Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

But the early customers all compared it to MySpace. 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.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Customer Lean Continuous Deployment 131

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2009

I first saw you on Mixergy, and that site has been invaluable to me as an Entrepreneur who has made every mistake under the sun, but as you very well know Entrepreneurship has so many dimensions, and being able to understand the practical equivalents of ideas being discussed over there are important. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Lean 115

Lean Video San Francisco Continuous Deployment 115

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

Im going to be speaking on June 3rd at an event sponsored by the Technology Entrepreneurs Exchange (TeXchange), "the premier networking organization in Texas for business executives and entrepreneurs to meet, exchange ideas and share experiences." It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0,

Lean 60

Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

Heres what I do know: The future strength of our economy depends on its ability to create, support, and sustain entrepreneurs. (If If you are somehow not convinced of this point, Ill let Fareed Zakaria explain ) We know who the next generation of entrepreneurs are going to be. Nerds are not entrepreneurs. They are nerds.

Programming 143

Programming San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 143

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

When it becomes possible to build products "live" with customers, the cycle time changes and design becomes a much more dynamic process. We still struggle to create Firm software that is defect-free, and it still requires customer insight (and maybe some customer development) to discover what will Delight.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

For example, I’ve talked often about our belief that an instant messaging add-on product would allow IMVU to take advantage of a network effects strategy. Unfortunately, customers hated that initial product. Unfortunately, when we realized the product design was not what customers wanted, we had to pivot to a new product.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

For companies in the early-adopter phase, you can play "the earlyvangelist game" whenever a customer turns out to be too mainstream for your product. 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.]? So why you?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 133

David Teten

APRIL 8, 2013

Great thanks to my coauthors on the research, Adham AbdelFattah (CEO of CircleVibe and consultant on leave from McKinsey & Company in NY); Koen Bremer (consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Amsterdam, Holland); and Gyorgy Buslig (consultant with McKinsey & Co. in Budapest, Hungary.)

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Private Equity Hungary IRR Venture Capital 114

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Processes that, in the Industrial Age, were tightly scripted, with predictable outcomes, must in the Networked World, become adaptable, contextual, and focus on getting measurable (often surprising!) The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Thanks for the post, Eric.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Seed-stage investors are learning the metrics of traction, and are getting better at identifying those companies that are really achieving validated learning about customers. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 11, 2010

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.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

I also have to include this caveat: we werent purely a software company - we built telecom network devices, hw and sw. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. Software Eng. here who spent a couple years in Eng.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

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.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Founder DC Washington 150

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 11, 2009

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.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Social Network Lean Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 23, 2009

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. Lean Startup Circle - a mailing list of dedicated and helpful entrepreneurs. If youd like to reserve a spot, please RSVP. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Most first-time entrepreneurs aren’t prepared for the challenges they will face building a startup, and yet they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. How founders find the determination to push through tough times was the focus on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Filed under: Customer Development.

Entrepreneur 260

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 260

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

For network-effects businesses, like Skype , just being on the network is enough to create value. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. 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. great metaphor.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 19, 2010

The question is whether you are born with innate entrepreneurial talent or whether you can be taught to operate like an entrepreneur. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Jason Calacanis , founder of Mahlo.com, and Mark Suster of GRP Partners, have all weighed in on the nature side – you’re born being an entrepreneur or your not.

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Silicon Valley Venture Capital China New York 219

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

For example, if any of the mobile ad networks gets major traction, they may become a dominant way that people discover new apps. If the rating in the App Store is based on usage, I am sure those popular social networking applications are sure to be in the top and the hot seat always. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Most first-time entrepreneurs aren’t prepared for the challenges they will face building a startup, and yet they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. How founders find the determination to push through tough times was the focus on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Filed under: Customer Development.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 120

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. Here are two specific ways it can go horribly wrong.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 9, 2009 10 years of entrepreneurship I recently passed my ten-year anniversary of becoming an entrepreneur. Could we have built the first college-based social network five years before Facebook ? BusinessWeek named me one of the top young entrepreneurs in tech , based on my work at IMVU.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 31, 2009

I hope people will use this to recruit and share jobs/candidates in their own networks, letting retweets etc. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. July 31, 2009 2:25 PM Eric said. carry the word out wider.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Startup Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

As entrepreneurs, more than any other industry, we’re in the meritocracy business. If women face structural barriers to becoming entrepreneurs, then those few who are able to overcome those barriers are probably exceptional to begin with. Or, maybe it is true that women make better entrepreneurs than men. Hint: it doesnt.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Sweden Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

And in some markets its decisive, because of well-known network effects (as happened with Microsoft, eBay, and many others). But if your product category doesnt have strong network effects, word of mouth alone is not usually enough to fend off a competitor who also has a quality product. So what model will prevail on the iPhone?

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Not everything has to follow lean startup and customer development principles, and I write that as a devoted practitioner of both. It would be far more useful to discover how Apple really does develop their innovative products it rather than assume that they follow the principles that you and I espouse.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

I was constantly coming up with arguments to save it: that we couldnt be sure that the feature wouldnt be useful later, that maybe some customers liked it even though most didnt, that it wasnt consistent with our company values to become a proprietary IM network. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 98

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 98

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

As a result, sitting here on this plane, Ive been pondering what message I want to deliver on behalf of startups and entrepreneurs. So heres my simple question: What do folks in Washington need to know about the global community of entrepreneurs? So what are good entrepreneur-friendly policies?

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Do some Customer Development instead. Figuring this out takes time, and few entrepreneurs have the patience to wait it out, because the business plan does such a good job of explaining what customers are going to think. The problem is that customers dont read your business plan. Help you raise money.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 5, 2008

Spray files across cheap disks on your network. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. Lean Startup Circle - a mailing list of dedicated and helpful entrepreneurs. Pay less for storage.

Open Source 107

Open Source San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 107

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Customers can only tell you want they think they want, and tend to have a very near-term perspective. Our job as entrepreneurs is to invent the future, and any optimization technique – including split-testing, many design techniques, or even usability testing – can lead us astray. and for which customer?

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

When I entered the company, I realized that there were no process and I quickly applied what I know about agile software development. My responsibility at the time I joined the company was to develop a product that is to be deployed on a social network (hint hint, FB). Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2009

A Harvard Business School professor and early evangelist for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, Doriot was the Fred Terman of the East Coast. Reply Allen Smith , on October 26, 2009 at 12:29 pm Said: The first VC were indeed from the Boston area but they predated Doriot by more than 100 years.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Securities and Exchange Commission Venture Capital RSS 159

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 4, 2009

This is true of most web application servers, caches like memcached, and all of the network infrastructure that connects them. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

San Francisco 151

San Francisco Architecture Startup Database 151

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

A lot of engagement problems are caused by the customer completely forgetting about the provider of the service. Facebook , LinkedIn , and other successful social networks have elevated this technique to a high art. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Viral 140

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 140

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

Venture Capital used to be a tight club clustered around formal firms located in Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York. Until then investors and entrepreneurs acted like startups were simply smaller versions of large companies. provide experienced and hands-on mentorship; and offer a growing network of founding CEOs.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222