Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

But, getting in the doors of a Sand Hill Road VC in Silicon Valley can be an incredibly difficult undertaking. The Andreesen Horowitz blog is the work of the famous VC firm’s partners and covers all things software in Silicon Valley and beyond. Follow Bill on Twitter @billgurley. Don’t miss out on their great podcast!

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 5, 2013

“Products take off not just because of WHAT they do but HOW they make us feel.” Online Education’s Dirty Secret — Awful Retention – [link]. “Products take off not just because of WHAT they do but HOW they make us feel.” Amazing product/industrial designs | Designskilz – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Up and Running

OCTOBER 16, 2014

Okay, so: people want to learn, grow, make a living wage, and do right by the rest of world, all of the while making your company money and churning out top-notch work product in an awesome company culture. He also noted that in his personal experience, when a company actively creates a more positive culture, productivity increases.

Software Review 126

Software Review Employee Retention Silicon Valley 126

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

More often than not, equity compensation is an attraction and retention tool, rather than a replacement to salary. Hire people that are passionate about the product or service you offer. More importantly, Silicon Valley startups are typically high-growth companies with an exit plan: either they’ll go public or they will be acquired.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

If you give $2 million for 20% of a company ($8 million pre + $2 million investment = $10 million post-money valuation) that has no product and no customers and it turns around 3 months later and sells for $5 million it would hardly be fair for investor to get $1 million back (20% of the proceeds). We get the mechanics.

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

Up and Running

JANUARY 7, 2020

One of the biggest challenges we overcame at Skylift was getting product-market fit to prove to investors we had a viable business. . You’ll notice I don’t have to tell you about our product for you to understand the impact it has on the world. Instead, what you read is how to communicate product-market fit.

Product 82

Product Marketing Silicon Valley Term Sheet 82

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

By viewing product development and marketing as integrated functions, not silos, leading tech companies like Facebook and Pinterest are rethinking their approach to driving growth and achieving breakthrough results. Yet, the Growth Manager role remains poorly understood, especially outside Silicon Valley.

Management 20

Management Analytics Technical Review Framework 20

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

By viewing product development and marketing as integrated functions, not silos, leading tech companies like Facebook and Pinterest are rethinking their approach to driving growth and achieving breakthrough results. Yet, the Growth Manager role remains poorly understood, especially outside Silicon Valley.

Management 20

Management Analytics Technical Review Framework 20

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. And this Silicon Valley bias isn’t limited to any single meeting – it has been a recurring theme in my time as a VC. Funding is different outside of Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 313

Silicon Valley Southern California Los Angeles Semantic 313

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Typically, the L&D function includes onboarding new employees, mandatory employee training (think about topics such as harassment, diversity & inclusion, etc), leadership development, new product training, and enrichment curriculum. How Do You Get Started?

San Jose 149

San Jose San Francisco Silicon Valley Employee 149

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

The first distinction between traditional and growth marketing models is that traditional marketing, which is often product-focused, is oriented toward top-of-funnel efforts. Traditional marketers work to build awareness and emotional connections to product and brand. Growth marketers focus on the entire customer journey. Image source.

Framework 102

Framework Marketing Acquisition Retention 102

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Compensation decisions obviously affect hiring and retention. That will keep the Silicon Valley wags buzzing for some time to come. You want to see your product or service performing in the hands of real users. Your Product Plan must fit into context of your overall business mission. How about your Investors ?

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. They haven’t launched their next gen product – watch this space. No Dave S. =

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

The Next Web

JUNE 20, 2013

More specifically, Miller suggested that it was much easier to find vendors like a good auditor and bank to work with than it would have been in Silicon Valley with its greater saturation of startups. The company has managed 95 percent retention of clients. We were essentially funded by our clients…in an indirect way.”

Cloud 118

Cloud Southern California Los Angeles New York City 118

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

” If you don’t read any more of the post, the summary lesson learned for entrepreneurs is this: Product-centric founders often over-intellectualize their communications and therefore fail to sell their concepts to the masses. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Startup United States 370

VC Cafe

AUGUST 29, 2011

Steve Blank , a Stanford professor a a startup guru will tell you that most startups don’t fail because they didn’t develop a product. They didn’t stop at just writing reports, and have put together a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley, called Blackbox. "Is a 5% increase in retention good?

Silicon Valley 92

Silicon Valley Startup Retention Metrics 92

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

And once you have a relationship with an author, musician, or journalist, it will be quite easy for them to offer new products and services – and for you to give them feedback that helps them shape ever more interesting (and ever more profitable) offerings. There are too many products clamoring for attention. Is that a lot?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Sean Murphy on the first dozen enterprise customers - Gabriel Weinberg , September 8, 2010 I recently did a Traction Book interview with Sean Murphy who runs a boutique cutomer development firm in Silicon Valley.

Technology 191

Technology Product San Francisco CTO Hire 191

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

If the answer to the question centers around “We will achieve revenue soon so our net will improve and give us more runway,” it means the company is in trouble because no product ever ships on time nor achieves the company’s “conservative forecast.” Life is challenging for a company that has undistinguished products and services.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

In normal times, every company operates against some hypothetical growth model—a data-driven framework that describes how your product grows and how you acquire new users. In normal times, every company operates against some hypothetical growth model—a data-driven framework that describes how your product grows and how you acquire new users.

