ConversionXL

MARCH 29, 2017

In our 2016 State of Conversion Optimization Report , which many people in growth roles completed as well, we found that… Only 32% of small companies (less than 500 employees) say they have a documented, structured optimization process. It should go without saying that growth starts with the product. You get the idea.

Marketing 48

Marketing Distribution Retention eCommerce 48

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

It should go without saying that this post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply my observation of how companies using Customer Development positioned themselves to successfully raise money from venture investors. Raising Money Using Customer Development « Steve Blank (tags: startups entrepreneurship) [.]

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

The fact that Dave says that theres "no revenue stream" and that hes getting good traction suggests he must be missing something. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. in Computer Science.

Open Source 150

Open Source Business Model Technical Cofounder Southern California 150

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Remember your parents saying, “Don’t touch the hot stove!” Touching the Hot Stove – Experiential versus Theoretical Learning « Steve Blank (tags: startups) [.] 2-way search is still in the works but I have the semantic extracted tags (thanks to Zemanta) feeding in to many search engines (activate realtime frankensearch).

Silicon Valley 187

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 187

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

When you move out on your own, you don’t get a memo that says “Congratulations, you’re now in charge of your life.&# No one will say that it’s time to move on. No one will say work less and go home and spend time with your partner and/or family. I am sorry there really isn’t a job for you.&#

Agile 255

Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 255

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Entrepreneur-in-Residence After SuperMac I had been approached by one of our venture investors to be an entrepreneur in residence (EIR), a Silicon Valley phrase which says one thing but means another. In reality an EIR is a set of wonderful golden handcuffs. They have your soul. It sounded like a great deal.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

However, if you want to join a startup as an early employee (say in the first 25 employees,) you can modify the list above. The Later Employee If you want to join a startup as a later employee (say employee number 25-125, before the company is profitable) you can continue to modify the list above. You’re not joining a big company.

Cofounder 224

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 224

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Fortunately I’ve never been good at lying, to be effective in communicating a story I truly had to believe in what I was saying. They all accurately predicted our demise because of our lack of game expertise.) Ah, the arrogance of inexperience. At the time I was a true believer that Rocket Science was going to change the gaming world.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2009

The CEO turned to me and asked “What did you say?” Now in a voice so quiet it could be barely heard across the conference table our CEO turns to me and says, “That’s what I thought you said. Silence descended across the conference table. I thought I was bright, aggressive and could do no wrong as a marketer.

Silicon Valley 279

Silicon Valley RSS Customer Development California 279

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Then our sales guy says something that makes me stop breathing for a while. “I The VP of Engineering says, “well we don’t have the resources or time, and as long as you know we could build better computers then you guys, why don’t you tell us the details about your computers.” Help them?!!

Technology 140

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 140

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

Tag Memes - Someone posts a question and "Tags" five people to give their response. I have to say that it has netted far more than I would have thought. See Five Things Meme as an example. Blog Hub - A central blog provides a place where the topic is raised and comments are collected and bloggers post. in Computer Science.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Call a board meeting and say we may have a serious problem? The press is saying we are the hottest super group around. Saying you knew how to build great games because you played them all your life was like saying, “Hey I eat out a lot so why don’t I open a restaurant.” What kind of question was that?

Silicon Valley 213

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 213

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

And so below is our list of the 25 “best” startup failure post-mortems of all time. Three notes before we begin: After reading these, you realize more than ever that the startup community is really like no other. We were amazed by the candor and generosity of many of the writers of these post-mortems. Author : Todd. Too much money.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

As you say, they were static, and you had moved on. We had validated our new assumptions by a set of orders, and we had pivoted on our business model. Our original idea had been nothing more than an untested set of hypotheses. Truth be told, we were no longer the company in those stolen slides. That’s not found in a set of slides.

Silicon Valley 236

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 236

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I totally grok what you’re saying. So my solution has been to punt on the topic and say what I wrote above. My experience here says that getting Market Type/Positioning right can be the difference between success and failure for a startup. Customer development is about squeezing out risks in the right order.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 224

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.

Silicon Valley 305

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 305

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

If the product does work, and say we’ve developed a drug that cures a type of cancer, your only problem is how big is the licensing deal going to be – not about whether there will be customers. These are markets where it may take 5 or even 10 years to get a product out of the lab and into production. How would that change my company strategy?

Vertical 148

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 148

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

All teams raised their hands and screamed: we hundreds of angels and dozens of VCs, all of them say they will only fund deals with prototypes, beta customers, first revenue and executive teams all in place, and they say it will be 2 years from now because their coffers are out of cash and LPs in default. Yeah, I said.

Vertical 153

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 153

Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

In 21 st century terminology we’d say that Terman built the Radio Research lab into a customer-centric organization doing agile development. Tin Foil Rain – Chaff We first decided to shut down the German radars that were directing the anti-aircraft guns and the fighter planes. And to do that we dropped tin foil on the Germans.

Silicon Valley 188

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 188

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 2, 2015

How to Archive Past Tests? Pay attention to what they say and experience. This can involve fixing, adding or improving tag or event handling on the analytics configuration.). What to Test to Improve Our Chances of Winning? How to Prioritize Test Hypotheses? How Long to A/B Test? How to Set up A/B Tests? Automation for Scale.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Analytics Framework Software Review 48

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

I tried to clear my head and remember what else I had said, like anything that would be really, really, really bad to say outside of a secure facility. So our people in the field could correct any egregious design advice I gave to customers who mattered. Keep in mind this is still several years before the IBM PC and DOS.

