Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

What those sites have in common (despite their very different audiences) is that something is causing their customers to become addicted to their product, and so no matter how they acquire a new customer, they tend to keep them. For Neopets, its simply a side-effect of their game-like product design. This has led to exponential growth.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Startups especially can benefit by using technical debt to experiment, invest in process, and increase their product development leverage. The biggest source of waste in new product development is building something that nobody wants. Unfortunately, customers hated that initial product. One last thought.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Let me quote an example that I used recently: Remember IMVUs initial IM add-on product? Unfortunately, when we realized the product design was not what customers wanted, we had to pivot to a new product. When we became a standalone network, it didnt matter how easy it was to add new networks, since we never did.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

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. Thoughts on scientific product development Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you? Pay less for storage.

Open Source 107

Open Source San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 107

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

None of it would have happened if we had plenty of cash, or were content to count our progress by traffic or product development milestones. Labels: product development 4comments: Doug said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Thank you Eric.

San Francisco 98

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 98

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

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. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

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

AUGUST 26, 2009

But theres no denying the level of support for entrepreneurs that we enjoy. They take common stock, not preferred, a fact that the entrepreneurs mentioned to me many times. And they expose the startups to a vast network of mentors, none of whom get paid for their involvement. And do your customer development.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

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

techcocktail.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

When we see entrepreneurs come up with great ideas (and we see many), we hope that they also remember that while an idea is key, it won’t go anywhere without the right team in place. As entrepreneurs we need to recognize the importance of having a solid support system. be the manager and product developer).

San Francisco 44

San Francisco Startup PHP San Diego 44

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

JUNE 22, 2009

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. September 27, 2009 4:08 PM Patti said.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Also SJ's obsession with better taste (positively) contributes to the overall product development process. There are some good anecdotes about Chief Engineers in the Toyota Product Development Book. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

In fact, the curse of product development is that sometimes small things make a huge difference and sometimes huge things make no difference. 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.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. then five years in Product Mgt. Good luck, engineering manager.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

If everyone I know is using a specific product, in most markets thats a heavy influence. And in some markets its decisive, because of well-known network effects (as happened with Microsoft, eBay, and many others). This can even vary by category, as people apply different criteria to games vs. utilities vs. social networking apps.

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

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

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.]?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 133

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

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Sometimes, a great hacker has the potential to grow into the CTO of a company, and in those cases all you need is an outside mentor who can work with them to develop those skills. At the end of the day, the product development team of a startup (large or small) is a service organization. Does this sound familiar?

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

The Next Web

OCTOBER 17, 2013

Carlos Eduardo Espinal is a partner at Seedcamp , an early stage mentoring and investment program that engages startups through monthly Seedcamp Events, where entrepreneurs present their companies, network, receive mentoring, and compete for investment by Seedcamp. Entrepreneur Analysis and Opinion'

Customer 128

Customer B2C Startup Early Stage 128

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

In addition to entrepreneurship, she has a background in chemical engineering, supply chain management, biomedical engineering research, microbiology research, and new product development for U.S. Business and life are about relationships, your network is what will lift you up. and Indian companies.

Baltimore 62

Baltimore Africa South Africa Michigan 62

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

And make sure to read our recent posts with advice from Mint CEO Aaron Patzer on his advice to entrepreneurs as well ( here and here ). Other cities like New York, Boston, Seattle, LA and Austin TX also have pretty strong startup communities. link] Michael Arrington yep, this stuff is gold for entrepreneurs. Paul So, did you?

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 66

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. The media companies that will make the transition in the coming years will be the ones that embrace this principle and devote themselves to helping creators, authors and artists develop as entrepreneurs as well as craftspeople.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

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

Seeing Both Sides

MAY 23, 2013

Today is Demo Day for Techstars Boston. As accelerators like Techstars gain in popularity, many entrepreneurs wonder whether they should be applying and, if admitted, joining an accelerator and when they shouldn''t. Here are a few guidelines that I would think about if I were an entrepreneur making such a decisions.

Boston 40

Boston Community Networking Equity 40

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

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. Depending on where your startup is at, balancing the size and scope of a product launch with that of the marketing launch is a delicate process.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

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

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. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 151

San Francisco Architecture Startup Database 151

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. As a result, CPI advertising is incredibly cheap.

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

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

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

WHEN IN AUSTIN, GUIDE FOR TECH ENTREPRENEURS I thought about starting this article with how hard it is to be an entrepreneur and somewhere at the end to give it a twist on how awesome it is and make it all rainbows and butterflies. WEB ] - Symbid : Platform for connecting investors and entrepreneurs. - Just how cool is that?

Austin 49

Austin DC Texas San Francisco 49

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

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