VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

For example, he sees great potential ‘for co-pilots are “branded” sales people, like wealth managers, insurance brokers, and mortgage brokers’ and re-defining the product surface area, for example: how would AI change customer service or productivity?

Generative AI 78

Generative AI ChatGPT Artificial Inteligence Cofounder 78

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 19, 2017

The lean start-up movement has been based on a single insight – which the purpose of a start-up is to discover a business model that works. 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. The Lean Start-Up Environment.

Product Development 153

Product Development Lean Developer Product 153

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

Lean” doesn’t come to mind when you think of a business that needs trucks, warehouses, cross-docks, and thousands of employees to run efficiently. Hire versatile players and lean into your team The SVB collapse reminded us that staffing matters. Working creatively Our company sits at the center of the logistics and freight industry.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 146

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Every startup has some methodology for product development, launch and life-cycle management. Yet startup companies have traditionally used this model to manage and pace not only engineering but also non-engineering activities. In this post I’m going to describe the flaws of the product development model. It’s a big idea.)

Customer Development 243

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 243

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

Vertical 133

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 133

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

The first step was to recruit a new management team. Now with a new infusion of $8 million dollars of venture capital, SuperMac had been resurrected from the dead and was attempting to restart. Why they were looking to me to run marketing wasn’t clear. They sold to a set of customers I knew nothing about.

Silicon Valley 157

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 157

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Vertical integration of different funding risks. I also believe that the ebb and flow of the venture investment cycle has been exacerbated by the recent vertical integration of early, growth, and even late stage venture funds. The investment thesis wasn’t wrong — it’s just that they bet on the wrong horse.

Harvest 60

Harvest Vertical IPO Early Stage 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

In the old days, the brand manager of a consumer packaged goods product had to spend energy inferring the effectiveness of their television ads through a combination of trailing indicators (like market share) or time-consuming market research. Each new campaign is a startup where Lean principals can be applied to maximum effect.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

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 128

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. I hope we managed to teach our children compassion and charity for others. Our friends who run the state park surrounding our ranch will join all of us for Thanksgiving dinner.

Silicon Valley 145

Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 145

Lightspeed Venture Partners

JANUARY 6, 2011

Many of the companies had resolutions focused on their product management and development. Although the industry is in much better shape than the dark days of 2008 and 2009, many CEOs have fully embraced the continue to internalize the lean startup principles that came out of those years. Improve the product. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Stealth 60

Stealth Startup Lean Cofounder 60

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 26, 2015

A key aspect of Lean Management is to work effectively with limited resources and small teams. And for most small companies, working with small teams, capacity management is one of the great challenges; the to-do list is always too long, and the dev queue is ever in need of prioritization. Lean Business: Pivot Point.

Lean 48

Lean Small Business Vertical Leadership 48

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup.

Lean 257

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 257

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Here’s the problem: Every other poor schmuck in every other vertical has used the exact…same…photograph. million in losses to online scams in 2019, and many scam sites lean heavily on low-priced stock photography. Step 2: See if you can get a “Rights Managed” license (optional). Image source) .

Stock 71

Stock Software Review Arizona Technical Review 71

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Too often, CEOs and small business managers suffer from analysis paralysis. It looks as though you and I have the same taste in layout, no? I’ve written about this subject many times and could not agree more. This happens for any number of reasons. Some are afraid of making the wrong decision.

Silicon Valley 305

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 305

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web. The first question to ask is: “Does your startup have market risk or is it dominated by technical risk?” Lean Startup /Customer Development is used to find answers to the unknowns about customers and markets.

Customer Development 226

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 226

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. Help them?!!

Technology 141

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 141

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 22, 2017

If you have the entrepreneurial itch and managed to graduate without taking advantage of these wonderful university programs, or perhaps you’re a few years older and preceded them, you still have access to incubators and accelerators in every high tech hub around the country.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Incubator Software Review Vertical 48

ConversionXL

MAY 11, 2017

The lean, aggressive ones do. What I am looking for is common trends within that vertical. Add 1 point for tag management. Google Tag Manager is the market leader right now. As you are doing your analysis, write down your observations, take screenshots and give them descriptive names to make it easier to browse later.

SEO 131

SEO Analytics Conversion Search 131

ConversionXL

JUNE 30, 2019

The lean, aggressive ones do. What I’m looking for are common trends within that vertical. Add 1 point for tag management (usually Google Tag Manager). Reviewing a competitor’s online presence helps me understand how to differentiate my client. reviews, trust). Add 2 points for UX tools.

