Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. If you are following Customer Development , the answer is easy.

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Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

One day, we became convinced that a killer app for IMVU would be to sell a presidential debate bundle, where our customers could put on a Bush or Kerry avatar, and then engage in mock debates with each other. It was one of those brilliant startup brainstorms that comes to the team in a flash, with a giant thunderclap. Expo SF (May.

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 15, 2008 The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time Split-testing is a core lean startup discipline, and its one of those rare topics that comes up just as often in a technical context as in a business-oriented one when Im talking to startups. First of all, why split-test?

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

I’ve introduced a new class at Stanford to teach engineers, scientists and other professionals how startups really get built. In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.)

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

vs. sustainable: Compare this to the renewable strategies, like viral marketing, SEO, widgets, and ads, which can scale into 10s of millions of users but are primarily centered around tough, non-user centric work. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Expo SF (May. .

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 119

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. Don’t startups exist for the same reason? How does that stack up?

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

What are they, how do they differ and what can startup do to take advantage of them? Paths to Liquidity: a quick history of the four waves of startup investing. Lean Startups/Back to Basics (2000-2010): No IPO’s, limited VC cash, lack of confidence and funding fuels “lean startup” era with limited M&A and even less IPO activity.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. Analytics spark more questions and discussion than almost any other aspect of the Lean Startup method. It provides a basic introduction to analytics as they apply to Lean Startup, including sections on what metrics to use and how to interpret them.

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Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

It’s as big of a deal as getting your viral loop working — it’s how you’re going to acquire customers at scale. It’s the same reason you can’t outsource customer development. It takes time to get the roadmap solid. The founders have to do the early sales.

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Hiring Founder Early Stage Viral 51

ConversionXL

JANUARY 31, 2014

note: If you’re a startup, you’ll want to use customer development questions for your page to resonate with future traffic). Do This: Use customer development techniques found in this post to build a profile of your ideal buyer personas. Sidetrack: What Are The Elements of a Viral Pre-Launch Page?

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Analytics Video Matching Conversion 134

ConversionXL

MARCH 28, 2014

Even though the video may contain some of these elements, an explainer video is NOT specifically: A Viral video. Also, always do qualitative research & conduct customer development interviews to help your script address as many pain points as possible. A Tutorial. A Company Overview. Or A Product Demonstration.

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Video Software Review Cofounder Metrics 122

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Having just retired from a career as an entrepreneur I had started thinking about why startups were different from large companies. Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck.

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Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

Hippoland

DECEMBER 5, 2012

When I started my failed startup Parrotview, I had no idea what to do. Customer Development. When I first started customer development , it was really daunting. I would often have to cold-call and approach random people I didn’t know to do these customer interviews. It still is sometimes.

Founder 90

Founder Cofounder Advertising Customer Development 90

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Paul Graham’s Startup Curve – avoid the “through of sorrow”! Growth Hacking isn’t viral marketing (although viral marketing is part of it). Growth Hacking isn’t viral marketing (although viral marketing is part of it). First Steps in Growth Hacking for Startups.

Viral 167

Viral API Startup Retention 167

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

The Four Steps to the Epiphany (highly recommended book by Steve Blank) preaches for customer development before product development, advocating a quick launch with a minimal feature set rather than a full fledged product offering. I recently got to test a couple of new search products from startups: Bekko and Griplin.

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Lean Customer Development Audience Viral 120

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. As soon as possible!&#

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

At a high level, anything that drives virality should be free. To take your specific example about virality - why do we want to have more users sign up? I also work for a startup and we have been grappling with the same problem ever since we went public. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, December 16, 2008 Engagement loops: beyond viral Theres a great and growing corpus of writing about viral loops, the step-by-step optimizations you can use to encourage maximum growth of online products by having customers invite each other to join.

Viral 140

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 11, 2009

If you ask an expert in Facebook apps to come help build yours, youll usually hear the same advice: build your app for virality. Thats sensible advice; most people who have made a business on Facebook rely on the viral driver of growth. If you have a virally-growing app, you dont need the extra installs. Expo SF (May. .

