bizthoughts.mikelee.org

MARCH 8, 2012

BizThoughts Thoughts about business, technology, the web & entrepreneurship About Booklist Contact Nov 15 2011 Finding a Technical Cofounder By Mike Lee Categories: Entrepreneurship , Leadership Since I have a technical background, I get about one offer a month to join some engineering team, or to be a technical cofounder.

Technical Cofounder 40

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 40

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." For Neopets, its simply a side-effect of their game-like product design. Thats why eBay advertises on search engines, and Facebook doesnt. Thats where Id like to pick up the discussion.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

It’s easy to get so pre-occupied with handling the business rollout that you forget to maintain and increase your social media interactions, search engine optimization efforts, and highlighting positive customer reviews on your website. Continually add new marketing and distribution partners. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Social Media 120

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 120

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

1x hacker in charge of product/development. 1x hipster working with both product and growth. Cost of Acquisition (CAC): The total cost of acquiring a user through a given channel. If the CAC is above the LTV, but not too much—there’s some potential in this channel. Apr-15: Head of Marketing (growth team).

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2011

what’s the product? what distribution channel? Channel : Mowing and agricultural equipment dealers. Autonomow team members: Jorge Heraud (MS Management, 2011) Business Unit Director, Agriculture, Trimble Navigation, Director of Engineering, Trimble Navigation, MS&E (Stanford), MSEE (Stanford), BSEE (PUCP, Peru).

Business Model 236

Business Model Nebraska Peru Germany 236

techcocktail.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

be the manager and product developer). Developer – Most likely your product requires some engineering. Make sure you have the right developer(s) on board in whatever capacity you need them, whether it’s a part time HTML or Wordpress developer or a full time PHP wiz.

San Francisco 44

San Francisco Startup PHP San Diego 44

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. Their product development team is hard at work on a next-generation product platform, which is designed to offer a new suite of products – but this effort is months behind schedule.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, September 18, 2008 How to get distribution advantage on the iPhone I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of iPhone-related companies lately. There are other models, in other distribution channels. On Facebook, viral distribution has proved decisive. I havent found any yet.

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2022

How do they become present on new social media and communications channels? How to they use the new distribution channels competitors have adopted? How do they make these transitions without alienating and losing their existing customers, distribution channels and partners?

Framework 389

Framework Distribution Channel Leadership 389

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 1, 2017

And then I think in a lot of ways it’s become air for every sort of channel and element and, even as you suggest in your last book, a business model in itself. The difference in the two that you mentioned … I realize this is semantics at some level, but the two that you mentioned are channel based, right? Robert Rose: No.

Cost 38

Cost Marketing Audience Media 38

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Execution by Vertical Market As the class progressed, students asked how the activities/functions of a startup; (Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Product Development, etc.) How does product development differ in communications hardware versus enterprise software, etc. would look in each of the verticals.

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Version One Ventures

AUGUST 7, 2018

However, the pressure of sky-high housing costs, salaries and competition for suitable candidates is causing start-ups and investors to rethink their approach to distributed teams. Among our Silicon Valley-based portfolio companies, not a single company past “A” does not have a distributed team. Slack, Zoom). Slack, Zoom).

Silicon Valley 129

Silicon Valley Distribution San Francisco Denver 129

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

Whether your new software is ‘in the cloud,’ an online download, or distributed on a CD through various direct and indirect distribution channels, the process of localization is still a time consuming, manually intensive, and expensive effort. Despite all the hype and free tools, there still is not ‘an app for that.’

Software 200

Software Distribution Europe Database 200

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, October 7, 2008 The App Store after the gold rush I wrote earlier about the issue of distribution advantage on the iPhone. The App Store is a channel for customer acquisition. On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. So what can you do?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Marketing demand creation programs (Search Engine Marketing, Public Relations, Advertising, Lead Generation, Trade Shows, etc.) are all expensive and potentially fatal distractions if done before you have found product/market fit and a repeatable sales model.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2018

Ed Fry – Customer Data Operations: Unleashing your hidden growth engine. Assign content & channels for each experience. Identify your channels. Email & ads are the 2 big communication channels. Messenger will become the biggest channel over the near years. Serve as a channel of knowledge.

