YoungUpstarts

MARCH 24, 2014

by Adam Root, founder and CTO of Hiplogiq. Do you want the product, or does your target market want the product? When I began developing the customer search engine SocialCentiv using Twitter, I envisioned the project as an add-on to our already popular SocialCompass. A DUI lawyer? Didn’t think so.

Fractional CTO 228

Fractional CTO Product CTO Hire Merger 228

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 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite of a startup if you don’t hold any. Here’s how I learned why they were critical to successful customer development. You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite if you don’t have any. Think of profound beliefs as “strong opinions loosely held.”

Business Model 315

Business Model Product Development Early Stage Customer Development 315

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Social media is not rocket science. The timing of cashflow is everything.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

What I saw reminded me of some of the best and worst things I did as a founder. We’re building the wrong product!” Some of the engineers figuring if the founder was declaring they were toast in 90 days were updating their resumes. But like all great founders some of these insights are simply hallucinations.

Founder 317

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 317

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 16, 2021

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “founder’s syndrome.” It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup.

Startup 287

Startup Founder Leadership Demand 287

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

If you’re following Tesla, you might be interested to know that Sloan wasn’t the founder of GM. Where are the charitable foundations, business schools, and hospitals named after the founder of GM? The founder of what became General Motors was William (Billy) Durant. And a founder of Neuralink a brain-computer interface startup.

Michigan 275

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 275

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 408

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 408

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

While it sounds simple , the Build Measure Learn approach to product development is a radical improvement over the traditional Waterfall model used throughout the 20 th century to build and ship products. They are: value proposition, product/service the company offers (along with its benefits to customers).

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 9, 2010 Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# theory of management At any given time, something like four percent of the US population is engaged in some form of new-company-creation. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Management Founder Lean 161

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. AskAnything.VC Advantages.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Social media is not rocket science. The timing of cash flow is everything.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2014

When I was going through the co-founder “dating” process, I’d found a potential partner through my network who seemed to be perfect. I knew that there were issues with my potential partner, but I also knew that the company would grow at a slower pace if I had to start the co-founder search from back at square one.

Partner 113

Partner Cofounder Equity Metrics 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 13, 2009 The Principles of Product Development Flow If youve ever wondered why agile or lean development techniques work, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald G. Reinertsen is the book for you.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Home About Contact Me How To Make It as a First-Time Entrepreneur Vinicius Vacanti Guide to Finding a Technical Co-Founder September 7, 2010 | View Comments Steve Job's Technical Co-Founder “I’ve got this HUGE idea. I just need to find a technical co-founder.&# I was in this situation and we barely escaped.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Steve is the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines. 18:05] How does the Founder Space operate? [20:21] He's the CEO of founders space.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 28, 2022

Almost out of a joke, Convrrt was born after a quick search for a domain name and Facebook profiles. Thanks to Marilyn Gaskell, True People Search ! #9- Enventys Partners was born when my company Command Partners, a digital marketing firm, vertically merged with Enventys, a product development firm.

Naming 150

Naming Entrepreneur Jordan Merger 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2010

It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup You can find a more complete discussion of Founder’s Syndrome on Wikipedia , but here are a few of the “symptoms” I observed in the Founder and CEO in this case: Reacts defensively and talks constantly. In the beginning, we all found this founder to be dynamic, driven, and decisive.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Startup Founder Demand 131

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

Any dispassionate observer would recognize that on Day One, a start-up has no customers, and unless the founder is a true domain expert, he or she can only guess about the customer, problem, and business model. Founders, presuming they know their customers, assume they know all the features customers need.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

This is the first post that moves into making specific process recommendations for product development. Pretty soon, a soul-searching meeting ensues. Labels: product development Speed up or slow down? This is the first post that moves into making specific process recommendations for product development.

Software Review 141

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “founder’s syndrome.” It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup.

Founder 133

Founder Leadership Demand Product Development 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2013

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “Founder’s Syndrome.” It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup.

Founder 245

Founder Leadership Demand Product Development 245

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

The application of agile development methodologies which dramatically reduce waste and unlock creativity in product development. See Customer Development Engineering for my first stab at articulating the theory involved) Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by the Customer Development process.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Hippoland

AUGUST 17, 2016

Just do a Google search. In general, I’m a big fan of convertible notes or convertible securities for seed stage founders. In contrast, if you do an equity round, you as the founder will often have to pay $20k-$50k in legal bills. This should be basically free. But when you have more resources later, you will pay for it.

Equity 48

Equity Convertible Security Silicon Valley Technical Review 48

Hippoland

OCTOBER 9, 2016

Demonstrate that you can pull the trigger on things quickly — whether it be getting customers, hiring / firing employees, or product development. Being in a competitive space isn’t a bad thing — Google was like the 8th search engine to enter the scene and they turned out ok. And convey this in your pitch.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage CTO Hire Email Later Stage 48

David Teten

MAY 1, 2013

A startup called Corpora made headlines for all the wrong reasons after tech bloggers ran an image search to find the company logo. I was formerly Founder/CEO of a domain name investment bank , and still own about a hundred domain names personally. There are three main factors to consider: Fit. The name needs to match the business.

Naming 114

Naming Semantic Venture Capital Startup 114

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. In fact, this company hasn’t shipped any new products in months.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2012

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “Founder’s Syndrome.” It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup.

Startup 248

Startup Entrepreneur Founder Leadership 248

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Thats why eBay advertises on search engines, and Facebook doesnt. Labels: search engine marketing 0comments: New comments are not allowed. ► 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.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 26, 2012

MJ Charmani, founder of iStart Jax, a business accelerator, and one of the key organizers of the event, introduced today's session with additional reports on last weekend's event. Eric has done some technology scouting, and believes he can deliver on the specs of the product. 150 people came together, and 17 businesses were formed.

Jacksonville 114

Jacksonville Florida PPC Programming 114

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2011

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “Founder’s Syndrome.” It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup.

Leadership 265

Leadership Startup Founder Demand 265

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Product marketers own a variety of marketing responsibilities, which can be roughly divided into two broad categories: pre-launch and post-launch. During product development and before launch, product marketing responsibilities revolve around the GTM strategy, positioning, and developing messaging. Image Source.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

Up and Running

MAY 12, 2015

Drawing on advice from our own Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and Josh Cochrane, our VP of Product Development, I’ve broken down a few of the different options for entrepreneurs looking for feedback on their pitch. The three who agreed to do it had some semblance of a relationship with the founders beforehand.

Angel Investor 60

Angel Investor Software Review Technical Cofounder Due Diligence 60

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 27, 2018

by Joanna Malaczynski, founder of DESi. Before you do anything else, you need to take time to understand the needs and expectations of your customers on an ongoing basis as you develop your product and business. Pete Girard, Co-Founder of Toxnot, can attest to the importance of this.

Customer 153

Customer Cofounder Demand B2B 153

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2015

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “founder’s syndrome.” It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup.

Startup 120

Startup Founder Leadership Demand 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

In late April 2010, VentureBeat published that Blippy credit card numbers were published on Google search: [link] followed by Blippy’s response. The investment will be used for product development initiatives. Investors: August Capital (David Hornik) (lead) with existing investors Charles River Ventures. Wildfire Interactive.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Its to everyones advantage to let the world think the founders thought of everything. I say this as a founder: the contribution of founders is always overestimated. The danger here is that new founders, looking at existing founders, will think that theyre supermen that one couldnt possibly equal oneself.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125