Steve Blank

OCTOBER 17, 2017

In the 21st century you need a scorecard to keep track of the threats: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, ISIS in Yemen/Libya/Philippines, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, hackers for hire, etc. Army’s Rapid Equipping Force on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan finding and deploying technology solutions against agile insurgents.

Community 232

Community Silicon Valley Technical Review Incubator 232

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

Investors, partners, team members, and customers implicitly value or devalue a startup based on the leader’s physical presence, emotional identity, social skills, intellectual agility, moral values, and past performance in the domain. Strategic proficiency. Focus on talent and people growth. Performance accountability processes.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

You still have some leeway to hire above them if need be. They know how to estimate work units, how to manage the agile development process and how to get the most out of their teams. new features need to go into the sale people’s slides so that they know the latest and greatest about how to differentiate from the competition.

Fractional CTO 400

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 400

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Customers are looking for a differentiator today. Make sure your hiring practices include diversity, inclusion, and equity. Practice your agility. From his experience as a consultant with major brands, and as a Top 50 Keynote Speaker in the World, Simon outlines six key steps in moving your company to this new reality.

Agile 321

Agile Differentiation Lead Generation Social Media 321

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 20, 2023

Rodney highlights the significance of selecting the right areas for transformation that can deliver a differentiating value, plus the importance of upskilling and reskilling existing talent within digital changes. It's something we have to invest in, but it's not, uh, competitively differentiating. They were the same mm-hmm. ,

Technical Review 65

Technical Review Silicon Valley Generative AI Arizona 65

bhargreaves.com

MARCH 7, 2010

Most disturbingly, I’ve occasionally found myself agreeing with an entrepreneur’s decision to hire a development shop to build their product. You probably aren’t the best person to hire and manage a developer. In this case, going through a hiring process is not an option. Sometimes, it just makes sense.

Hiring 40

Hiring Technical Review Agile Software Review 40

The Startup Magazine

MAY 31, 2023

Create a visual identity, messaging, and brand voice that align with your audience and differentiate you from competitors. The key to successfully navigating this landscape is implementing effective strategies that support ongoing compliance while allowing for agility and adaptability in the face of change.

Cost 147

Cost Finance Analytics Agile 147

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

It’s your reputation and ultimate differentiating factor. Indeed’s CMO Paul D’Arcy says their priority is brand awareness and reducing friction: “The number one thing we’re doing is making sure that that product is everywhere and a click away when people are looking for a job or looking to hire.” [ via The Drum ].

Marketing 128

Marketing Campaign Software Review Tulsa 128

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

But by taking advantage of open source, agile software, and iterative development, lean startups can operate with much less waste. So far, I have found "lean startup" works better with the entrepreneurs Ive talked to than "agile startup" or even "extreme startup.") Of course, many startups are capital efficient and generally frugal.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2018

You then find out ways how to become a differentiator amongst all of those. Now it’s time to choose between setting up and in-house marketing team or hiring an external marketing agency. Then you decide which development methodology to follow – traditional or agile. Then you specify where do you want to market your app.

Mobile 113

Mobile Developer Social Media Later Stage 113

mashable.com

JUNE 11, 2013

Hiring Poorly. Make sure that new hires understand your rate of innovation. You are small and agile, which means you have a high rate of innovation and growth, and with that comes work! If you dont manage this expectation upon hiring, you will be managing employee issues six months down the line. Not Embracing Agility. "If

Cofounder 111

Cofounder Technical Review Startup Software Review 111

Women Entrepreneurs Can

APRIL 27, 2020

With so many world-class options available for every product and service, the only way to differentiate in the marketplace now is how you treat your customers. A business must be agile enough to incorporate both short-term & long-term changes, which can be achieved through year-round continuous surveys for real-time customer information.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Customer Software Review Mobile 52

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 25, 2017

Whereas when you’re running your own startup or managing the marketing for a smaller organization, the bootstrap mentality is acceptable if not entirely encourages, which means you can be much more flexible, agile, and creative in your business’s marketing solutions. In Search of SEO Success.

SEO 55

SEO Small Business Metadata Software Review 55

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

But because paid traffic is fundamentally a bidding war, its important that you have a differentiated ability to monetize customers better than other people who are bidding for the same traffic. Beware the new hire who has "extensive experience" in startups or big companies - using a different growth driver. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 13, 2013

Jubenville, co-authors of “ Zebras and Cheetahs: Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive the Business Jungle “ If you have just graduated from college, congratulations! Clearly, you’ll need to differentiate yourself from the pack if you want to get (and keep) a job in this cutthroat environment. Differentiate yourself.

Agile 154

Agile Marketing Differentiation Hiring 154

www.bothsidesofthetable.com

MAY 13, 2012

You still have some leeway to hire above them if need be. They know how to estimate work units, how to manage the agile development process and how to get the most out of their teams. new features need to go into the sale people’s slides so that they know the latest and greatest about how to differentiate from the competition.

Fractional VPE 89

Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE Fractional CTO CTO Hire 89

Up and Running

APRIL 3, 2017

At Bond Street , we’re experts in term loans , but we cover just about everything related to small business, including how to hire the perfect employees for your new company. So, how do you say “we’re hiring” in a cost-effective way that gets the right people through the door? See Also: Is It Time to Hire an Employee?

