Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

If engineers want more time to spend making their old code more pretty, they are invited to do so on the weekends. The idea is that once we move to the new system (or coding standard, or API, or.) The current code is spaghetti, but the new code will be elegant. Its become "legacy code" and part of the problem.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

NZ Entrepreneur

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

You need to have answers to the potential IP questions that may be raised by future investors or exit targets at the time of their due diligence. The IPO did not proceed. Copyright is free and can protect your source code or manuals from being copied. Not doing so can cause big problems later for your business.

Intellectual Property 45

Intellectual Property IP Software Review New Zealand 45

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

Of course your friend’s company raised $50 million and offers it’s employees free kombucha and desk massages. And even this can’t stop their employees from fleeing after two years of vesting to move on to the next hot startup. For investors life is no different. “Yeah, we think about going every year.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. If not, whos going to insist we switch to free and open source software?

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2015

It’s convenient not to bother thinking about politics because you want to just ship really cool code and if users love it then you’ll be successful – but that’s not reality. What are the chances that SnapChat or WhatsApp would emerge without getting crushed like a bug?

Oauth 150

Oauth Software Review Technical Review IPO 150

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

– Templatize the entrepreneurial process , by providing checklists, standardized agreements and other reusable code. The firm attracts deal flow by promising a decision (positive or negative) in under 2 weeks, with minimal paperwork and without repeating due diligence.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

GameFly filed in 2010 and remains in registration, though 2011 has seen a positive start for VC-backed IPOs with 14 in Q1 2011. Now that Google’s acquisition of ITA is closed, following lenghty FTC review, it would appear Kayak is poised to proceed with their IPO in the coming months. =. Kayak Software Corporation.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

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!” Fast early growth in a market is often eroded when competition gets fierce and prices are forced down due to competition. Not necessarily.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

We went through the euphoria of massive exposure at the time of our launch due to an article that ran in the Financial Times. Our software wasn’t fully baked. We had one of the largest US software companies talk about buying us. And I made a version of this company-wide speech to our employees: “Look.

PR 331

PR Software Review Ireland Germany 331

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 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 23, 2016

Have you ever struggled with getting positive reviews or good word of mouth? 3 A Strong Brand Image Isn’t Just Good for Your Customers… …It’s also good for your employees. When you have a strong brand image, your employees will likely feel more inspired about the work they’re doing.

Software Review 45

Software Review Merger Advertising IPO 45

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 5, 2012

Five Tips To Improve Employee Performance Reviews – [link]. Five Tips To Improve Employee Performance Reviews – [link]. Some Thoughts On The IPO Market For Web Companies (by @fredwilson) – [link]. A contact microphone, a hard surface, and some software – [link]. – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 14, 2012

Bonnstetter | Harvard Business Review – [link]. Some Quick Sage Advice for Young Employees Early in Their Careers – [link]. Nine Ways Successful People Defeat Stress | Heidi Grant Halvorson -Harvard Business Review – [link]. Inside the IPO pipeline: It’s all B2B, all of the time | GeekWire – [link].

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Design Media 100

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 18, 2013

Thanks To Facebook, Strongest Year For IPOs Since 2000 With $21.5 Don’t Hire the Perfect Candidate | Lance Haun-Harvard Business Review – [link]. Valve’s employee handbook is a fascinating read. Scaling Your UX Strategy | Robert Fabricant-Harvard Business Review - [link]. SEO For Facebook Graph Search?

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

You don’t need to buy expensive software – there are free open source solutions for nearly everything. You invest low amounts of capital and the company gets to IPO (96-99) or trade sale (05-08) without raising too much capital and certainly not on punishing terms. But in bad economies many angels get burned.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

Gregory Wehmeyer True, Ben, once upon a time, Angel Investors provided the launching pad for Venture Capital Firms to propel any startup on two legs toward a successful IPO. We are coaching VCs and Angel Investors everyday who call us wanting to understand our Early Stage LPO versus late stage IPO approach to business.

Angel Investor 84

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 84

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

Gregory Wehmeyer True, Ben, once upon a time, Angel Investors provided the launching pad for Venture Capital Firms to propel any startup on two legs toward a successful IPO. We are coaching VCs and Angel Investors everyday who call us wanting to understand our Early Stage LPO versus late stage IPO approach to business.

Angel Investor 83

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 83

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

As a result, local universities here churn out thousands of new graduates each year who can spell Microsoft but understand nothing about proper software engineering. Silicon Valley is a great place for technology startups in no small part due to its culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Culture creation is not easy.

