Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Exchanging your services for services is possible with legal counsel, accountants, engineers, and even sales people.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. This engineering manager is a smart guy, and very experienced.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Its a key lean startup concept.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

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. To calculate precisely how much you need to spend on that, analyze the following factors: Developers’ seniority.

eCommerce 113

eCommerce Software Developers Software Development Hosting 113

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 26, 2022

Businesses have a lot to think about when they have a new product idea and one missed step in the product development lifecycle can significantly impact business success. Manufacturers must ensure their products meet the specified regional regulations and have scientifically traceable (i.e.

Design 133

Design Development Team Review Product Technical Review 133

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

Hiring = Sales. A good recruitment process has many parallels with a sales funnel. As with sales, these core reasons need to be compelling to candidates, while being as unique to you (competitive differentiation) as possible. As an example, the reasons we provide to prospective engineers are 1.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

And he proceeded to lay out a fairly complex and innovative sales and marketing strategy for our next 18 months. You don’t have a clue about what the purpose of marketing is because all you are doing is giving engineering a list of feature requests and executing a series of tasks like they’re like a big To Do list. What do you think?”

Business Model 305

Business Model Product Development Early Stage Customer Development 305

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

Isaac Cambron is co-founder and CTO of Zensight.co , whose pre-launch product enables sales reps to find and use their best content to close more deals. Below, he answers questions about developing products from scratch, as well as the difficult technology choices and tradeoffs CTOs must make.

Technology 334

Technology Ruby Startup Engineer 334

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Engineering is critical but it is not everything. Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use. Your first sales people should be consultative sellers who can fuel evangelical sales. Don’t hire “relationship management” sales people too early.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

When Sloan arrived at GM in 1920 he realized that the traditional centralized management structures organized by function (sales, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing) were a poor fit for managing GM’s diverse product lines. billion in sales in today’s dollars). Yet, you never hear who built GM to that size.

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 21, 2013

Creators of new products in environments of extreme uncertainty, startups face enormous risks. Insufficient capital, over investment, and low sales are just some of the reasons leading to this sobering statistic. There are principally three engines of growth in any startup. This reduces guesswork, time, money and effort.

Lean 193

Lean Technical Review North America Startup 193

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially. Ask every employee to focus on sales. Openly reward employees who make the extra effort, champion cost-cutting issues, and enhance the sales process. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Rather than focus the university inward on research, Terman took the radical step of encouraging Stanford professors and graduate students to start companies applying engineering to pressing military problems. But this quarter-century relationship between the military and universities ended with a bang in 1969. Startups can do anything.

Government 308

Government Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley North Korea 308

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Two conditions that do matter to your startup’s out-year viability are the cost and length of its product development cycle. Startup founders counting the days until break-even or actively seeking outside capital must focus on streamlining their development cycles. Automate Repetitive Processes & Deploy Simulation Software.

Cost 100

Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Exchanging your services for services is possible with legal counsel, accountants, engineers, and even sales people.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

YoungUpstarts

JULY 16, 2019

Positions for software development and data science continue to expand throughout the industry. According to tech recruiters , 2019 has brought a handful of tech jobs to the forefront, such as cyber security engineering, AI/machine learning and data scientists, to name a few. Hiring for tech jobs in Vancouver is all done online.

Canada 167

Canada Hiring Artificial Inteligence Software Developers 167

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. Before you indulge in marketing, sales and blinged-out offices, find product-market fit. Why hire a sales team when you have nothing to sell yet?

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 5, 2018

by Keith Johnstone, Head of Marketing of Peak Sales Recruiting. That is, if they have the right sales team in place…. Ahead of CES, product development teams scrambled to make sure their shiny new product was ready for prime time. Here are 3 ways fast-growing startups build sales teams differently: 1.

Sales 113

Sales Artificial Inteligence Retention Startup 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Our sales guys were on the front line and heard what they needed to win deals. They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g. and product management worked with me to decide what to build & when. The Outside In organization had a one-way flow.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Version One Ventures

AUGUST 26, 2016

To dive into more specifics, I’ve found that building out a strong management team should typically follow this progression: 1 st hire: VP Engineering. 3 rd and 4 th hire: VP Sales/VP Marketing. But once an early playbook emerges, it is time to add more experienced sales and marketing leaders to scale up these functions.

Part-Time VPE 60

Part-Time VPE Management Finance Vertical 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Do they have better sales, marketing, or product development groups? What the winners start with is the realization that in a world of continuous disruption, they have only a few years to develop new capabilities or be pushed over the brink. Is it that some CEOs are better than others? Are their people smarter?

Incubator 402

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 402

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2020

Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially. Ask every employee to focus on sales. Openly reward employees who make the extra effort, champion cost-cutting issues, and enhance the sales process. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Social Media 329

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 329

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. You may know how much to pay in cash or equity for your new VP Engineering. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million. Always seek input.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

ConversionXL

APRIL 13, 2017

Jonathan Price wrote on the same Quora thread that he believes growth marketing to differ from regular marketing because it “is technology-centric and it blurs the boundary between marketing and product development.” A growth team, however, is largely overlapped with product, engineering, and design as well.

Analytics 99

Analytics Engineer SEO Channel 99

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

For example, you could offer sales bonuses and incentives for high-performing workers. Wouldn’t it be wiser to channel your funds to product development and let your products speak for themselves? Marketing VAs can handle SEO and content marketing to increase your ranking on search engines.

Cost 150

Cost Technical Review Salary Social Media 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. The other four are: new product development, writing, time management, and sales/marketing.

Marketing 283

Marketing Early Stage Lead Generation Hosting 283

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. Let’s take sales and business development. Ready to start simplifying?

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 30, 2020

This helps them generate leads and sales. My expertise in product development and project management came after working as a consultant in many industries. I thought of disrupting the SEO industry by using data to have clients rank high on search engine results page. Thanks to Jessica Randhawa, The Forked Spoon ! #7-

Technical Review 145

Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review SEO 145

ReadWriteStart

MAY 8, 2012

They have all the needs of any business - including sales, marketing, product development and design - to go along with all of those software engineers. It can be even harder to develop the skills needed to not just survive in a startup, but to thrive. But there is more to it than that. Startups are businesses.

Boston 124

Boston Massachusetts Startup Ruby 124

Venture Chronicles

AUGUST 2, 2013

3) It all starts with the product: Companies can overcome a great many challenges with band-aids, duct tape, and bailing wire. but one aspect of a startup and/or growth stage company that cannot be glossed over is the product. It all starts with the product. Lastly, a foundational skill of great product managers is GSD.

Product 62

Product CTO Hire Architecture Startup 62

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

During the Cold War with the Soviet Union, science and engineering at both Stanford and U.C. Berkeley were heavily funded to develop Cold War weapon systems. The disadvantage is that its methodology was based on the old waterfall model of product development and not the agile and lean methods that startups use today.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 22, 2012

The program has to be well staffed so it becomes a seamless and well integrated part of your entire growth engine. It must cross boundaries, working cooperatively with other divisions in your business such as sales, marketing, social media, PR, product development, and the like. Cheaping out” on resources.

Programming 145

Programming Customer Social Media Advisory Board 145