Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2019

Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have no idea how dramatically your own role has to evolve as you develop a solution, start a business, and expect it to scale into a successful self-managed company. Thus my job as a small business advisor really is really more about getting you developed than perfecting the business.

Leadership 248

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Social Media 248

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

To celebrate the debut of the Japan edition of “The Startup Owner’s Manual” and to express great thanks to Steve and his co-author Bob Dorf, I would like to reflect back what first drew me to this book and offer Steve’s worldwide readers a look at the progress of Customer Development and the Lean LaunchPad class in Japan.

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Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 301

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. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money. Apply for contests and business grants.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2021

These are the four stages of a product we’ll be focusing on. . However, on a more granular graph, the introduction phase would be preceded by a product development stage. This stage is used to determine the viability of your product and confirm when it should go to market. Image source. Rapid skimming.

Product 142

Product Marketing Software Review Social Media 142

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. some came from our customer service, some were to improve performance / scalability from tech ops, some were bug fixes, etc.)

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

Compass.co, a benchmarking and research service, analyzed 3,200 internet startups and found that 74 percent “fail due to premature scaling.” These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. How do you know you have it?

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

90 Things I’ve Learned From Founding 4 Technology Companies. On October 27, 2010 I wrote a blog post about the “ 57 Things I Learned Founding 3 Tech Companies.”. million registered users, 7500 supplier partners, 600 team members, and a run-rate of more than $150M in sales in just 15 months. Even executives need reviews.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

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. Your presentation doesn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

You don't have an "edge" just because you're passionate, hard-working, or "lean.". During a lull in her practice she got a serendipitous opportunity to shift gears completely and ended up leading software product development teams. P.S. For more, here are detailed examples of how this mindset also sets up your sales pitch.

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

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. Of course, the sales folks had new features as their #1 priority.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Its common to find a hacker at the heart of almost any successful technology company. When a startup encounters difficult technical problems, this is the guy you want solving them. As the company grows, hes the go-to person for almost everything technical, and so hes very much in demand. All is not lost, though.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

This philosophy comes from The Lean Startup methodology , which relies on testing hypotheses to better understand your customers’ pain points and goals. It outlines four major growth strategies: market penetration , market development , product development , and diversification. Product development.

Marketing 115

Marketing Framework Metrics Channel 115

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. Great post Eric!

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

If you buy into the argument that a strong board can actually help you then this post will lay out how to help you have more productive meetings by preparing properly in advance. How Most Board Meeting Prep Works I’ve been sitting on tech boards for two decades so I have some experience with what goes wrong.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods. In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

MAY 22, 2019

Companies are investing in innovation training, mostly learning frameworks like Lean, Agile, or Design Thinking. Nearly all that training is for dedicated innovation teams , or employees who are focused on new product development. Engaged support for strategic and tactical innovation initiatives developed by others.

Operations 54

Operations Employee Technical Review Agile 54

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 160

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 160

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

And let’s suppose you want to allocate just a little time for career development. After all, if you expect to hire and retain great people, they need time to keep learning, stay in front of the latest technology, and just have fun. The usual story is: We built this product because we needed it ourselves.

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America Employee Hiring HTML 330

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. There are too many products clamoring for attention. I’ve met a lot of gatekeepers in the past few months.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

Part of this is due to their determination to overtake us, but part is due to structural changes in the nature of entrepreneurship. For example, over 25% of the technology companies founded between 1995-2005 had a key immigrant founder. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 121

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup 121

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Every startup faces multiple choices and decisions when it comes to technology. Lean Methodology Sources. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Part 3- Lean Cust. Girls in Tech. Ad Serving Technology. Seed Startups.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Playing with new technologies. Strategy - startups first encounter this when they have the beginnings of a product, and theyve achieved some amount of product/market fit. We also try to communicate the initial due date with as few people outside our company (investors, customers, etc) as possible to avoid losing credibility.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 11, 2019

And, that means it’s time to review your brand. You want people who have different perspectives on the company and should include people from sales, marketing, product development, engineering, etc. This perspective will allow you to lean into situations that your brand strengths will help you master.

Technical Review 67

Technical Review Audience Framework Naming 67

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

automatic links to generated images Rietveld - asynchronous code reviews on changesets Tech*if*er0*urs – blog on roadmap for learning rails Best free programming books Project Management Basecamp - web-based project management and collaboration tool. WebSequenceDiagrams - sketch sequence diagrams.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

One of them used to be a lead developer at [insert hot consumer tech company here]. They need to raise money before building anything substantial after determining that they needed a little dough to follow the Lean Startup methodology. At month six, one of the early hires leaves, a developer who turns out wasn’t a good fit.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 30, 2010

Sometimes, we even have good product feedback. Why not ask people who may have entrepreneurial, operational, sales, marketing, etc. This way, you're getting the product feedback you need from customers and partners, I'm seeing what the market thinks of what you have, and we didn't even talk money at all yet.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Later Stage 113

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I think this is one of your better posts this year, because you are addressing a risk that you face AFTER some early success, when your guard is down and you are more inclined to believe that you know what you are doing and therefore do not need to be as diligent at framing your hypotheses and how you plan to verify them. YOU and ONLY YOU.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Team Configuration 500 Startups Guerilla Marketing Organizations Entrepreneurship Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Startups Startup Incubators and Seed Programs Seedcamp Y Combinator TechStars Lean Startups What is the perfect startup team?

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

Age is not what it used to be - fifty-year-olds get just as excited about new tech gadgets as twenty-somethings, and 30-year-olds may still be living with their parents. In Lean Startup methodology, it’s called a pivot. 50% of the purchases are not completed due to insufficient information. Relevancy leads to sales.

Audience 122

Audience Analytics B2B eCommerce 122

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

How to stay lean and iterate quickly while you’re building a two sided marketplace, especially when “network effect” and “critical mass” are the two main focuses? I have the knowledge in tech to implement it. If you’re looking for technical talent – go to the dev meetups. Building Product 2.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Tech Gadgets Mobile Enterprise GreenTech CrunchBase TechCrunch TV Disrupt SF More TechCrunch TV Beta Invites Crunchies Elevator Pitches Gillmor Gang Podcasts TechCrunch Europe TechCrunch Trends TechCrunch France TechCrunch Japan Whats Hot: Android Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Twitter Yahoo Zynga Subscribe: From Nothing To Something.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

And when you look at the tools that we use, I mean we’ve made so many technological advances, but really to manage a meeting there’s not a practical tool available. You have your general management meeting and in your general management meeting you talk about product development, about marketing and about finance.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Up and Running

MARCH 1, 2016

billion in total industry sales. What product doesn’t function like people wish it would? To find out what people are complaining about, read forums, turn to your social media accounts, and read reviews. Just remember, when you’re pricing your product: Your starting price defines you. Today it is even larger.

Non-disclosure Agreement 60

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Non-Compete Naming 60

Software By Rob

AUGUST 5, 2010

The knowledge that you need 10,000 hours to master a subject, that certain trends become viral after the 412th person adopts it, or that you should make your product remarkable, is not going to help you launch. Nor will it save you a single minute during product development, or sell one more copy of your application.

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Founder Startup Software Review Software 78