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 3, 2018

It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, but every new year is an exciting time because it’s ripe with opportunity. I additionally want to expand Cinqe into Silicon Valley and welcome new clients within and surrounding that area. Thanks to Linda Parry Murphy, Product Launchers ! #7-

Kentucky 96

Kentucky Entrepreneur Social Media Los Angeles 96

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 13, 2020

Not unless you’re Elon Musk and Governor Abbott has a smile as wide as the Texas Panhandle or you’re Joe Rogan and every tech bro in Austin is so pumped to point to your move (and Tim Ferriss’ move) here as some kind of stamp of approval that they never needed Silicon Valley.

Austin 118

Austin San Francisco Texas Technical Review 118

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

Finally, and importantly, society is better off because Amazon makes the system for distributing books (and other products) vastly more productive, freeing up resources for other value-creating investments. The second is distribution —the ability to get product into the hands of customers. Plenty of headroom there!

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 9, 2016

They’re not always flashy or “disruptive” in the Silicon Valley sense of the word, but these techniques are tried and true ways to stay connected with the clients you want to retain — whether you’re Business to Business, Business to Consumer, or somewhere in between. Your customer retention metrics will thank you.

Customer 28

Customer Silicon Valley Retention Agile 28

www.ere.net

JULY 15, 2012

Step #18 — The onboarding process — contrary to popular belief, the primary goal of onboarding is not to get employees enrolled in benefits, but rather to provide resources and information that enable new hires to become productive as fast as possible. He is a frequent speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley firms.

Hiring 57

Hiring Metrics Search Widget 57

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Growth Hacking comes to solve a very common problem in consumer startups: getting to the first x thousand/million users quickly once the product has launched and the hype has passed. If a startup is pre-product/market fit, growth hackers can make sure virality is embedded at the core of a product.

API 167

API Viral Startup Retention 167

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Every year I teach classrooms full of students who leave class understanding the basics of how to search for product/market fit—and thinking their next goal is to “get funded.”. You (think) you have product-market fit with real customers and real revenue and need money to grow and expand. It’s sometimes called “product/market fit.”

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 22, 2016

These sorts of statistics should have employers worried: after all, holding on to experienced workers is important for both morale and productivity. As a result, it’s employee retention should be a priority for your company if it is going to keep its skill base and be competitive on the global stage.

Employee 100

Employee Retention Silicon Valley Management 100

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Building Product 2. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly. Would it be a good idea clubbing all the other products / services under 1 venture, because some of them are totally unrelated.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

A Silicon Valley-based company that provides remote desktop access services to businesses, Splashtop was finding it difficult to engage prospects with its existing chat solution. Yet another study by Exolevel found that 89% of customers expect to have the option to shop for products through any channel they find convenient.

Customer 135

Customer Churn Rate Silicon Valley Retention 135

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 22, 2018

We had near-perfect retention up until we sold the company, despite being located in the roaring Silicon Valley job market of the late 1990s. Without best in class talent, your product or service or startup idea – no matter how great it might be – will always be at risk. Our approach succeeded.

Intellectual Property 138

Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Hiring Differentiation 138

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 2, 2021

You actually have to design systems from the beginning so that the system itself has safety in every part and every check of every single product that you build. Marketing, for example, customer, product organization, et cetera. Because that’s something that we all in Silicon Valley [need to do]. RH: Yeah, totally agree.

Iran 39

Iran Technical Review Non-Compete Lean 39

usersknow.blogspot.com

APRIL 30, 2010

Is this feature usable, and is the UX reasonably consistent with the rest of my product? You need to have some sort of plan for testing to see how it’s affecting key metrics , whether those are revenue, retention, registration, user happiness, or some other number you care about. What is the expected ROI for this feature?

Software Review 40

Software Review Agile San Francisco Advisory Board 40

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 12, 2018

Like the friends that I have that have venture-backed, Silicon Valley tech companies, they have a very specific lifestyle that their business makes them have, right? Like say I wanted to add another course to my roster, or add another client, or add another feature to a product. What does that mean for my happiness?

Sales Cycle 64

Sales Cycle Email Web Canada 64

Up and Running

JULY 29, 2014

Any of you who watch the HBO “Silicon Valley” show will recognize this; if you don’t watch it, you should definitely check it out. Maybe what you want is to get a certain group of thought leaders behind your products. They don’t necessarily want your products and services. I love the images here.

Silicon Valley 75

Silicon Valley Audience Metrics Small Business 75

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

And for those in the coveted in-crowd, Silicon Valley, San Francisco and the greater tech community become a world of opportunity where you’re only limited by the quality of your idea and the caliber of your friends. Roberts talks of social networks as mediums that may very well help your product or name attract VC attention.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 1, 2012

As the country becomes more accepting of blended and online learning, a growing number of education startups have begun offering cutting edge services and products designed to deliver education to all those who seek it. The report was highly critical of nearly every aspect of the for-profit college industry.

Technical Review 53

Technical Review Iowa Silicon Valley Phoenix 53