Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

I know plenty of people who prefer more advanced source control system, but my belief is that many agile practices diminish the importance of advanced features like branching. Its not that the idea behind them is wrong, but I think agile team-building practices make scheduling per se much less important. Youd better.

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Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. This is why companies often get out-competed by former employees (Palm vs Handspring to name just one), even though the upstart lacks all of the familiar resources, tools, processes, and support they used to have. Go on an agile diet quickly. Great post!

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers. With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer. I explained it to people this way: agile lets you make the trade-offs visible to whole company, so that they can make informed choices. Even worse, agile wasnt really helping me ship higher quality software.

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Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. Thats an important job, for sure, and Ive been called upon to do it from time to time.

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CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

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Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

The same has been true of an unfortunate number of startups, they manage to generate a lot of hype, raise a lot of money, and sometimes make some of their investors, employees, or founders rich. They dont really create value. But did they leave the world a better place than before they existed? If youre not doing both, youre missing out.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Every two months, the company would have a big end-of-milestone meeting, with our Board of Directors, Business Advisory Board, and all employees present. Every two months, the company would have a big end-of-milestone meeting, with our Board of Directors, Business Advisory Board, and all employees present. Expo SF (May.

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Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Combining agile development with customer developm. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2019

I have friends who are execs or shareholders of the company, but I have no stake in Slack nor intent to invest in the IPO. A somewhat unique thing about the Slack IPO is that they’re pursuing a direct listing on the NYSE. But now we have a chance to really dig in and understand Slack’s business a bit better.

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Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 100

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

Not to be outdone, the technologists on the team had also brought their big guns, and the meeting was packed with employees of every level – from VP’s all the way down to me. As the meeting progressed, the temperature kept rising. At first, I couldn’t even follow the recriminations back-and-forth. Expo SF (May.

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Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Its an amazing thing when you can hire an employee who knows more about your code base than you do, and this turned out to be a big source of advantage. 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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Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The metrics and levers of engagement, presentation on Engagement Loops for Facebook Developer Garage SF Ill be presenting a talk at the Facebook Developer Garage SF Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, its easy to lose track of positioning effects when optimizing for a single metric.

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Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 23, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Combining agile development with customer developm. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Audio 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Employees should be masters of their own time Every startup should have a culture of learning. The rule is simple: every employee is 100% responsible for how they spend their time. The suggestion is that you implement one single company-wide rule. I asked why.

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Employee San Francisco Lean Software Review 146

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Over-communicate with employees, investors, customers. Ive also used the voluntary salary reduction tool - its particularly useful as a way to get passionate employees who dont have a lot of personal expenses to buy into the mission of the company at a deep level. Pay attention to where your cash is. Dont sugar coat. Expo SF (May.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 31, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Combining agile development with customer developm. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Expo SF (May.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

Whether youre a US citizen or an immigrant, entrepreneur or investor, founder or employee, theres something you can do. Whether youre a US citizen or an immigrant, entrepreneur or investor, founder or employee, theres something you can do. Soon, I promise. But in order for this idea to progress into legislation, we need your help.

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San Francisco DC Startup Lean 118

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 23, 2009

Priority will be given to employees of companies participating in the fbFund REV program, but I am confident that there will be room for members of the general public who want to attend. I just got word that this is going to be happening this coming Thursday, June 25 in Palo Alto (in the former Facebook HQ). Expo SF (May.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

Yet, the real stories of successful startups are full of activities that can rightly be called institution-building: hiring creative employees, coordinating their activities, and creating a company culture that delivers results. The word institution connotes bureaucracy, process, even lethargy. How can that be part of a startup? Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

In fact theyd cause there to be more jobs for Americans, because the companies they started would hire more employees as they grew. In fact theyd cause there to be more jobs for Americans, because the companies they started would hire more employees as they grew. Brad Feld is working on promoting this idea inside the halls of Congress.

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San Francisco Founder DC Washington 150

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

On the one hand, it gives you insight into what kind of employee the candidate might be. The six key attributes spell ABCDEF: Agility. When talking about their past experience, candidates with agility will know why they did what they did in a given situation. I use the circle question, too.

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San Francisco Lean Agile Java 146

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 20, 2009

As a consequence, this new startup is relentlessly metrics-driven. Because this radical notion of progress is located firmly in the heads of its employees, and not in any artifacts they produce, the lean startup is employee-centric and knowledge-obsessed. Its unit of progress is that of validated learning about its customers.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

We do not develop a product until we get a paying customer," says Orit Pennington , who co-founded the six-employee company with her husband in 2002. We do not develop a product until we get a paying customer," says Orit Pennington , who co-founded the six-employee company with her husband in 2002. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

LIKED: Y startups fail, cont deployment vs waterfall vs agile, small batches & learn fr biz metrics #leanstartup As concise a summary as Ive ever seen. A: have them deploy code to production on their first day as an employee. farazq : Awesome session @ericries. hwijaya : #leanstartup Its not the release fast dat matter.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

Almost all of them got scooped up by pre-IPO Google this time. That year, right before the IPO, those months mattered a great deal in terms of financial outcomes. Then I wouldnt have the chance to work with the incredible employees and mentors from whom I learned so much. I was "lucky" to not be laid off, or so I thought.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Lean manufacturing , agile software development , and Theory of Constraints are all examples of this idea in action. Its easier to believe in a glorious future when you have only zeroes, for everyone: founders, investors, and employees. No vanity metrics should be looked at. No vanity metrics should be looked at.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

They spend so much of their time trying to convince everyone around them that their idea is great and the company is doing well: employees, investors, partners, friends, family, significant others - its a long list. Know what the success metrics are for the launch. How do they know they are making progress? Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

For example, I often cite a real example of a problem that has as its root cause a new employee who was not properly trained. I pick that example on purpose, for two reasons: 1) most of the companies I work with deal with this problem and yet 2) almost none of them have any kind of training program in place for new employees.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

We eventually discovered (via five whys ) that we also had to get each new employee acculturated to a fearless way of thinking. Because this was such a big cultural change for most new employees, we didnt leave them to sink or swim on their own. Most importantly, we immediately thrust our new employees into a mindset of reduced fear.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review Lean 131

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

Hes a new employee, and he was not properly trained in TDD So far, this isnt much different from the kind of analysis any competent operations team would conduct for a site outage. Instead, five whys kept leading to problems caused by an improperly trained new employee, and wed make a small adjustment. why did that code get written?

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Combining agile development with customer developm. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. I think Drucker said it best. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

It has to balance competing goals of establishing clear ownership, while avoiding talented employees getting stuck. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Thats all helpful for recruiting, retaining, and ramping-up a new employee. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. You dont have to guess who their mentor will be. Expo SF (May.

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Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68

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. The videos are Steve explaining the company's path forward to Next employees. August 3, 2009 2:58 AM Phil Winkler said. There are a couple of videos that are relevant to this discussion. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166