YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 19, 2017

by Steve Owens, Founder and CTO of Finish Line Product Development Services. In this article we explore the unique challenges of a lean start-up and how Outsourced Product Development (OPD) can be used to overcome them. Reducing product turn time. Extending the runway. The Lean Start-Up Environment.

Product Development 153

Product Development Lean Developer Product 153

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Both brand marketing and product marketing are important to a well-built marketing strategy. Product marketing informs strategic positioning and ensures alignment across the company. Product marketers own a variety of marketing responsibilities, which can be roughly divided into two broad categories: pre-launch and post-launch.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Without the revenue to match its expenses, the company is in now danger of running out of money.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 228

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 123

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

The Founder’s New Insight Smart founders are never satisfied with simply executing their current business model, they are constantly observing, orienting and deciding whether their current business model can be made better. But the purpose of this post is what happens when a founder (or large company CEO) finds a better business model.

Customer 201

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 201

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Product second. This is obvious. Marketing first.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Product second. This is obvious. Marketing first.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

The same issues arose time and again: big company management styles versus entrepreneurs wanting to shoot from the hip, founders versus professional managers, engineering versus marketing, marketing versus sales, missed schedule issues, sales missing the plan, running out of money, raising new money.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 126

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

That’s the mission driving products like Hemafuse , one of 50 finalists for SXSW Pitch 2020. Carolyn Yarina , Co-Founder and CEO of Sisu Global Health. Yarina, Co-Founder and CEO of Sisu Global, was recently named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Healthcare, one of many awards the company has received for its work.

Baltimore 62

Baltimore Africa South Africa Michigan 62

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. What is the right revenue model? In other words, what is the minimum viable product ? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Is that a lot? Is that good?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Through trial and error, hiring and firing, successful startups all invented a parallel process to product development. I call this process “Customer Development,” a sibling to “Product Development,” and each and every startup that succeeds recapitulates it, knowingly or not.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital California 128

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. And I can even imagine cases where it might burn more cash than a traditional startup. Lets see why.

Lean 250

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 250

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan put in place GM’s management accounting system (borrowed from DuPont) that for the first time allowed the company to: 1) produce an annual operating forecast that compared each division’s forecast (revenue, costs, capital requirements and return on investment) with the company’s financial goals. What happened to him? Who was he?

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 161

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

It should go without saying that this post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply my observation of how companies using Customer Development positioned themselves to successfully raise money from venture investors. Is there a profitable business model? Can it scale?” Just as a refresher.

Customer Development 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 23, 2019

A strong A/B testing plan will allow you to increase your revenue and learn valuable insights about your customers. *. *. Pete Koomen , co-founder of Optimizely , summed it up well: Pete Koomen: “The advantage of testing on the client side is speed and simplicity. A/B Test Planning: How to Build a Process that Works. Get it now.

HTML 58

HTML Flash Mobile Web 58

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 23, 2019

A strong A/B testing plan will allow you to increase your revenue and learn valuable insights about your customers. *. *. Pete Koomen , co-founder of Optimizely , summed it up well: Pete Koomen: “The advantage of testing on the client side is speed and simplicity. A/B Test Planning: How to Build a Process that Works. Get it now.

HTML 50

HTML Flash Mobile Web 50

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

Page views drive his ad revenue, which is probably CPM based. He spoke at the Founder Institute last week, and his advice was to not hire a PR agency until there were so many inbound requests that you can’t handle them yourself. He prefers to interact directly with the founders of a startup.

Silicon Valley 191

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 191

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 3, 2018

By shifting the focus away from basic educational content and toward high-level inspirational concepts, Zuora inspired the elite and discerning audience it intended to sell to—CEOs, founders, and executives. Zuora’s founder Tien Tzuo is now regarded as a visionary, a man who predicted the shift to subscriptions before anyone else.

B2B 133

B2B Marketing SEO Search 133