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San Francisco Social Network Lean Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

Acqusition competition is how new apps get new customers. On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. If your app has strong word-of-mouth or viral components, your retention drives new acquisition, and its not so important to have good placement in the store. Expo SF (May. .

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Retention Lean SEM 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

When I work with startups on improving engagement, I really try to emphasize the importance of their most powerful lever: positioning. In most applications, most of the time, customers return to use the application not in response to a notification or event, but under their own volition. It only makes sense in certain situations.

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Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

On Facebook, viral distribution has proved decisive. Those companies who have learned to build apps that optimize the viral loop dominate in every category where they compete. Not many customers ever browse the app directory or search for specific apps - they dont have to, they find out about apps by being invited by a friend.

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Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

2010 – Sean Ellis, who currently runs Qualaroo , coins the term “growth hacking” in his article, Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup. ” April, 2012 – Andrew Chen writes Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing , which goes viral (2.4K Andrew Chen , Uber : “Startups don’t need growth hackers – at first.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 15, 2013

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. Why Branding Is the Next Essential Startup Competency – [link]. Quora – [link].

Social Media 105

Social Media Small Business Design Media 105

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. In fact, in most situations its a bad idea for startups to synchronize these events.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Lean PR Early Stage 168

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Small Business and Startups: Slice & Dice Your Customer Service Data | crowdSPRING Blog - [link]. Is The Only Purpose of Customer Service To Change Feelings?

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

It’s Episode 3 my little “ Loveline for startups. ” Introduced a few months ago as an Austin event, I’m now doing this live audio advice column to the web, taking phone calls from startups around the country. My co-hosts were Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley , hosts of the well-known Startup Success Podcast.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem) Lean startups don’t optimize. Instead, we try to accelerate with respect to validated learning about customers. How can we do split-testing when we have only a pathetically small number of customers ?

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Occam's Razor

APRIL 8, 2013

The cycle combines concepts from the world of Lean Startup — which is all about continuous, iterative improvement — with analytics fundamentals. If it's the number of invites sent, it's virality. That’s because they require you to have a deep understanding of your customers. That metric is tied to a KPI. But they are.

Metrics 156

Metrics Analytics Lean Churn Rate 156

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

The first two years of my startup were the most challenging years of my life; I just felt like a complete failure all the time. Most first-time entrepreneurs aren’t prepared for the challenges they will face building a startup, and yet they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Filed under: Customer Development.

Entrepreneur 260

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 260

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

When registration is too easy, customers can get confused about what they are registering for. This is similar to the problem that viral loop companies have with the engagement loop : by making it too easy to join, they actually give away the positioning that allows for longer-term engagement.) Expo SF (May. . Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Metrics Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 8, 2008

As with many lean startup practices, its getting started thats the hard part. Still, my experience working with startups has been that too much time spent talking about advanced topics can lead to inaction. Labels: five whys root cause analysis , Test-driven development 3comments: Chris said. Step 2: start with just one test.

Software Review 136

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 136

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

Either way, you would have been better off focusing your split-test on high level metrics that measure how much customers like your product as a whole. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

To give you a better idea of what entrepreneurs in this industry are thinking about during each phase of the startup process, I interviewed SaaS entrepreneurs from all over the world, including our own COO Noah Parsons. Eric Ries, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author of The Lean Startup, popularized this strategy for web applications.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 5, 2014

Yesterday Kissmetrics blogged A recipe of viral features used by the fastest growing startups. It’s a good read for anybody who wants to increase the number of free customers they are getting. In other words virality is science not art. In other words virality is science not art. Who wouldn’t want that?

Viral 92

Viral SEO Lean Software 92

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

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. When a startup encounters difficult technical problems, this is the guy you want solving them. I would characterize them as intolerant but not arrogant. What a waste.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

The first two years of my startup were the most challenging years of my life; I just felt like a complete failure all the time. Most first-time entrepreneurs aren’t prepared for the challenges they will face building a startup, and yet they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Filed under: Customer Development.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 120