Social Media 96

Social Media Employee Media Hiring 96

Austin Startup

AUGUST 11, 2017

We wrote things like what five traits a new hire should have, or values everyone in the company should act on. And I want to clarify this important differentiator. And while not more important than the other lines of our credo, I love when we put our minds to “be lean, be agile, and small teams kick ass.

CTO Hire 48

CTO Hire Austin Cofounder eCommerce 48

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Blame it On Marketing In the next 3-6 months, a new VP of Sales is hired. innovation.

Customer Development 232

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

Search versus execution is what differentiates a new venture from an existing business unit. The processes used to organize and implement the search for the business model are Customer Development and Agile Development. Customer and Agile Development are the processes to search and build the model. Organization. Lessons Learned.

Search 324

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 324

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. Excellent analysis of "evolution vs. re-volution" and differentiation of team roles. And the two teams are joined together into a company-wide feedback loop that allows the whole company to be built to learn. Great post Eric.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Occam's Razor

OCTOBER 12, 2017

When you go to the interview, the hiring company will proceed to ask questions that test your competency in the listed job requirements. If you hire strong analytical thinkers, of any background, you are hiring people who will be adaptable, who'll grow and flex with your organization and needs. This is normal.

Analytics 136

Analytics Artificial Inteligence Marketing Campaign 136

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. Step 3: Brand and differentiate yourself. However, we have been able to differentiate [ourselves] and also excel by making enterprise software fun and enjoyable. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

It’s important to differentiate between ideas that have been or can be patented and ideas thought up late night in a dorm-room. If any of the answers are “Yes,” then hire them a bit later as an early employee. A couple of caveats about founders with “ideas.” If both answers are no, you’ve identified a co-founder.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. They hired a world-class team with co-founders and early employees who shared their vision. After that, there was no doubt to existing employees and new hires what the company was aiming for.

Hockey Stick 296

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 296

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

This success was aided by the fact that it did just one thing extremely well – its lack of extra features emphasized its differentiation. Lean manufacturing , agile software development , and Theory of Constraints are all examples of this idea in action. And the rest is history: Google Maps was a huge success. So which is it?

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 4, 2018

Plenty of research shows that hiring and promoting with equality in mind, especially at the top, is critical for company success for a number of reasons. In the tight job market we’re dealing with right now, being a great place to work is a critical differentiator in attracting and retaining talent.

Retention 113

Retention Employee Agile Differentiation 113

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Discover whats in customers heads, and tackle problems where design is a differentiator. So I don't think the Apple experience should be used to discount lean, agile, or customer development-type approaches. Apple also hired away key engineers from Pixo, who I believe still work there. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Brandanew

JULY 9, 2015

Usually they come with big marketing budgets and are able to hire a string of agencies and creative experts to help them. For a small firm, while there are advantages that come with being more agile, it is also harder to compete on uneven ground as they may not have large budgets. Image source: Flickr. The Internet is full of noise: .

Marketing 100

Marketing SEO Metrics Agile 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

The path I went down after a few years was to hire more process driven people and devolved more daily operational ownership to people running individual functions such as product management, sales management, finance, etc. So he hired an intern plus a junior marketing person and tasked them with mechanising responses.

Non-Compete 296

Non-Compete Sales Hiring France 296

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

Additionally, if you want to hire more engineers, how hard will it be to find people using this language. Need to hire others: This communicates they might not be as good as you want or just can’t hack it and solve the initial problem. You might as well hire an outsourced team. Thus, this is not the right co-founder for you.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

What differentiates them is their disciplined approach to determining when to spend money: after the fundamental elements of the business model have been empirically validated. Myth: Lean Startups are small bootstrapped startups. Truth: There’s nothing wrong with raising venture capital. Expo SF (May.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 29, 2017

Back in the day, when I worked for Xerox, it was a true differentiator from the typical copier salesperson. Sometimes the client hires you, sometimes they don’t. Getting things done well takes considerable testing and hinges on agile changes; striving for perfection is the opposite mentality. Image Credit: Lisa Chastain.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur LLC Cofounder Montana 48

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2008

The companies that own those brands work hard to differentiate their offering so that people who wear their clothes will be perceived in a certain way. We knew IMVU would be a socializing platform, and so we decided that we would let our customers interact using their own rules for assigning status, like we do in the physical world.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Your brand positioning explains how your company differentiates in the marketplace and how you are different from your competitors. It directly affects your ability to sell, to fundraise, to hire the best employees, and to grow. Curved lines are visibly flexible and can communicate agility and reactivity. New employees.

Marketing 162

Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

What differentiates this model from "free serves paid" is that the free users dont need to consciously do anything special to be valuable. Here the key is for your free customers to get value from the site that is greater than the costs they perceive by the fact that youre selling access to them. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Rob Go

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Both in hiring and in firing. And in a ridiculously competitive environment for talent, agility is a great asset and differentiator. I really believe that you can do effective hiring and people evaluation if you focus and just do the work.

Due Diligence 48

Due Diligence Agile Venture Capital Differentiation 48