SoCal CTO
DECEMBER 1, 2010
aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. Call it facts for hire. It would be a bit like the hired gun in the old west, but more suited for today’s times.
SoCal CTO
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Every time I see my graduate students try to teach for the first time, it’s usually so painful I bite my lip. The Dry Run.
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Startup Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 7, 2008
And we cant hire new engineers any faster, because you cant be interviewing and debugging and fixing all at the same time! Even with the highest standards imaginable, theres no way to hire just genius hackers. Hire a CTO or VP Engineering. Worst of all, your teammates are constantly wanting to have meetings.
Startup Lessons Learned
SEPTEMBER 15, 2008
The application of agile development methodologies which dramatically reduce waste and unlock creativity in product development. See Customer Development Engineering for my first stab at articulating the theory involved) Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by the Customer Development process.
Startup Lessons Learned
SEPTEMBER 14, 2008
But the early customers all compared it to MySpace. This was 2004, and we had never even heard of MySpace, let alone had any understanding of social networking. It required hearing customers say it over and over again for us to take a serious look, and eventually to realize that social networking was core to our business.
Startup Lessons Learned
JUNE 22, 2009
Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. Ive spoken in some detail about a specific pivot that we went through at IMVU , when we decided to abandon the instant messaging add-on concept, and switch to a standalone instant messaging network.
Startup Lessons Learned
SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
This can even vary by category, as people apply different criteria to games vs. utilities vs. social networking apps. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Seth Godin: How often should you publish?
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