Offshore 40

Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

I was the junior guy on a project team; I was called in to do some technical due diligence for reasons that were obscure to me, because the team already had much more senior engineers assigned to it. And like feedback on a simple microphone sound system, this would occasionally boil over into screeching.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Seeing Both Sides

JUNE 1, 2012

Mary Meeker's periodic review of the Internet industry is always a must-read presentation. There is a theme that Mary espoused that I have become a big fan of ever since I read Marc Andresseen's article in the Wall Street Journal " Why software is eating the world ". Financials are on top at a leviathan-like $7 trillion.

Software Review 41

Software Review IPO Technical Review America 41

adamac.blogspot.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Adam MacBeth Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10 Startup Red Flags Ive worked on a number of startups: from seed-stage through IPO, as a founder, employee, advisor, and consultant, as well as evaluating a bunch from the outside, so Ive seen my share of screw-ups. Adamac Attack! Either way, its a sign that something is amiss.

Technical Review 41

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup 41

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

like john 461 days ago another good question is “who are employees that have followed the ceo from his previous gig.&# The result was us getting an employee we didn’t think would work for what we offered, which ended up benefiting our company in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Thanks for the list. You rock Guy.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Patch helps businesses of all sizes automate their sustainability goals with just a few lines of code. Just imagine a company going public hands out 15% of their stock to their users at IPO – for free! . Announcements. Patch , a platform for negative emissions, officially launched. Scanwell Health was awarded a $1.6M

Portfolio 94

Portfolio Software Review Cofounder Canada 94

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. A pre-IPO board usually had two founders, two VCs and one “independent” member.

Founder 252

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 252

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. Four Steps primarily centers its stories and case studies on B2B hardware and software startups. You can imagine how well that worked. You can imagine how well that worked.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

abovethecrowd.com

AUGUST 23, 2020

But in light of where we are in 2020, especially with regard to the degrading efficiency and sky-rocketing cost of capital through the structurally broken IPO process, SPACs may emerge as a legitimate third option for helping Silicon Valley companies efficiently and cost-effectively transition into the public markets.

IPO 118

IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, February 11, 2009 The free software hiring advantage This is one of those startup tips Im a little reluctant to share, because its been such a powerful source of competitive advantage in the companies Ive worked with. Especially for a startup, not taking maximum advantage of free software is crazy.

Software Review 68

Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Questions I ask Mike Evans: [1:46] Could you give us a high-level overview of the startup of Grubhub to IPO to what you’re doing now? 12:51] Right up to IPO at which point you quit, which I think some people would actually say, you made it now, why are you quitting? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

Founder 81

Founder Chicago Kansas Startup 81

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

What existing systems will we leverage, what programming languages, software development methodologies, web application frameworks, revision control systems, etc.? What do we need to do to make sure we can survive technical due diligence by investors and partners? What are the biggest areas of technical risk? Accounting?

CTO Hire 231

CTO Hire Technical Review Developer Software Review 231

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Industries like cybersecurity and technology are struggling to maintain the levels of innovation needed to continue unprecedented growth due to constraints on sourcing local talent. McLaren Technology Acquisition Corp, the SPAC focused on fintech recently closed a $ 201 million IPO at NASDAQ.

Artificial Inteligence 167

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Global Technology 167

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

A new bit of code contained an infinite loop! why did that code get written? 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. Most engineers would ship code to production on their first day.

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

venturebeat.com

MARCH 8, 2011

My hobby is … I work on my hobby only at home and on my own time; it is not in conflict with my employee agreement. Don’t use company property or Internet, ever - Another clause in most employment agreements is that anything you do physically at work, or on software and equipment owned by the company (e.g.

Software Review 41

Software Review Startup Technical Review Mobile 41

View from Seed

JUNE 13, 2019

I know some of the investors in Chewy prior to the PetSmart acquisition, but I am not a shareholder nor do I intend to purchase shares in the IPO. Much of the press on the company’s IPO highlights this fact, which is easy to discern from a casual read of the S-1. I’ll break down Chewy’s business based on their recent S-1 filing here.

Leadership 214

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 214

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

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

For example, Amplitude is a product analytics software. That would happen when a company had some employees using GitLab in their prior job or for a personal project. And they already know the software so you just need to negotiate price. They were able to grow the product even after their IPO or maybe close to their IPO.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

I wassurprised recently when I realized that all the worst problems wefaced in our startup were due not to competitors, but investors.Dealing with competitors was easy by comparison. In an IPO, it might not merely addexpense, but change the outcome. Those remedial actions can delay, stall or even kill the IPO.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

When I want to know about some concurrency issues between services in his cluster, he doesnt blink an eye when I suggest we get the source code and take a look. Hes just as comfortable writing code as racking servers, debugging windows drivers, or devising new interview questions. He throws off volumes of code, and it works.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94