Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Employees should be masters of their own time Every startup should have a culture of learning. The rule is simple: every employee is 100% responsible for how they spend their time. The suggestion is that you implement one single company-wide rule. I asked why.

Employee 146

Employee San Francisco Lean Software Review 146

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. You need to talk about partnerships, employee roles, distributors, and strategic alliances.

Exit Strategy 406

Exit Strategy Merger Angel Investor IPO 406

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

It was one of the year's most successful IPOs so far, and has been heralded as a "landmark moment" for cryptocurrency's entrance into mainstream investing. Just before the IPO, I had a far-reaching conversation with co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong as he approached this major milestone for the company he co-founded back in 2012.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The metrics and levers of engagement, presentation on Engagement Loops for Facebook Developer Garage SF Ill be presenting a talk at the Facebook Developer Garage SF Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, its easy to lose track of positioning effects when optimizing for a single metric.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

More and more angels will be minted as the 2019 IPO class emerges. Also during this time, the underlying metrics in that business can change positively, potentially trapping companies to accept the initially-agreed upon valuation. Traditional seed funds have gotten bigger, many armed with opportunity funds on top.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2019

Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths. Less is more. But never take your eye off today’s customer.

Social Media 218

Social Media India Acquisition China 218

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

In theory when you went public, everyone’s shares were now tradable on the stock exchange, but usually the underwriters required a six month “lockup” when company insiders (employees and investors) couldn’t sell. The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 225

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

When an employee is not the right fit that person needs to be moved on quickly (kindly and legally) for everyone’s sake, but most acutely because there is very little latitude in a startup for anything slowing progress. Generating liquidity usually entails either selling the venture or an IPO. pivot the business. change the CEO.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

With Airbnb’s IPO, I thought the time was right to take a look back at the past decade (Greylock led Airbnb’s Series A in November 2010) and reflect on what I learned from the journey. it took years for Airbnb’s metrics to really start accelerating. This essay is based on a Greymatter podcast episode, which you can listen to here.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” They got a bigger office space so their employees would feel comfortable and they could improve employee retention.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Why should a public market downturn determine an investment in a startup that has seven to 10 years to go before it can even think about an IPO? But many of today’s billion dollar venture firms invest in four-person startups as well as pre-IPO startups with thousands of employees.

Harvest 60

Harvest Vertical IPO Early Stage 60

YoungUpstarts

MAY 5, 2017

The company’s ascension, chronicled in “ Becoming Facebook “ , is a business adventure of unprecedented growth, game-changing acquisitions, recovery from a chaotic IPO and a continuing defense against foes large and small. Decide On, and Obsess About, Your North Star Metric. Above all, that climb was no accident.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley IPO Metrics Global 150

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 18, 2013

Thanks To Facebook, Strongest Year For IPOs Since 2000 With $21.5 The 6 Marketing Metrics Your CEO Actually Cares About [Cheat Sheet] | Hubspot Blog - [link]. Valve’s employee handbook is a fascinating read. The 6 Marketing Metrics Your CEO Actually Cares About [Cheat Sheet] | Hubspot Blog - [link].

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Since then, the debate over IPOs has continued, with a particular focus on allegedly underpriced offerings that jump shortly after opening — the dreaded “pop.” ” As some criticism has it, this supposedly deprives companies of millions of dollars that should have been theirs if not for underpricing the IPO.

IPO 36

IPO Securities and Exchange Commission Demand SEC 36

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 17, 2014

One way to suss this out – ask the co-workers about the metrics or key performance indicators they owned. This employee supposedly has a great job, so why do they want to leave? Or even worse, the employee is going to use your offer just to get a raise (see more about this below). Who did they report to? I’ve found many don’t!

IPO 86

IPO Cofounder Hiring Reputation 86

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2017

Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths. Less is more. But never take your eye off today’s customer.

Social Media 163

Social Media India Acquisition China 163

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 29, 2014

Let’s do it with math: You spend 99.99% of your time on the journey of building a startup, and 0.01% basking in the temporary euphoria of “success,” such as selling it to someone else or ringing the bell on the morning of your IPO. Nothing wrong with using metrics and money to keep score in this game. Or the 200th?

Startup 299

Startup Metrics IPO America 299

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. In 1999, record valuations coexisted with record IPOs and shareholder liquidity. 2015 was the exact opposite.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

Insist on the incredibly high-IQ employees and hold them to incredibly high standards. It never generated positive returns for its investors, and most of its employees walked away dejected. This company had disciplined schedules, milestones, employee evaluations, and a culture of execution. Build a truly mainstream product.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Lean Agile Continuous Deployment 150

VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2023

Many exited or IPO’d (and subsequently lost much of their value in the recent downturn), but new success stories have also emerged. One of the first companies (outside of Disney) to get access to the Snap Camera SDK, Zoog has some of the best conversion metrics I’ve seen for a B2C consumer app. Much has changed since then.

