Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, November 17, 2008 The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part one Ive written before about some of the advantages startups have when they are very small, like the benefits of having a pathetically small number of customers. And if you neglect maintenance, you may not have a business left at all.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2010

And that narrow definition of entrepreneurship doesn’t count all of the managers inside established companies who are effectively engaged in the same process of building an internal startup (see What is a startup? for my more expansive definition). for my more expansive definition). What motivates all these entrepreneurs?

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. Stories like these are what has led me to this definition of progress for a startup: validated learning about customers. Go on an agile diet quickly.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Inspiring ideas: real-time biz metrics; safe continuous deployment; A/B split testing. Thank you @ericries for drastically altering my perception of agile startup Thank you all so much for your kind words. Really enjoyed your speech, but Boulder's startup community is definitely older than 5 years. Articulate, inspirational.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, October 28, 2008 A hierarchy of pitches Every company will need to pitch itself from time to time. Now there was nothing wrong with their analysis: anyone who invents a technology as sophisticated as The Transformers is definitely going to make a lot of money. 2comments: King of the Herd said.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Yet other agile principles suggest the opposite, as in YAGNI and DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork. Reconciling these principles requires a little humility.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So let’s turn our attention from what may happen in the future to what is definitely happening in the present. Despite all the energy invested in talking to authors about the size of their platform, very few gatekeepers have a rigorous set of metrics for measuring it. My blog has over 14000 subscribers, for example.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

I would definitely be interested any scholarship opportunities that might be made available. We changed our model to B2B and adopted Agile around 2002. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics. Luckily, we also discovered that certain other metrics, like LTV and CPA were much better than we initially projected. Expo SF (May.

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Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 16, 2006

Venture Capital is about investing in the small, fast and agile company hoping that it will beat the large and slow incumbent. 1st 2008 with a base value of 100.00 Note: high CAC ratio means high productiviy (see blog post for definition). ► 2008. (11). The Bessemer 10 laws of SaaS - Fall 2008 Release.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Yet, I think this definition is too important to leave out. Split-testing is great for linear optimization; making our landing pages, conversion rates, and retention metrics incrementally better day-in day-out. Definitely like to see video of the full talk. If youre not doing both, youre missing out. I had an incredible time.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

The agile software movement has made numerous contributions: continuous integration, which helps accelerate feedback about defects; story cards and kanban that reduce batch size; a daily stand-up that increases tempo. First, continuous deployment separates out two different definitions of the terms “release.&# Why does it work?

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Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

Finally, we’ll zoom out and assess the big picture: how various categories of company may be impacted long-term, how this crisis compares to 2008 (and what that means for early-stage founders), and the industries and business models that are now prime for growth. What are those metrics? I do think that is a massive difference.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

My transition to Continuous Deployment Prior to adopting continuous deployment, I used to release software on a weekly schedule (come rain or shine) which I viewed as pretty agile, disciplined, and aggressive. Users will naturally ask for more stuff and your MVP by definition is minimal and needs more love. Just dont push it.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Lean startups vs lean companies Venture Hacks has a great article today on lean startups. Everything else (including a lot of traditional "agile" or "lean" tactics) is waste. Basically, the definition of waste is different when you know less about your customer.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

So let’s begin with a definition of a startup that captures its essential nature, and tries to leave behind the specific associations of the most famous startups. Isn’t the word human redundant in this definition? And yet the newness of a startup’s product or service is also a key part of the definition.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 29, 2008 The ABCDEFs of conducting a technical interview I am incredibly proud of the people I have hired over the course of my career. The six key attributes spell ABCDEF: Agility. Thats the only way to probe for agility, brains, and the best way to probe for communication.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

First, a definition: the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. In a lot of cases, this requires a lot of energy invested in talking to customers or metrics and analytics. Thank you. Thanks Eric.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

By definition these 10,000 founders wouldnt be taking jobs from Americans: it could be part of the terms of the visa that they couldnt work for existing companies, only new ones theyd founded. Why vanity metrics are dangerous ► November (1) ► October (7) ▼ September (9) Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (and a request for.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

