Remove Boston Remove Continuous Deployment Remove Entrepreneur Remove Social Network
article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: The lean startup

Startup Lessons Learned

So far, I have found "lean startup" works better with the entrepreneurs Ive talked to than "agile startup" or even "extreme startup.") The wise entrepreneur will take this advice seriously in order to distill his ideas down to their essence. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Lean 168
article thumbnail

How to listen to customers, and not just the loud people

Startup Lessons Learned

This was 2004, and we had never even heard of MySpace, let alone had any understanding of social networking. It required hearing customers say it over and over again for us to take a serious look, and eventually to realize that social networking was core to our business. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you?

Startup Lessons Learned

Pick a similar product that they do use, and ask them "who was the first person you know who started using [social networking, mobile phones, plasma TV, instant messaging.]? gmlk, what would it take for you to recommend this blog to an entrepreneur who was a friend of yours? In the Netherlands being a entrepreneur very unusual.

article thumbnail

For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? (for Harvard Business.

Startup Lessons Learned

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics Im a little late on the cross-post, but hope youll enjoy it nonetheless. High-profile startup Friendster had first-mover advantage in the social networking space, but created openings for competitors when it could not scale to meet demand.

article thumbnail

Support the Startup Founders Visa with a tweet

Startup Lessons Learned

In a previous post , I asked readers for suggested topics that the US government needs to know about startups and entrepreneurs, and got some really interesting responses. Unfortunately, this program applies to the investor who holds the capital, and not the entrepreneur who discovers how to put that capital to use.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: CPI > CPC

Startup Lessons Learned

This model has not translated well to the world of social networking, because customers of social networks engage sites in a different way than customers of search engines. Social network page views are much more likely to be internally focused; ads are more of a distraction.

article thumbnail

Pivot, don't jump to a new vision

Startup Lessons Learned

Ive spoken in some detail about a specific pivot that we went through at IMVU , when we decided to abandon the instant messaging add-on concept, and switch to a standalone instant messaging network. We went through another pivot when we switched again from instant messaging to social networking. great metaphor.