A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
NOVEMBER 5, 2014
It’s often said that you shouldn’t talk about price during customer development interviews. This can be a surprisingly difficult zone to become profitable in, because the sales and marketing motions and engineering costs are the same as for much larger sales, but without the attendant revenue.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
FEBRUARY 14, 2012
Don’t tell me “they need to see a working product before they’ll have a chat” or any other typical, lame excuse engineers (including me!) make for not putting customer development before writing code. You’re just stalling. Add your advice to the discussion section !
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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
JUNE 12, 2012
(from his blog post ) …some civil engineers think the world of project management in their field is ripe for revolution, but do I know enough of them? I talked to 30 people before I realized that a certain idea of mine was a crappy idea, and about 40 people before starting WP Engine. How many should I talk to?
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
OCTOBER 23, 2012
But all that investment in growth and sales force didn’t have a long-term payback, and the actual value of the product to small businesses wasn’t as high as claimed, even though the simplest of customer development reveals this fact (ask any restauranteur).
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
DECEMBER 20, 2010
As a good student of startup theory, especially modern theories of customer development, this time I was methodical and purposeful. A year after leaving Smart Bear, having talked with dozens of startup founders about their marketing woes, I realized 100% of them needed the marketing-measurement engine I built at Smart Bear.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
JUNE 26, 2012
Specifically, before I validated the ideas behind WP Engine, I validated another idea for a startup. The key thing to notice is that during my customer development, everyone said “That’s a great idea, you should do it!” But my experience vetting WP Engine was convergent. ” Everyone.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
OCTOBER 24, 2011
Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. So I have a question for you, Jason.
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