Up and Running

MARCH 21, 2018

These don’t require coding skills—they’re usually visual templates that are easy to use but don’t allow for great customization (that would require technical skills). Custom development. This means hiring/contracting a freelance web developer or an agency to design and develop your site from start to finish.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Technical Review Hosting SEO 107

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers. Chief Information Officer. Unless your business is a religion, I don’t recommend it for a startup these days.

CTO Hire 244

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 244

Gust

APRIL 20, 2014

What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers. Chief Information Officer. Unless your business is a religion, I don’t recommend it for a startup these days.

CTO Hire 171

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 171

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2010

What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers. Chief Information Officer. Unless your business is a religion, I don’t recommend it for a startup these days.

CTO Hire 227

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 227

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Do you really want to spent $100k building a product to discover through Customer Development that the market is too small? Let’s start with how much value you think you’ll create for your customer if they use your product in terms of hours saved, costs avoided, extra sales, better conversion rates or whatever.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

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. This engineering manager is a smart guy, and very experienced.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Once you have assembled the right core team, I recommend prioritizing as follows: First, meet with your portfolio company management. For example, I suggest it doesn’t make a lot of sense to hire a full-time team member who’s an SEO consultant. Customer Development. – What are your fundraising goals? Minimal cost.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

The large players like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent historically would be more likely to simply copy a startup’s features than to hire their talent. Management 101. But the differences are worth noting – it’s a young ecosystem, so startup management tools are nearly non-existent. Perhaps it’s the weather.

China 324

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 324

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

Use analytics tools to gather information and monitor the landscape you’re about to enter. This will inform your strategy and help you anticipate shifts in the market and adapt your approach accordingly. PDF to Word conversion tools can be a lifesaver for managing documents efficiently.

Intellectual Property 133

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Bootstrapping 133

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

The large players like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent historically would be more likely to simply copy a startup’s features than to hire their talent. Management 101. But the differences are worth noting – it’s a young ecosystem, so startup management tools are nearly non-existent. Perhaps it’s the weather.

China 216

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 216

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

For our students, that can mean anyone from a Syrian refugee trying to make contact with his family back home, to a supply chain manager for a major apparel brand who wants to make sure his contract factory in Bangladesh doesn’t use forced labor. And they’ve absorbed and analyzed incredible amounts of information about their topic of concern.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

For our students, that can mean anyone from a Syrian refugee trying to make contact with his family back home, to a supply chain manager for a major apparel brand who wants to make sure his contract factory in Bangladesh doesn’t use forced labor. And they’ve absorbed and analyzed incredible amounts of information about their topic of concern.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

The news from customers was not good. This week, our first team up was PersonalLibraries (the team that had software to help researchers manage, share and reference the thousands of papers in their personal libraries.) Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching.

Customer 236

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 236

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Instead, buyers are checking out product and service information in their own way, often through the Internet, their social network, or just plain word-of-mouth or customer reviews. Build strong customer communities. It seems clear that marketing as we currently practice the discipline is on its way out.

Marketing 234

Marketing Software Review Technical Review Social Network 234

ConversionXL

MARCH 4, 2020

Getting its numbers aligned with other tools in your martech stack keeps results credible and blood pressure manageable. Cross-domain tracking between your site and payment providers can also disrupt the source information for transactions, although it will still report transactions.). How to fix it. Others are more complex.

Analytics 88

Analytics IP Metrics Conversion 88

David Teten

MARCH 28, 2012

The objective of the research is to define a blueprint for how investors can help portfolio companies succeed through operational (non-financial) support, including but not limited to facilitating shared services, recruiting, knowledge sharing, and enhancing management skills.

Portfolio 144

Portfolio Private Equity Venture Capital Early Stage 144

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

It is written using the information that the company voluntarily shared, and therefore reflects their current thinking and recollections. To shed some light, I talked with kaChing , a destination that enables individual investors to find outstanding money managers to manage their money. Do you find it helpful?

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 10, 2012

These are just a few of the powerful, growth-fostering impacts “Rock Star” customers are creating for a variety of companies. And engaging customers in such ways is generally much less expensive than hiring costly employees or agencies. The best thing about Rock Star customers is that they already exist.

