Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, February 20, 2009 Work in small batches Software should be designed, written, and deployed in small batches. Of all of the insights Ive contributed to the companies Ive worked at over the years, the one I am most proud of is the importance of working in small batches. Its had tremendous impact in many areas: continuous deployment , just-in-time scalability , and even search engine marketing , to name a few.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Eric Friedman

FEBRUARY 21, 2009

Image Credit: 100kr. I have learned almost everything about computers and technology by doing small projects. This may be in tandem with someone else, or something I want to figure out on my own, but usually is the result of a need to learn or understand a new technology. I can remember the deployment of Palm Pilots with dial-up modem attachments to an entire floor of private wealth management financial folks back when I worked over a summer at DLJ Asset Management.

Ruby 79

Ruby Analytics PHP Technical Review 79

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 27, 2009

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Friday, February 27, 2009. Bessemer Venture Partners Expands BVP VII Fund. We just announced the expansion of our fund and I wanted to share with you the good news! New Capital Earmarked for Global High-Growth Investments LARCHMONT, N.Y., Feb. 26 Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), the oldest venture capital practice in the United States, today announced the closing o

Software Review 48

Software Review Partner United States Venture Capital 48

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

Startup

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

It is great to see my friend Andrew Erlichson getting some rave reviews for Phanfare Photon , his iPhone photo app.  According to ReadWriteWeb: "Phanfare's Photon is currently the best photo sharing and photo management app on the iPhone. It is important to note that Photon puts less emphasis on social feature than other services like Radar , which we reviewed last week.

Caching 60

Caching Software Review Mobile Distribution 60

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 1, 2009

Prominent finance publications like the WSJ and the Motley Fool along with several bloggers have recently taken shots at Google with respect to their decision to re-price a boat-load of employee stock options. Just to review the details, in their last earnings call google management stated that they would offer all employees with options that have strike prices above the [.].

Stock Options 40

Stock Options Stock Finance Technical Review 40

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. This hot list is based on various social signals of what people are writing about, reading, bookmarking, searching, etc. You can go to the Hot List post to see what was hot then. But, in running it now for the second half of January, the keyword that popped to the top was: Layoffs And this is definitely a sign of the times.

San Diego 159

San Diego Los Angeles Southern California Aggregator 159

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

Product Development 143

Product Development Developer Silicon Valley Product 143

Eric Friedman

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

I recently came across this credit crisis video explaining the credit crisis in plain english. The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo. I thought it was a great blend of terms and explanations put together in a way that is short enough and easy enough to understand. Using a video to explain the problems going on provides a way to quickly get the knowledge out there for others to get as well.

Video 60

Video Marketing Technology 60

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

My expectations for 2009 are that things will get worse before they get better.  On the portfolio company side, I would rather have my companies growing at a lesser rate getting closer to breakeven than growing too aggressively and burning lots of cash.  Once your house is in order (see some earlier posts I made on this topic), I do see opportunities to take advantage of this environment.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Valuation Security Software 60

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2009

Many companies and visionaries have pontificated about the future of video ads and different techniques for monetizing online videos. A big part of this is driven by the fact that while YouTube is a huge user success, its a less proven monetization success. On a recent trip to NYC, an idea came up which I can’t get [.].

Advertising 46

Advertising Video Venture Capital Internet 46

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 9, 2009 The lean startup @ Web 2.0 Expo (and a call for help) Ive been asked to speak this year at the Web 2.0 Expo to explain the lean startup concept to a larger audience. The Lean Startup: a Disciplined Approach to Imagining, Designing, and Building New Products.: Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco 2009 The current macroeconomic climate presents unparalleled opportunities for those that can thrive with constrained resources.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board 68

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2009

Fantastic post by Christian Gammill - Startup Delta Force… From a competitive perspective (e.g. all the other folks out there that will try to enter the same market) the barriers have been dropping over the last few years. Customer Acquisition – social media, SEO, SEM, etc Economies of Scale – not as big a barrier in web world Investment – little to none required to get started Pricing – free or freemium makes trial simple Distribution – syndication and APIs make partnering easier IP – in genera

Business Model 150

Business Model SEM IP Syndicate 150

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital California 127

Andrew Payne

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

I’m a huge GPS fan, and have wondered how I got through two decades of driving without electronic navigation help. Recently, the innovation rate in navigation applications seems slow. TomTom raised the bar a few years back, but nearly everyone’s caught up: most units are quite good. I’m wishing someone would “iphone” this market, with a great design that delivers a new level of innovation and blows everyone else away.