Retention 106

Retention Artificial Inteligence Channel Email 106

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. Another great way to test your idea is to create a minimum viable product, or MVP. This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. Keep core development in-house. Do it yourself.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

September 2013 – Ryan Holiday publishes Growth Hacker Marketing and urges people to build growth into the product itself so that it’s a self-sustaining, scalable growth machine. An Epic List of 100 Growth Hacks for Startups by Search Engine Journal. Because growth should be built into the product itself for maximum ROI.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Raymond has built a nice business through efficient distribution deals and will do about $250,000 in revenue this year. He should then bootstrap his product development by using the consulting fees. She has a masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Raymond has built a nice business through efficient distribution deals and will do about $250,000 in revenue this year. He should then bootstrap his product development by using the consulting fees. She has a masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

The benefits of looking at marketing through the lens of the product lifecycle are multifold: Provides a broad understanding of how your product fits into lifecycles for the product class, form, or brand (e.g. petrol-engined cars, people-carrier, and Ford, respectively). Create product awareness and trial.

Product 124

Product Marketing Differentiation Harvest 124

adam.heroku.com

MAY 18, 2012

You have a single group chat channel and a single all@yourcompany.com mailing list. A full copy of the state of the entire company and your product is easily contained within everyone’s brain. Your single internal chat and email channels continue to work fine. There’s no real need to track any tasks or even bugs.

Developer 92

Developer Database Architecture API 92

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

While all of these factors are true to an extent, the truth of the matter is that the reduced costs of hardware and software are easily offset by the expense of engineers and experienced business people. Nearly all of your costs will be headcount, primarily in the engineering department. million in venture financing. .&# startupcto

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The best composition is probably one engineer whose passion lies in the pixels on the screen and another engineer whose passion is making bits fly really fast through servers. andrew chen great advice and really straight to the point – make a great product, focus on that and everything else will come. Sorry, folks.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.kalzumeus.com

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Maybe it is a publicly accessible staging server at EC2 spun up by a developer who has since left the company and not shut down because, hey, $20 a month. Maybe it is a 20% project by a junior engineer which he has on the back burner for the moment. This was clearly written for developers using Rails. dawmail333.

Security 101

Security Software Review Ruby Startup 101

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing “product development” eg new social media website project? Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing. Then launch.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Venture Chronicles

MAY 8, 2013

Identity is not the province of 2 engineers, a dog and a dream. The inflexible legacy billing system was rip-and-replaced under my watch, with a new homegrown subscription management app built as a separate Rails app in the infrastructure and hooked up to Chargify for transaction billing. Right up my alley. This is where I cut to Ping.

Cloud 65

Cloud Leadership America Analytics 65

Occam's Razor

APRIL 23, 2012

Choose the right metric and they'll create the most glorious digital experience in the universe, the perfect acquisition campaign, the most amazing customer service channel. of Search Traffic: This measures the percentage of traffic you receive from search engines, in context of all other traffic sources. This one is more subtle.

Metrics 152

Metrics Analytics Search Channel 152

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 3, 2018

Content, including articles, guides, and case studies, can still generate prospects and customers consistently—you just need to approach distribution from a different angle. Instead, they were shared in company Slack channels, emailed between VPs and investors, and featured in industry newsletters. It created powerful network effects.

B2B 133

B2B Marketing SEO Search 133

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

If you’re a business major – go check out the Engineering Society’s monthly meeting. Sean and Shawn from Napster met in an IRC channel. One’s a PM and the other’s an engineer. Having trouble meeting folks you think would be good co-founders? Here are a couple ideas: 1. Ideas are important.

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 66

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2019

recommendation engines, chatbots, automated suggestions for collaboration). Then they noticed that they’d been cannibalizing other channels—people converting as referrals were leads already acquired from other channels. Fit for the test: Normal tests assume independence and that error is normally distributed.

Artificial Inteligence 114

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Metrics SEO 114

ConversionXL

JANUARY 17, 2017

They have a ratings system and build distribution algorithms to best distribute lawn care providers to customers. Since LawnStarter involves more than the traditional add-to-cart and then complete purchase conversion metrics, they utilize their customer and web data in various channels. Image via Conductrics.

Algorithm 48

Algorithm CTO Hire Distribution Engineer 48

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

You can argue that the DNA created by Microsoft's over emphasis on distribution (Steve) and development (Bill), has ultimately cost it $50bn or more in lost revenue, market share and market capitalization. Developers have worn the crown for the last 30 or more years in the technology industry - rightly.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Firebase : Are all your developers front-end engineers? Google Custom Search Engine. Google App Engine. Search Engine Optimization Tools. usability testing for designers and developers. Google App Engine â?? free, distributed source code control management system. Check them out. But thatâ??s

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

They are largely invisible in the normal channels where customer service and community management pays attention. People arrive on the forums because they've tried going through the "proper channels" to no avail. It has channels to speak to but they continue to be closed and frankly rather rude.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158