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B2C Generative AI Artificial Inteligence 148

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

Milestones and Metrics. You’ll end up with a long, generic statement about how your company is serving its customers, employees, etc. The company history section can provide new employees with background on the company so that they have better context for the work that they are doing and where the company has come from over the years.

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

A cautious person wouldn’t try to pry people out of Twitter right before their IPO to” join my cause!!” Good press and industry mojo wasn’t enough to overcome the financial metrics of the business and the offers came in at more like $10 million. It was not. I wasn’t surprised. We decided not to sell.

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 19, 2020

He also has strongly held ideas about structuring a company to institutionalize these intentions to make sure the next leader, future employees, and the next board will be true to that philosophy. Brian asked himself two questions as he prepared to help employees being laid off through their transition: “Did you do everything you could?

Management 122

Management Cofounder China IPO 122

View from Seed

MAY 16, 2019

I have friends who are execs or shareholders of the company, but I have no stake in Slack nor intent to invest in the IPO. A somewhat unique thing about the Slack IPO is that they’re pursuing a direct listing on the NYSE. But now we have a chance to really dig in and understand Slack’s business a bit better.

Lock-up Period 168

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 168

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. If we priced it based on any metrics your company would likely be worth less than 7 figures at your A round. Less than you’ll probably grant your most junior employees in stock options? Maybe an IPO – who knows? So a convertible note was easier. Your A round?

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

That would happen when a company had some employees using GitLab in their prior job or for a personal project. Hila Qu: When you don't have anything and you don't have this motion set up, your first success metric is to get to the first self service conversion or generate the first PQL. That’s a PLG motion, right? Just get it to work.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

Austin Startup

MAY 29, 2019

link] I believe that SaaS startups we’ve invested in (either as advisors or investors, or both), such as AlertMedia, Clarify, Edgecase, eRelevance, Fashion Metric, NewComLink, OneSpot, Onor, OrderGroove, Pivot Freight, RealMassive, and ShelfBucks, have natural network effects, some inherently stronger in their industries than others.

Networking 48

Networking Fractional CTO CTO Hire B2C 48

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

He also has strongly held ideas about structuring a company to institutionalize these intentions to make sure the next leader, future employees, and the next board will be true to that philosophy. 47:49) Brian on the letter he wrote to employees to announce the layoffs and the response to it. (50:17) 6,000, 7,000 employees.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 7, 2013

They’re using metrics that are often unworkable in the current business environment, causing growing businesses to look elsewhere for capital and increasingly towards alternative forms of financing. Case in point: It took Amazon six years to earn a dime, during which it consumed huge amounts of venture funding and issued an IPO.

Advisory Board 249

Advisory Board Entrepreneur Portland Oregon 249

Gust

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

The ideal angel investor would spend a great deal of his/her time working on behalf of the company in support of the CEO, in every way other than being a full-time employee. In addition to doing the kinds of things that anyone (employee, friend, parent, founder, etc.)

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Angel Investor Startup IPO Early Stage 148

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

In the case of C3, that was to run payroll for 87,000 employees, who were presumably receiving payroll before the project began. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The visionary’s lament The Superbowl ad test Lo, my 57692 subscribers, who are you? Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Agile 60

Agile Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2012

She suggested that how cofounders fight was a key metric in predicting the success of a founding team. You’re looking for an employee, not a partner. We don’t care if entrepreneurs want to build lifestyle businesses or go for IPOs, if they are tethered to their email or check out at 7pm – that’s a personal decision.

Cofounder 331

Cofounder IPO Early Stage Green 331

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I used to give copies of Four Steps out to my employees, in the hopes that it would instantly indoctrinate them into the methodology of Customer Development. I used to give copies of Four Steps out to my employees, in the hopes that it would instantly indoctrinate them into the methodology of Customer Development.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

Hes a new employee, and he was not properly trained in TDD So far, this isnt much different from the kind of analysis any competent operations team would conduct for a site outage. Instead, five whys kept leading to problems caused by an improperly trained new employee, and wed make a small adjustment. why did that code get written?

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

If we think you may be cutting a sizable check and joining the board, we are evaluating you as a potential employee of our company. If you have some common friends, feel free to ask around about them, but if you want to talk to former employees, colleagues or other investors, don’t until you are fully committed. That’s awesome.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2019

I have friends who are execs or shareholders of the company, but I have no stake in Slack nor intent to invest in the IPO. A somewhat unique thing about the Slack IPO is that they’re pursuing a direct listing on the NYSE. But now we have a chance to really dig in and understand Slack’s business a bit better.

Lock-up Period 100

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 100