Wiki 40

Wiki Design Marketing 40

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Ashlee Vance from the Bits Blog has a nice piece on why Cisco raised another $4b of cash through a debt offering yesterday even though they have $30b in cash.  "As word of Cisco’s debt sale hit Wall Street, the standard chatter surrounding possible targets began anew. As usual, companies like EMC, NetApp, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat and BMC were discussed as desirable properties." Regarding Cisco I have heard the same acquisition rumors.  On the smaller private company side, my

Acquisition 60

Acquisition Atlanta Social Network Security 60

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 18, 2009

[Note: Update to this post, posted 2/22/09] A few weeks back, a friend mentioned an idea he had heard suggesting that the government consider entering the VC (venture capital) business as part of the overall stimulus plan. Specifically, the argument was made for the government to provide excess venture capital funding to the green sector. [.].

Green 40

Green Government Venture Capital Internet 40

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, February 11, 2009 You buy virtual goods Jeremy Liew has a great piece in the WSJ about the central mystery of businesses that make money selling virtual goods: Why do People Buy Virtual Goods? - WSJ.com : "My theory is that people buy digital goods for the same reason that they buy goods in the real world; (i) to be able to do more, (ii) to build relationships, and (iii) to establish identity.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 102

Hacking Startups

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

'Git makes it possible for a programmer to do most work on a branch that’s not pushed to any repository coworkers see. This is a bad idea. The only justification I’ve seen was that the practice “ let[s] you do some bonehead moves without your co-workers ever having to know ” You should not need to hide your code from your coworkers.

Developer 40

Developer 40

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

Redemption 126

Redemption Silicon Valley RSS California 126

Andrew Payne

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

I sometimes use JDarkroom for writing. It blanks out the screen, giving only monospaced text, letting you focus on words (not formatting, the clock, the weather, email, surfing, or blog reading). But when I need to think , turning off the computer entirely and writing on paper seems to work best (I like the large squared Moleskine notebooks). It goes everywhere, boots instantly, and never crashes.

Bandwidth 40

Bandwidth Email 40

Altgate

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← But What Does It Mean? Armageddon Averted? → An Engineer’s Suggestion For the Stimulus Plan Posted on February 9, 2009 by fnazeeri I’m sick and tired of politicians looking at the same law and proclaiming polar opposite results will occur if it’s passed.

Engineer 39

Engineer Washington Database Venture Capital 39

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Yesterday I met with a cool company named Slide Rocket that has a very slick product. Based on Adobe Flex, SlideRocket has built a web based PowerPoint alternative that some equate more to Apple’s Keynote (plus it has collaboration built in). One reviewer even said: ”The entire interface is, dare I say it, gorgeous. It’s slick, smooth, gentle on [.

Web 40

Web Naming Product 40

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, February 24, 2009 The lean startup at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Image by Jessica_Mah via Flickr Last week I had the opportunity to lecture again in Steve Blank s entrepreneurship class at Haas, which is always a great learning experience - for me at least! This time, I was lucky enough to have my friend Nivi from Venture Hacks in the audience, and he was recording.

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Hacking Startups

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

Git makes it possible for a programmer to do most work on a branch that’s not pushed to any repository coworkers see. This is a bad idea. The only justification I’ve seen was that the practice “ let[s] you do some bonehead moves without your co-workers ever having to know ”. You should not need to hide your code from your coworkers. Even your experimental code.

