A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 31, 2010

It was the little precambrian warm-blooded agile (oh sorry, now we're saying "lean") rodents who adapted by getting "outside the nest" to discover how to eat cockroaches, because we all know that cockroaches are the one form of life that can survive anything. Don't fear the dinosaur, fear the quivering warm-blooded tree-shrew.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 29, 2013

An entrepreneur confided in me recently that he didn’t like Lean Startup; did I think that was OK? Or is he not cut out to build a startup? A startup pitch-deck boasts about the mistakes they’ve made because of the lessons they’ve learned. There’s no map in startups.

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Framework Lean Design Revenue 253

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 4, 2017

“Founder trouble” is a leading cause of startup death (though data also show that companies with only one founder are more likely to fail , so the conclusion is just that startups are just always likely to fail!). Employee #2 will join a startup for the experience. Or it’s fatal because that was a co-founder.

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Government Startup Cofounder Technical Support 223

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 4, 2013

Is your startup an expression of your own identity and vehicle by which you are master of your destiny, or are you randomly iterating into a different identity, some other destiny? I love the Lean Startup movement because it demands introspection and honors data. But I worry that the pendulum can swing too far.

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Marketing Early Stage Lean Metrics 259

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 5, 2011

I suppose if your goal in life is to be right , you should bet against every startup, certainly against any novel ideas. The Lean Startup movement also values learning and experience over “being right,” specifically casting this concept as “running experiments.” Or startups. Congratulations.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Modern PM tools are too simplistic because they follow the 37signals and Lean Startup mantra of building the simplest possible thing. My PM tool is best for people who have been thrust into a PM position but need help on nomenclature, process, best practices, and how to get the most from their tool and their team.

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Distribution Differentiation Lean Restful 267

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 12, 2012

” Food on the Table — a now-famous lean juggernaut in Austin run by IMVU alum Manuel Rosso — talked to 120. At AppSumo , another Austin startup with startling growth, Noah Kagan ( this guy and that guy ) talked to 0 people initially, but maintains ruthless pressure on a tight and measurable product.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

This is a choice that every startup founder must make , so I’d like to dig in deeper. Market risk is most startups’ biggest risk. Pivotability Nowadays everyone agrees that it’s both likely and healthy for an early-stage startup to be on the lookout for an intelligent pivot. maximizing per-unit profitability).

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2013

Guest post by Ben Yoskovitz, the co-author of Lean Analytics , a new book on how to use analytics successfully in your business. Unfortunately, due in part to the popularity of Lean Startup and the concepts it promotes, the pivot has been bastardized to the point where it doesn’t mean much to people anymore. Hopefully not.

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Lean Analytics Metrics Viral 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 7, 2016

The result is a framework to help decide whether a startup is viable. Another good answer is previous success by the team at startups, or at executing complex projects together. Why is “right now” the best time to create this startup? Why should you build this startup in your current location? Who → Why you?

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

This is Part 2 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.??? No, wait, the real question is: What are you going to do when another smart, scrappy startup copies it, and gets $10m in funding, and is thrice featured on TechCrunch? You don't have an "edge" just because you're passionate, hard-working, or "lean.".

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Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 6, 2011

As your self-annointed chief-skeptic-slash-statistician-slash-startup-commentator, I need play Devil’s Advocate against the latest buzz from the entrepreneurial online illuminati: The Startup Genome Project wherein global “rules of business&# have been extrapolated from a survey of 650 startups. So here comes some.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 17, 2017

The analog in startups is: What is right for this company, in this market, with these competitors, with these customers, at this price-point , with this business model , with this team, with their goals. For every clear example that proves “X is right,” there’s another equally compelling story of success where the mantra was “X is wrong.”.

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Social Media Media Lean Design 219

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

That’s exactly my point is you’re up against either startups with funding or just entrenched names that have just been around a long time and have a ton of customers and brand value. That is always true for all startups until they get old, right? Jason: Exactly. I’m sure it’s true across the board.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

This is a long episode (1:20), but it’s a conversation that will resonate with a lot of early-stage startup founders. I wish more people had that attitude with their startups. Jared: I guess I’m leaning towards A. You can subscribe to Smart Bear Live on iTunes (please review the podcast as well!) I love that.

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API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Consulting can be a great way to fund a startup or make a bunch of cash. These are generally bigger, more dysfunctional companies with 25-page Master Service Agreements and complex, ever-changing requirements (though no acceptance of “agile&# or “lean&# ). Want to work with me on a startup? Easy money, right?

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