A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 12, 2010

And even you could work 70 on-task hours per week, that's still blown away by 10 developers at a funded company or even 10 passionate open source developers working part-time. , so you figure if you work a "healthy" 70 hours per week , you'll win! But working harder is not, in fact, smarter. We're cheaper. It's not bad to be cheaper.

Intellectual Property 319

Intellectual Property Bootstrapping Software Review Open Source 319

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

I’m putting myself in the same boat now with the solution I’m developing so could you tell me: 1. make for not putting customer development before writing code. Freshman Salesman writes: I’ve read somewhere in your blog about how you had a very large organisation as the first customer for your software.

Customer 231

Customer Software Review IP Technical Review 231

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 12, 2011

Hazards of hiring by Eric Sink — Great tips, including some specific to hiring developers (for more on the latter, here’s another ). Ideas: Develop your blog/Twitter so you have a steady stream of eyeballs from people who like you. They hear about a cool company, and when they’re interested in new work, they call you.

Hiring 282

Hiring Employee Ruby Java 282

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

In that case, give the decision more time to breathe and develop, because really you’re giving people the time to build relationships and discover great solutions, and that in itself is a benefit to them and your organizational intelligence, which is a long-term benefit worth investing in.

Engineer 264

Engineer Framework Social Media Acquisition 264

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 5, 2010

Some developers wrote in asking how I was able to render it so efficiently. Now sure, there are many of aspects of business and product development where it's best to stop obsessing and just cut corners. The mini-viewer doesn't convey more information than boogers do. And yet, everyone loved the mini-viewer.

Software Review 226

Software Review Metrics Lean Algorithm 226

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Rather, career and expertise are developed simultaneously , eventually resulting in success when coupled with a few key events ( due as much to luck as effort ). I became good, but there were others who practiced twice as much who were worse, and still others who practiced less and are much better. We all know this. Pick anyone.

Software Review 277

Software Review Technical Review Advertising Conversion 277

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Otherwise, this is a failure of organizational development. One person who was given a chance to grow and progress instead of being stuck being under-paid and under-developed, and under-appreciated, is enough. If you can’t unplug for a month without adversely affecting the business, then you have a brittle business.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Of course, I had spoken with people in developing the product. Reach out to customers and develop personal relationships. No new customers and no understanding of what went wrong after they hit my page. This was a low point for me. Failing fast is only useful when you learn something. Don’t do what everyone else does.

Campaign 272

Campaign Software Review Brazil Conversion 272

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 13, 2015

So, a technical founder decides she needs another developer, or a sales-oriented founder decides she needs another sales person. The question is: How do you decide what role is most important to hire for? Founders typically revert to whatever they’re already expert in, and decide they need more of that.

Part-Time VPE 120

Part-Time VPE Hiring Retention Revenue 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 22, 2013

There’s a saying that a great developer is 10x more productive than a mediocre one. A great developer, or a great designer, is better than 10x an average one — they’re better than an infinite number. That’s not true. You can’t put 100 average designers on a committee and get a fabulous design, right?

Engineer 257

Engineer Social Media Acquisition Sales 257

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 9, 2014

The best chance you have for developing that resonance is when it arises naturally, not because you A/B test your Twitter persona (should I be more humorous and sarcastic or more serious and profound? Because success in social marketing channels arises from a resonance between your personality and the norms and language of that channel.

Marketing 301

Marketing Channel PR Social Media 301

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.

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 3, 2010

Or: People claim that peer code review tools will do magic things like make your developers smarter or fix existing social problems with the team. I'm really sorry to disappoint! Cause I'm just going to start the demo and let you interrupt me with questions. Actually, if anything code review can magnify social issues!

Software Review 279

Software Review Technical Review Security Advertising 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 29, 2011

The visual bug tracker for web developers & designers. Tame bugs like a boss! Powered by LaunchBit ). Tweet. --> At this moment I’m in the worst seat on the plane.

Technical Review 236

Technical Review Software Review Reputation Sales Cycle 236

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 29, 2011

Shoot, I used this excuse myself recently: “I built a company and forged dozens of customer relationships in the software development tools sector; I know exactly how to sell into that market.&#. . “But I have 15 years of experience selling into the financial services sector; I know what makes them tick.&#

Lean 269

Lean Software Software Developers Software Development 269

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

” Introspective young founders appreciate this, and often the stated solution is “delegation,” as defined by: I’ll do it myself, then I’ll understand it, then if further investment is warranted, I’ll have the experience to hire and instruct a new person.

Warrant 120

Warrant Founder Engineer Matching 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 12, 2012

Here are the details of both of those customer development experiences. Recently at WP Engine I did some brand new customer development for a new project that we think will revolutionize WordPress blog management. But there’s no one “number.” Way #1: Go until boredom.

Customer 252

Customer Customer Development Dilution Engineer 252

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Are you OK with innovation taking a back seat to developing scalable, mature processes? The CEO’s job description changes over time, and so does the company, whether you sell it or not. Are you emotionally prepared for this as well?

Software Review 295

Software Review Startup Cofounder Search 295

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 28, 2014

Here’s the problem , and how you can change your approach to business development so that it can succeed. A much better approach for business development is as follows: How can the smaller company make money for the larger company in the manner that the larger company already makes money?