SEO 126

SEO Conversion Analytics Design 126

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I would learn a ton from Gordon for over a decade, not only about practical heuristics for managing complex engineering projects (i.e. Reply Karma in the Lean Startup Era , on January 28, 2010 at 5:26 pm Said: [.] to move their applications to our unique machine architecture.

North Carolina 128

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 128

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Let’s Fire Our Customers « Steve Blank (tags: product-management startup business) [.] 3) Managing the relationship is more consumptive than the rewards. I’ll add I’m particularly curious about how founders recognize that point at which they need to exit / fire the old customers.

Customer 210

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 210

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2013

Consider once-a-year or once-a-month contract renewal fees, and manage credit payments to avoid fees or to take advantage of discounts and better terms. Streamline management costs. Automation will allow your business to run more efficiently, and will streamline your management overhead. Keep you office running lean and mean.

Entrepreneur 234

Entrepreneur Vertical Reputation Valuation 234

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Richard’s email address is public but it is hard to manage all the inbound cold emails. The second phase will be who can get the right combination lean back, lean forward, interaction, enhanced data, and make it fun. He is starting to see this occur in sites that are verticalizing content. 22:00-33:00). 37:00-40:30).

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

As the (very junior) product marketing manager I got a call from our local salesman that someone at Apple wanted more technical information than just the spec sheets about our new (not yet shipping) chip. Reply 4 Anti-Lean Startup Archetypes at Market By Numbers , on August 4, 2009 at 11:30 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 137

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 137

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 14, 2014

Here’s the problem: Every other poor schmuck in every other vertical has used the Exact. Considering that nearly 2 million Americans fall victim to online scams a year, and many scam sites lean heavily on low priced stock photography… the odds are not in your favor. Image Source: Getty Images Rights Managed Collection .

Stock 129

Stock Software Review Lead Generation Arizona 129

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2012

Consider once-a-year or once-a-month contract renewal fees, and manage credit payments to avoid fees or to take advantage of discounts and better terms. Streamline management costs. Automation will allow your business to run more efficiently, and will streamline your management overhead. Keep you office running lean and mean.

Startup 236

Startup Vertical Reputation Valuation 236

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

When I asked our trade show manager she looked at me like I was the house idiot and said, “Steve, don’t you know that my job is to set up our trade show booth?” But my favorite was when the public relations manager said, “we’re here to write press releases and answer the phone in case the press calls.” This is a big idea.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 267

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

When the panicked manager of the magazine test lab would call under a last minute deadline, we would apologize profusely as we sent the cables over – with beer, pizza, and our product manager to help them through any testing “issues”. What did I learn so far?

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 125

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2011

Consider once-a-year or once-a-month contract renewal fees, and manage credit payments to avoid fees or to take advantage of discounts and better terms. Streamline management costs. Automation will allow your business to run more efficiently, and will streamline your management overhead. Keep you office running lean and mean.

Startup 230

Startup Vertical Reputation Valuation 230

Where to Play

MARCH 14, 2018

As we looked closer at the market, many verticals were underserved by the existing solutions that were expensive and complicated to use. As a small team, we knew that we couldn’t possibly tackle all of these verticals at once, and therefore, had to focus our efforts on one. At times, it seemed like the possibilities were endless.

Artificial Inteligence 91

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Vertical Startup 91

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 5, 2018

Common wisdom around millennial retention almost always leans towards keeping them busy with direction. Busy learning, improving, moving vertically — not laterally. Challenge, for challenge’s sake, does not equal purpose.

Retention 185

Retention Leadership Vertical Lean 185

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

Our small training department had been without a manager for months and finding a replacement didn’t seem to be high on the VP of Sales list. Then it hit me – no one else wanted to be manager – what was the worst that could happen? What’s the Worst that Can Happen? All I had to do was ask.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

And that most of the post on trade shows was describing how to prepare and manage a physical presence in a trade show booth. These two posts were amazing. Anyways, here’s one question I have. You are correct all channels, web or otherwise, need to generate awareness and leads.

Silicon Valley 132

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 132

Steve Blank

APRIL 15, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. We offered that the team might want to expand their user research to think about new features and verticals (document management, law firms, lab managers with discretionary budget, etc.). This post is part five.

Customer 258

Customer Cloud EC2 Channel 258

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

In 1964, Bill Perry, the head of the lab, frustrated with GTE’s management, quit (GTE, a phone company had bought Sylvania in 1959.) And in the tradition of great startups, on the way out Perry took 6 of his best managers with him. I can say that the management and staff at ESL was the absolute best.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 185

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

He had teamed up with a former product manager at P&G to deliver seminars on just this subject. It was a management problem. We had been outsourcing an important part of our demand creation strategy – packaging – to an outside agency without having the expertise to judge or manage the results.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120