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 184

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « Am I a Founder? Convergent Technologies When I was in my 20’s I worked at Convergent Technologies , a company that was proud to be known as the “Marine Corps of Silicon Valley.”

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 286

mobile.smashingmagazine.com

JANUARY 16, 2013

Let’s say you’re employed by a large company. The bottom line is to keep information that is vital; question information that either is popular or has priority; archive and remove information that is neither. Nothing says wide-screen websites can’t also organize views with space.

Mobile 101

Mobile HTML Flash Software Review 101

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

And I got to experience a type of customer buying behavior I had never seen before – the Novelty Effect. Present at the Creation It was early 1991 and Apple’s software development team was hard at work on QuickTime , the first multimedia framework for a computer. The software was idiot proof. There was nothing for the consumer to do.

Video 170

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 170

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

That’s the best compliment,” says Brooke Malloy of Etsy shop SageLike. Remember that even if potential customers aren’t clicking “add to cart” on your item on Etsy, if handled professionally, you may have made an impression, be certain it’s a lasting one,” says Jed Darland, founder of Plant Picket.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce SEO Software Review Social Media 60

Altgate

DECEMBER 15, 2010

I once heard a company co-founder say that, “the biggest dilution I ever took was bringing on a co-founder.&# But more often I hear the opposite of how having a co-founder helps balance the team emotionally as well as in terms of skill sets. Bookmark the permalink. I’m intrigued though.

Pre-Money Valuation 66

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Cofounder Founder 66

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

To say this was a radical notion at first was an understatement. I like to talk about the fact that choosing your segment determines how you will reach your customer, what you will to say to them, and what the sales process will look like (since it depends on the buyer’s process). No, not really.

Silicon Valley 145

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 145

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 24, 2015

From tagging tweets and posts, to simply notifying business chambers and local media, you will find many venues and organizations that will be motivated to share your story on social media. So when I tell you that book publishing has become a new cornerstone of my own inbound marketing strategy, I am not saying it lightly.

Kansas City 28

Kansas City Kansas Social Media Lead Generation 28

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Coming out of the fog at the sound of serious dollars about to be spent, I politely suggested that the new collateral was on-hold, and we were going to spend the first few weeks of my tenure trying to understand who our customers were, and what we wanted to say to them. Was she going to propose a coherent communications strategy?

Silicon Valley 194

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 194

Up and Running

DECEMBER 16, 2015

3 toys to encourage creative thinking: I may go as far as to say that creativity and creative thinking are of paramount importance to any entrepreneurial venture. No household is complete without this game, and I don’t just say it as a writer. The only drawback is the price tag. Rory’s Story Cubes: . What is it?

Stock 60

Stock Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review 60

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

As they say, A players hire A players, B players hire C players etc. Leave a comment Trackback Tags. Tags: startupcto. So when you first start building your team, the most important hire should be your lead architect. Spare no expense to find the absolute best person for this role. Culture creation is not easy. WHERE ARE YOU?

Offshore 40

Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

alexpoole.info

AUGUST 14, 2012

An argument has been raging for decades within the scientific and typographic communities on what seems a very insignificant issue: Do serifs contribute to the legibility of typefaces, and by definition, are sans serif typefaces less legible? To date, no one has managed to provide a conclusive answer to this issue. Ascenders and descenders.

Technical Review 85

Technical Review Software Review Design Web 85

www.thisisgoingtobebig.com

OCTOBER 25, 2010

Then, theres no reason not to have people who say "If you build that, Id be very likely to buy that/fund that." Then, theres no reason not to have people who say "If you build that, Id be very likely to buy that/fund that." That would be my due diligence on you if I was a technical partner--lots of people saying yes.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Software Review Startup Due Diligence 40

mashable.com

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Extract and Archive Your Followers. As an added bonus if the archive is published the results can be visualised in a separate tool I’ve developed. Question about the Extract and Archive Followers Sheet. Note: if you are getting a “too many connections” error, try another search to refresh the scripts.

Social Media 108

Social Media Analytics Media API 108

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Just as an aside, over my career I must have interviewed scores of business school graduates (some from the very fine universities where I now teach) who would say, “I want to do strategy.” We’ve all seen ads that say, “Now 30% more” or “Marked down 50%” or “5 times faster.” I just want to do strategy.”

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

link] Reply Marcus , on August 24, 2009 at 10:25 am Said: Maybe it’s me, or maybe you’re just unclear, but it seems like you’re trying very hard to make ethical behavior sound big and complicated and oh so difficult to understand how to achieve, which is different from saying oh so difficult to achieve.

Silicon Valley 193

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 193

Altgate

MAY 3, 2009

Larry and I went to Michigan at the same time and in fact Larry was briefly a member of the Solar Car Team where I was team leader (I often joke that I'm one of the few people who can say that "Larry Page worked for them."). altgate » Blog Archive » Vivid Dreams: Larry Page Describes Google’s Origin [.]

Michigan 37

Michigan Boston Technical Review Audio 37