Customer 154

Customer Fractional CTO Canada Technical Review 154

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

A major angel group used Influitive , an advocate management tool, to track, activate and motivate their members. 4) Manage deal flow. For example, we created a pipeline management tool that automatically adds deals along with relevant information (such as attachments received) to our funnel. Pitchbot.vc 5) Due diligence.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

You want to maximize the number of people who give you their contact information, and gather enough information so a sales person can prioritize who to call first. Have enough dead-tree brochures and product sheets on hand before the show so you can snail-mail out the information after you emailed it. Particularly leads.

Silicon Valley 129

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 129

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

He had teamed up with a former product manager at P&G to deliver seminars on just this subject. We learned the basics of retail packaging: make the box eye-catching, ensure there was a “why-to-buy&# message, include just enough information to close the sale, fight and pay for eye-level shelf space, etc.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

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.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

As the (very junior) product marketing manager I got a call from our local salesman that someone at Apple wanted more technical information than just the spec sheets about our new (not yet shipping) chip. Market Type But most startups aren’t in existing markets. I cover this in the Four Steps to the Epiphany.)

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 133

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

But I managed a few "good learning experiences" before throwing myself full-bore into IMVU. Your blogs are full of rational thoughts and has nuggets of information. It is encouraging to know someone with your reputation and connections is evangelizing truly valuable information for start-ups. So much for timing.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 4, 2019

Cloud computing or rather the cloud can be described as the process of using a network of remote servers that are internet-based to process, manage and store data. This should not be confused with local storage whereby information is stored on the company’s hard drive and servers. Different Cloud Services.

Cloud 82

Cloud Artificial Inteligence Matching Hosting 82

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

Recent economic events, technological change, and the rapid diffusion of information about the old models have combined to help us all realize just how important entrepreneurship is - and just how little we really know about it. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Lean 146

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup 146

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

If you cant find any , maybe that means you havent figured out who your customer is yet. And if you dont know who your customer is, perhaps some customer development is in order? Labels: customer development , search engine marketing 13comments: Jim Lindstrom said. What is customer development?

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

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. Still, this manager is going to spend the company’s money, and needs to be held accountable. So far, so good.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 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. They either had to hire a developer onto the art team itself (unthinkable) or learn those development skills themselves (which was, to be fair, really hard). Here’s why.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

During the course of implementing a design, new information will arise, which many times will change the original design. The kinds of "new information" in the quote above are implementation details. When it becomes possible to build products "live" with customers, the cycle time changes and design becomes a much more dynamic process.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

I have come to believe that there is a hierarchy of pitches, and that understanding where your pitch falls on this spectrum can assist in making decisions about what information to highlight. If you cant close the deal, maybe your company is at the wrong stage of its development, and its time to try a different tack.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries. None of mine did.)

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

ConversionXL

JULY 1, 2014

For example, if you wanted to use qualitative feedback to improve hiring practices, asking someone to rate the “Friendliness of Staff” on a scale of 1-5 wouldn’t tell you much about the personality attributes that lead to a positive customer experience. If B2B try to get information about industry and position in the company.

Customer 76

Customer Design Software Review Lead Generation 76

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

They are gaining valuable customer data. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. For more on how this plays into the process of scaling up, see the Customer Creation stage of the customer development model.) They are closing orders.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. Of course, bringing startups (whether prospective or existing portfolio companies) closer to operating divisions has business and customer development benefits. Could they excel at customer development with enterprises?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2009

Before I close, let me quote just one additional bit of twitter feedback from one of the video beta-testers: bmeschke : @ ericries This is such GREAT information. Rory, just for you I managed to get Veoh to work: [link] [link] Do those links work? Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

Lean 115

Lean Video San Francisco Continuous Deployment 115

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

Recently, he was bitten by the lean startup bug and has started writing about his experiences attempting to apply lean startup and customer development principles. Managing weekly releases got a lot harder once I started doing customer development. Things started to slip. We can also do remote rollbacks this way.

Continuous Deployment 151

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Wiki 151