how it feels. Bring your questions.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. They know how much it costs to bring in a customer and they know how much money they can expect to make on each one. Our cost to acquire a customer on AdWords was only a few cents. They are closing orders.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Those general managers are entrepreneurs , too. Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Those general managers are entrepreneurs , too. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

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. They dont really create value.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

ConversionXL

MARCH 29, 2017

Make sure you have a good understanding of your value proposition, cost structure, revenue streams, customer segments, etc. You have a product manager, an engineer, data scientists… you have leadership there.” (via CXL Live). You’ll be able to bring new hires up to speed quickly. before continuing. Growth Engineer.

Marketing 48

Marketing Distribution Retention eCommerce 48

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. This approach gives you an edge in hiring. Instead, engage with the project.

Software Review 68

Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Of course, readers of this blog know that the lean in "lean startup" doesnt refer to cost, but - rather - to Lean Thinking. Of course, readers of this blog know that the lean in "lean startup" doesnt refer to cost, but - rather - to Lean Thinking. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

In the old days, the brand manager of a consumer packaged goods product had to spend energy inferring the effectiveness of their television ads through a combination of trailing indicators (like market share) or time-consuming market research. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? ideas (e.g.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

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?" Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Lean Startup Wiki - including a complete list of local meetups and meetup organizers. Phew, Im exhausted.

Lean 153

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

www.thestartup.eu

OCTOBER 23, 2010

With some great project management and a few crowdsourcing platforms. Let’s break down their costs: Logo design: a simple contest on 99designs with a $300 prize. Total cost: $5000. Total cost: $100. They had the goal of launching a web app and an iphone app in 6 months with less than $10k. How did they do it?

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Bootstrapping Italy Sweat Equity Europe 49

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

JULY 13, 2009

For those who hunger for a rigorous approach to managing product development, Donald Reinertsens book is epic. Managing timelines instead of queues. 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.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

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. Google has shown their awareness of this issue by carefully managing the annoyance-factor of ads that are shown during search. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

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.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

The person running the meeting does not have to be a manager or executive. Yet in every situation where I have asked, nobody has been tasked with making a realistic estimate, either of the impact of this lack of training or the real costs of the solution. Remember that the cost of the solutions is proportional to the problem caused.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Lean Startup Wiki - including a complete list of local meetups and meetup organizers.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Audio 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 11, 2009

Those apps are generating even more page views, making it quite affordable to buy application installs (which is a cost-per-action ad that requires the user to install the app before the action is considered complete). 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

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. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? Lean Startup Wiki - including a complete list of local meetups and meetup organizers.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60