Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Embrace technical debt Financial debt plays an important and positive role in our economy under normal conditions. Technical debt works the same way, and has the same perils. I won’t pretend that there aren’t teams that take on technical debt for bad reasons.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Our categorization is not a technical one.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

You’ll find exceptions to this rule, like Snapchat, which was operating at a loss at its IPO, when it experienced high initial trading prices due to its huge popularity and untapped monetization capabilities. Another important metric is churn. Few buyers will get excited about a company currently operating at a loss.

Valuation 145

Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

At the time, I spent most of my time describing the metrics themselves and how VCs and their LPs evaluate performance based on these measurements. If you aren’t familiar with these metrics, I recommend reading the original post to get a sense of the numbers that I’ll be reviewing here. So, is this good or bad?

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review) I continue my series for Harvard Business Review with the Lean Startup technique called Five Whys. As start-ups scale, this agility will be lost unless the founders maintain a consistent investment in that discipline.

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

What does your Chief Technology Officer do all day? Often times, it seems like people are thinking its synonymous with "that guy who gets paid to sit in the corner and think technical deep thoughts" or "that guy who gets to swoop in a rearrange my project at the last minute on a whim." But along the way, something strange happened.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. I acknowledged this in the article.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Jeff Clavier was the first tech investor I ever met; he was introduced to me years ago by some hip engineers in a bar as "one of the few cool VCs." Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have. You want to build your own IPO and exit.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. Technology cycles have become a treadmill, and for startups to survive they need to be on a continuous innovation cycle.

Founder 274

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

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!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004).

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Notice that none of those five reasons deals with TDD or automated testing, which have changed the game. This is the approach of test-driven-development (TDD). I really enjoyed the aspect of TDD that had me learning about _how_ to test software and it coerced me into writing better, more fault tolerant, code.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 2, 2008 Paul Graham on fundraising I have found no better primer on the current realities of starting a new technology company in a startup hub like Silicon Valley than Paul Grahams essays. Its to everyones advantage to let the world think the founders thought of everything. Even VCs do it.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

They are leaders, visionaries, founders and managers having tremendous success. 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. As a technical fix, it was brilliant.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Following the inevitable ups and downs of the VC investment cycle, and what founders can do when it all turns cold. 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? The “venture recession” of 2016 is in full swing.

Harvest 60

Harvest Vertical IPO Early Stage 60

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

I usually don’t back a business unless there are founders that can build, sell, and service the new solution that is being brought to market. In this case, they could build and service it but they needed a third co-founder to sell it. And we knew technically it would be a much more challenging build. million to date.

Bootstrapping 52

Bootstrapping IPO Business Model Software Review 52

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 15, 2008 The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time Split-testing is a core lean startup discipline, and its one of those rare topics that comes up just as often in a technical context as in a business-oriented one when Im talking to startups. First of all, why split-test?

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Of the techniques he mentioned, I think four are fundamental and critical for any lean startup: TDD (or the even more politely named TATFT ) Continuous integration Automate your deployments Collect statistics The tools to help you do these things are getting better and better every day, but dont confuse tools with process.

Software Review 68

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, January 15, 2010 Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Harvard Business Review) The next part in the series I am writing for Harvard Business Review is online. They are long-term bets on the development of a new line of business, a new technology platform, or the creation of a new market.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

And a special thanks is due to all of our presenters, panelists, and mentors. Although many of the non-technical folks in the room didnt understand what was happening in the moment, plenty of hackers were on high alert. If thats true, its primarily due to your hard work, building companies and testing new ideas. We all owe you.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

While poised with a limited number of transactions this year, the world of public Cloud Computing and SaaS companies has been marked by two events in the past few months: the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe and the high profile IPO of LogMeIn, a leading provider of PC remote access and support with a very interesting freemium model.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

for Harvard Business Review) Im excited to have just published the first of several articles on entrepreneurship for the Harvard Business Review online. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For most of us, the phrase management science conjures up a decidedly non-entrepreneurial image, and for good reason.

San Francisco 119

San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Heres my diagnosis of his problem: He has some automated tests, but his team doesnt have a continuous integration server or practice TDD. And has the tension goes down, it will be easier to get the whole team (including the MBAs) to embrace TDD and other good practices as further refinements. I'm a die hard believer in TDD.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and whats changed since then) My recent article on technical debt and its positive uses generated a fair bit of controversy. It had a pretty good technical design. That "good design" turned out to be technical debt, after all.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

Recent economic events, technological change, and the rapid diffusion of information about the old models have combined to help us all realize just how important entrepreneurship is - and just how little we really know about it. My success is due in no small part to their early and enthusiastic endorsement.

Lean 146

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup 146

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The other revels in the world as we all know it will be someday: limitless distribution enabled by new technologies, the importance of collaborative filters, and on-demand availability of all content for end-users. But the same technologies that make life difficult for traditional marketers also offer them unprecedented new opportunities.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. So Groupon obviously filed their S-1 the other day to formally being the IPO process. Even for those who don’t care to dive into the numbers, it’s worth a quick glance because co-founder/CEO Andrew Mason wrote a letter which forms the preamble of the full document.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Playing with new technologies. Growth - when you have existing customers, the pressure is on to grow your key metrics day-in day-out. Some companies and founders refuse to serve existing customers, and are always lurching from one great idea to the next. Seeing whats possible. Building and testing prototypes.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

What are the biggest areas of technical risk? What technology research is required? What technologies will we use? What do we need to do to make sure we can survive technical due diligence by investors and partners? What specific technical innovations might make sense? How can we address this risk?

CTO Hire 231

CTO Hire Technical Review Developer Software Review 231

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

They take things like unit testing, design documents and code reviews more seriously than any other company Ive even heard about. ► 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 76

Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Im also excited to share two long-form reviews from actual attendees. Inspiring ideas: real-time biz metrics; safe continuous deployment; A/B split testing. Technically you argue it goes back 30 years when StorageTek was founded. Articulate, inspirational. jdegoes : Great talk from @ericries last night.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

In this posts I review the potential risks for the Israeli tech ecosystem and the mitigating factors that counter some of them. According to the 2021 Tech Review report by IVC , Israeli tech startups attracted a record of $25.6 Israeli tech investments 2015-2021 (source: IVC ). What comes next? China: $104.4

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 158

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Next, they carefully consider the range of multiples being used today to value companies being acquired or doing IPOs in the market that the business is in. These include: ·       Vesting of Founder Stock. times the investment.).   As an example, I have used an EBIT multiple [1]. here of 7.65 [2].

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

So when we start checking in code more often, release more often, or conduct more frequent design reviews, we can actually do a lot to make those steps dramatically more efficient. The only disadvantage that comes to mind is the potential bottleneck of submission reviews, when that is deemed necessary.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. I joined a financial services tech startup in 1999. May 14, 2009 5:23 AM David said.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

That data is completely consonant with the people I know who are successful technologists today, and similar patterns are documented in each recent wave of technology innovation. There would be no Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, or countless other job-creating tech companies today if early computers required corporate authorization to use.

Programming 143

Programming San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 143

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

What should an early-stage startup founder focus on if they want to implement PLG? What should the founder avoid if they want to implement PLG? But for early stage founders, I think there are two particular scenarios where PLG can be really helpful. What do you feel like early stage startup founders should focus on first?

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78