Thats the essence of so many of the lean startup techniques Ive evangelized: customer development , the Ideas/Code/Data feedback loop , and the adaptation of agile development to the startup experience. Creating a company-wide feedback loop that incorporates both customer development and agile development is a challenge.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

Given the time constraints, I organized my presentation around two simple ideas: STARTUP = EXPERIMENT FASTER STARTUPS = MORE EXPERIMENTS PER DOLLAR I tried to make clear my usual definition of a startup, one that has nothing to do with size of company or sector of the economy. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

This builds on a lot of great thinking that has come before, like the agile movements insistence that only the creation of working code counts as progress for a software development team. But lean startups cant afford to be satisfied with just that definition, because there are situations where working code is itself a form of waste.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

Heres the working definition Ive started using: A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. In a future post, Ill attempt to unpack this definition in detail. 2009 05 01 How To Build A Lean Startup Step By Step View more presentations from Eric Ries.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

The theory predicts this, of course, because the definition of a startup as “a human institution creating a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty&# says nothing about sector, size of company, or industry. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

But I will tell you not to have too little or too much, because those definitely ruin the food or product. Heck, thats what it says right there in the agile manifesto. Labels: agile , continuous deployment , lean startup , product development , Test-driven development 4comments: Nivi said. But it worked. We made it. So can you.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Lean manufacturing , agile software development , and Theory of Constraints are all examples of this idea in action. No vanity metrics should be looked at. Lean manufacturing , agile software development , and Theory of Constraints are all examples of this idea in action. No vanity metrics should be looked at.

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, December 7, 2008 The hackers lament One of the thrilling parts of working and writing in Silicon Valley is the incredible variety of people Ive had the chance to meet. As a last disclaimer, please consult the definition of the word hacker if youre not familiar with the controversies surrounding that term.)

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Now they first had to go through a ritual that involved complex math, reached no definite outcome, and then proceeded to have a battle of opinions anyway! Every experiment has to be evaluated based on a single standard report of 5-10 (no more) key metrics. To their surprise, the metrics didn’t move at all.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 31, 2009

I'll definitely try this out. Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? I've been copy pasting large chunks of my reference emails. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

And speaking of Facebook, I definitely didnt think it was a good idea when I first heard about it. Definitely one of the best posts from you. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. And Google?

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Definitely interested in the perspective of the open-source contributor solicited with a job offer. Im definitely curious about your thoughts on how to present the company right. . Labels: hiring 4comments: deskin said. Excellent post all around. February 11, 2009 1:00 PM blake borgeson said. Thats some awesome advice. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Some companies definitely should. Others definitely shouldn’t. A business that strives for something like this should absolutely be charging money from day one, in order to establish baselines for their two key metrics: CPA (the cost to acquire a new customer) and LTV (the lifetime value of each acquired customer).

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

So I don't think the Apple experience should be used to discount lean, agile, or customer development-type approaches. Maybe Steve Jobs just has a different definition of "viable"? Obviously this approach is unsuitable for most if not all start-ups November 2, 2009 10:31 AM Ho Nam said. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 13, 2010 The Superbowl ad test I am a firm believer in the danger of vanity metrics , numbers that give the illusion of progress but often mask the true relationship between cause and effect. Vanity metrics are generally bigger. Vanity metrics. The solution? Is that really news?

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, December 16, 2008 Engagement loops: beyond viral Theres a great and growing corpus of writing about viral loops, the step-by-step optimizations you can use to encourage maximum growth of online products by having customers invite each other to join. December 17, 2008 2:04 PM Alex Horovitz said.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 22, 2008 Net Promoter Score: an operational tool to measure customer satisfaction Ive mentioned Net Promoter Score (NPS) in a few previous posts, but havent had a chance to describe it in detail yet. November 26, 2008 9:23 AM Andrew Meyer said. December 17, 2008 7:45 PM spirink said.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

BUT it definitely does NOT have the super-duper-hyper-ultra-cool Web 2.0 It definitely explores ethical boundaries. BUT it definitely does NOT have the super-duper-hyper-ultra-cool Web 2.0 It definitely explores ethical boundaries. Right now, the app itself is pretty ugly, a bit buggy and slow -- and doesnt even do a lot.

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