Developer 40

Developer 40

Jason Ball

FEBRUARY 2, 2009

I've been a judge for the VCIC competition held at London Business School for the past few years. The school is actively looking for entrepreneurs willing to pitch to a room a VCs and MBAs learning to be VCs. The venture funds present (previously) were Accel, Atlas, Amadeus, Balderton, Doughty Hanson, et al plus corporates like Microsoft and Qualcomm Ventures.

Startup 28

Startup Entrepreneur Customer Product 28

Andrew Payne

FEBRUARY 5, 2009

David Pogue wrote today about the 15,000 apps now available in the iPhone app store. It’s pretty amazing. But where’s the app store for Mac and Windows? . Buying apps on-line is not a new concept: I’ve got a handful of “indie” apps that I use regularly, and many big-name apps can be now bought on-line. But Apple’s nailed the user experience for shopping and purchasing: User reviews.

Distribution 40

Distribution Naming Operations 40

Altgate

FEBRUARY 4, 2009

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Atlas Ventures Crash And Burns TheFunded Coming To Boston → How Not To Do Customer Support Posted on February 4, 2009 by fnazeeri This is off topic, but so darn funny I have to share.  It's basically two and half minutes of gut wrenching agony listening to some guy try to explain to Verizon why $0.002 is not 0.002¢.   Share and Enjoy: This entry was post

Customer 31

Customer Boston Venture Capital Startup 31

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

While I attempted to bury this issue last week, this Sunday, Thomas Friedman again used his pulpit in the New York Times Opinion section to beg for a VC Bailout. Last week he merely suggested that the government invest along side venture firms. This week, he went even further astray and suggested that the government [.].

New York 40

New York Government Venture Capital Green 40

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Continuous deployment and continuous learning At long last, some of the actual implementers of the advanced systems we built at IMVU for rapid deployment and rapid response are starting to write about it. I find these on-the-ground descriptions of the system and how they work so much more credible than just theory-type posts that I am excited to share them with you.

Continuous Deployment 123

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 123

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

In that 1984 classic, Revenge of the Nerds, a group of outcasts and misfits fight back against their better-looking, "cool" rivals, ultimately winning the girls and glory. I was reminded of the movie over breakfast this morning with the CEO of one of the major ad agencies. Just as you'd expect a high-powered agency executive to be, he was smooth, smart, suave and urbane.

Acquisition 28

Acquisition Advertising Demand Equity 28

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 27, 2009

Denver 48

Denver Community 48

Andrew Payne

FEBRUARY 6, 2009

I got a big chuckle out of this article from CNN , about consumers canceling cable service and turning to the Internet for TV. The analyst/pundit comments reminded me of the Internet naysayers from the mid 90s: The brutal economy may motivate some consumers, like the Wynsmas, to switch to Web-based TV, but it won’t necessarily hurt the cable or satellite TV business, which has historically been recession-proof.

Web 40

Web IP Distribution Internet 40

Altgate

FEBRUARY 18, 2009

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Greed is Good Scientists Find Positive Correlation Between Wealth & Rudeness → Sell Snowblowers in the Winter, Not Lawn Mowers Posted on February 18, 2009 by fnazeeri Every week I get about a dozen or so inquiries from friends, colleagues or readers of this blog asking me what I think about so-and-so idea.  Usually it's in the context of soliciting advice

Bankruptcy 28

Bankruptcy Early Stage Venture Capital Revenue 28

Software By Rob

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Expenses You Don’t Think of When Starting a Business Something Big is Coming… → Marketing is Design: Three Words that Increased My E-commerce Sales 1000% Overnight Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Design 51

Design Software Review Marketing Software Developers 51

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, February 28, 2009 Throwing away working code Lean startups work by systematically eradicating waste. This builds on a lot of great thinking that has come before, like the agile movements insistence that only the creation of working code counts as progress for a software development team. But lean startups cant afford to be satisfied with just that definition, because there are situations where working code is itself a form of waste.

San Francisco 98

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 98