Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why vanity metrics are dangerous In a previous post, I defined two kinds of metrics: vanity metrics and actionable metrics. In this post, Id like to talk about the perils of vanity metrics. My personal favorite vanity metrics is "hits."

Metrics 167

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

I feel like “conversion rate optimization” is in 2013 what “social media marketing” was in 2009. Not because they have a conversion problem but because they never really nail the product or how to market it. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development?

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied. Use social media for early marketing. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 2, 2016

New technologies emerge daily and bring ingenious products to the world. It’s generally accepted to praise developers and designers for bringing these products to life but there is usually someone else behind the concepts and ideas. necessary product. necessary product. The quality of a product is decisive.

Management 100

Management Product Churn Rate Green 100

YoungUpstarts

JULY 16, 2019

Have you developed any vision of a product development strategy? And keep in mind that the best option is to develop at least 5 domain names connected to your brand’s name to find an unoccupied domain. Develop a software solution. Discuss the suitable tools with your development team. Hourly rate.

eCommerce 113

eCommerce Software Developers Software Development Hosting 113

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 19, 2020

In addition to the complexities of business operations, companies face extreme competition in the market. There is excessive competition as there are lesser barriers to entry in the market. With appropriate data analytics, a business can predict and comprehend the market, competition, customer demands, etc.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Forecast Analytics Social Media 152

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

If you don’t understand your key financial metrics, you have no way of monitoring your business’s health—and you risk mingling assets, incurring penalties for filing taxes late, overlooking expenses, and running into difficulties paying bills and employees, just to mention a few! Each article will give you: A brief definition of the metric.

Metrics 60

Metrics Burn Rate .Net Churn Rate 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, March 16, 2009 Combining agile development with customer development Today I read an excellent blog post that I just had to share. In most agile development systems, there is a notion of the "product backlog" a prioritized list of what software is most valuable to be developed next.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, September 7, 2008 Customer Development Engineering Yesterday, I had the opportunity to guest lecture again in Steve Blank s entrepreneurship class at the Berkeley-Columbia executive MBA program. Ive attempted to embed the relevant slides below. Talk about waste.

Customer Development 131

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied. Use social media for early marketing. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Women Entrepreneurs Can

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Among these, sales, marketing, customer service, and product development take center stage. In failing to prioritize accounts receivable, businesses squander the efforts of their marketing and sales teams. To thrive, a business must excel in a multitude of functions.

Software Review 40

Software Review Metrics Analytics Software 40

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? When we build products, we use a methodology. But too often when its time to think about customers, marketing, positioning, or PR, we delegate it to "marketroids" or "suits." a roadmap for how to get to Product/Market Fit."

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 21, 2013

Through rapid experimentation, short product development cycles, and rigorous measurements of the right metrics, they can ascertain what customers really want. Customer development (the understanding of customer needs) must be married to agile development (a process which drives waste out of product development).

Lean 193

Lean Technical Review North America Startup 193

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

First you need to take consolation from the fact that you are not alone, and more importantly you need to implement an active growth and marketing plan to include the following initiatives: Ramp-up visibility and strategic alliances. Continually add new marketing and distribution partners. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

” Below are our favorite pieces from the past few years, divided in to a few key categories: fundraising, company building, product development, industry trends, and the life of a VC. Entrepreneurs should know their audience, and most importantly, how savvy it is about the company’s particular market segment.”

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

They also want to see that you’ve assembled a collaborative team, capable of delivering your solution to the market. If you can check these boxes and convince venture capitalists that you’ve achieved product fit in a market with plenty of room for growth, you have a real shot at securing funding. Be ready when it counts.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

YoungUpstarts

JULY 2, 2020

Months into COVID-19’s impact upon much of the business landscape, marketing teams have been forced to change their approach to messaging their clients. Smart companies know that an empathetic approach is a much better marketing strategy. If you use these same metrics, you’re going to be sorely disappointed in the results.

Marketing 262

Marketing Metrics Channel Differentiation 262

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I believe it is the best introduction to Customer Development you can buy. As all of you know, Steve Blank is the progenitor of Customer Development and author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany. I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2012

Long before there was the Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas or Customer Development there was a guy in Santa Barbara California who had already figured it out. Frank Robinson of SyncDev has been helping companies figure out their minimum viable product and pivots since 1984, long before I even knew what it meant. Massacre at IBM.

San Jose 256

San Jose Technical Review Customer Development Software Review 256

Women Entrepreneurs Can

OCTOBER 19, 2021

Software development comes with several challenges, huge risks, and a lot of responsibility, which is why there is still a high failure rate amongst many modern software startups. When designing and building software, it is easy to get carried away with fancy features that will help you stand out in the market. Don’t Do It All Alone.

Software 59

Software Software Developers Software Development Hiring 59

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied. Use social media for early marketing. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics. You can hire the best salespeople, have great products and define good metrics, but without decisive and innovative managers, the sales organization will not reach its full potential.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 11, 2015

Once upon a time, your company may have been able to shake it off if you threw a marketing idea against the wall and found it didn’t stick, or developed a line of products customers didn’t seem to like. Develop products customers want. Develop products customers want.

Analytics 100

Analytics Customer Acquisition Metrics 100

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

Software Development Process via Wikipedia. Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2021

Usually the real culprit is procrastination, lack of focus, or low productivity and lack of metrics. Smart entrepreneurs know they must deliver a quality product, develop a winning business model, and attract real customers. Wait and hope for a miracle. All that’s left is to commit and deliver.

Leadership 410

Leadership Employee Metrics Restful 410

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Switch your focus from product development to sales. Explosive growth to an enterprise normally requires a scalable sales model, a well-documented process with incentives, training, and metrics for tracking and management. Of course, customer relationships, and penetration into new market segments are also critical elements.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 13, 2009 The Principles of Product Development Flow If youve ever wondered why agile or lean development techniques work, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald G. Reinertsen is the book for you.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

A fixed mindset is when entrepreneurs believe their abilities and market are fixed, and the challenge is to make the best of the hand already dealt. Successful entrepreneurs start with a customer problem, and develop a solution, rather than the other way around. Develop market insights and a growth vision far beyond today.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Metrics Hosting Leadership 120

ConversionXL

AUGUST 24, 2021

News declaring it the number one job in sales and marketing, and a median average salary of around $142,000 in the U.S., it’s no surprise that people are looking at how to become a marketing manager. Everything you need to know about the marketing manager role. Others get creative. Others get creative.

Management 141

Management Marketing Campaign Social Media 141

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2020

First you need to take consolation from the fact that you are not alone, and more importantly you need to implement an active growth and marketing plan to include the following initiatives: Ramp-up visibility and strategic alliances. Continually add new marketing and distribution partners. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Social Media 329

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 329

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 30, 2011

Inconsistent startup outsource 4-5 times as much of their product development than consistent startups. In discovery phase 60% of inconsistent startups focus on validating a product and 80% of consistent startups focus on discovering a problem space. Inconsistent startups write 3.4 times more code in efficiency stage.

Silicon Valley 189

Silicon Valley Software Review Startup Cofounder 189

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Minimum viable products (MVPs) are recommended for validating the market, with iterative enhancement to quickly meet market feedback. Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. Customer Development. AskAnything.VC

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 5, 2010

In the quest for optimization, A/B tests, metrics, and funnels, we're in danger of losing the fun and value of creative work. When we demand overwhelming customer outcry before committing to the slightest product change, we're in danger of losing the value of creating a cool feature that takes too much effort but people just love.

Software Review 226

Software Review Metrics Lean Algorithm 226

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196