Startup 293

Startup Hosting Distribution Revenue 293

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

New Blog Post: "You’re a developer, so why do you work for someone else?" You’re a developer, so why do you work for someone else? RT @BobWalsh 5 Mistakes Developers make Selling to Developers [link]. 5 Mistakes Developers make Selling to Developers. interintelli. Aug 17, 2010 at 9:09am. technosailor.

Liquidation Preference 216

Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley Startup Software 216

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 14, 2010

It's commonly said that basketball players are "streaky" — they get on a roll hitting 3-pointers (have a "hot hand") or develop a funk where they can't seem to land a shot ("gone cold"). You probably laugh at Nostradamus, yet it's likely you're committing the same error with you own data. Patterns in Chaos.

Software Review 254

Software Review Analytics Conversion Metrics 254

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

So Leon and I have met numerous times, about marketing strategy and the music one is that developed after Chicago became a customer. Interviewee: Well, I’m talking web development. I haven’t really developed any web applications. The one thing that you might be able to do is outsource the development costs of it.

Cofounder 199

Cofounder Technical Review Chicago Technical Cofounder 199

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 18, 2010

As much as I doubted the title "Code Review Expert," I had developed more experience with more teams in more situations than any one person could (because everyone else was busy doing their actual jobs). Objectively, and with hindsight, my feelings were misplaced. The tool really did save time and headache; customers said so.

Software Review 335

Software Review Reputation Software Sales 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 22, 2011

But neither should you stop striving, improving, learning, and developing “who you are.&# You certainly should compromise your ethics and your sense of taste and awesomeness, because those are some of the few things that can differentiate you and your company in the world. Stoke your motor.

Software Review 250

Software Review RSS Differentiation .Net 250

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 1, 2012

In a joint venture with CERN, WP Engine has developed a TCP/IP layer on top of a faster-than-light neutrino beam, delivering page content in negative time. Today WP Engine proudly announces a new WordPress page-caching technology which actually delivers pages before the user clicks the link!

Caching 219

Caching IP Analytics Austin 219

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 31, 2012

.” It’s the founder who says she doesn’t need to talk to customers before embarking on a $100,000 development project because “my customers are idiots.” ” It’s the developer who is sure that “Java sucks.” ” Scars are part of what make us unique. I like scars.

Bootstrapping 230

Bootstrapping Java Revenue Hosting 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 21, 2009

We get caught up in free-but-takes-tons-of-time marketing and development activities — and most of the time that's a good way to think — but sometimes it's still true that "you have to spend money to make money.". If someone handed you $100,000 today, how would you spend it to maximize future profits ?

Startup 315

Startup Revenue Cofounder Sales 315

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

The typical attitude is, “We now have a large customer, so pour extra money into development to make sure we don’t lose it,” but the right attitude is to use a lot of that money to land other customers. Also, up-front payments, so you have the cash-flow to invest in that growth right now. Talk about brittle!

Software Review 294

Software Review Channel Revenue Non-Compete 294

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 15, 2012

Just like you take a resume and you don’t look at it and go, “Wow, you were in software development for five years. So just ignore the feature, in a sense; only use it as a foil to get deeper. That’s fantastic.” ” No, it’s just a foil to start asking questions. Oh, what did you do about this?

Naming 199

Naming Advertising Audio Software Developers 199

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 29, 2017

Developers want to be more efficient but don’t want to change how they work. This plays out in many important ways: Customers demand an improved UX , but they don’t want to learn a new UX. Team members want consistency but don’t want policies.

Demand 159

Demand Employee Management Product 159

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. If you want a step-by-step, here's a great guide and checklist of how to do early customer development by Ash Maurya. This time, though, it was intentional. And it worked. Here's how to do it.

Startup 239

Startup Campaign Turkey Customer Development 239

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2017

Rather, buyer behavior is rooted in their strategy — a combination of product thesis, their theory of their market’s evolution, how they need to position for customers and against competitors, their long-term brand development, geographic expansion plans, and so on. Zoom out to see the strategic decision. This had to be remedied.

Balance Sheet 242

Balance Sheet Vertical Acquisition Revenue 242

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 13, 2011

We did fine before the redesign and we’re doing fine after it; I’m glad we did it, if not for objective data than for subjective feelings.

Design 253

Design Lean Database Cofounder 253

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 12, 2016

So we feel bad about ourselves when we’re only on Chapter Four, having already toiled quite a lot thank you very much for asking, and when exactly are we going to get to the good part?

Audience 120

Audience Engineer Developer Startup 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Or if you’re still in the ideation stage, it gives you the basis for customer development, both in finding potential customers to call and in what you’re verifying when you get them on the phone. You know which features will especially tickle their fancy. You know what to highlight to differentiate from competition.

Distribution 267

Distribution Differentiation Lean Restful 267

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

Rob Walling generously allowed me to reprint this excerpt from his new book, "Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup" available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon and in PDF and ePub from StartupBook.net. As a developer, the features we dropped seem like a necessity from day 1. So we tossed it.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

In the mid 90s it was clear that Apple had lost the personal computer battle and all their developers were fleeing like rats off a sinking ship into the ocean of opportunity that was Windows 95. “Yes&# if it completely funds development we’d like to do anyway. I could have said “no.&#

Java 311

Java Software Review Technical Review Salary 311