Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

In the meantime, I think we have a good explanation for what all those PR dollars are being spent trying to obscure. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

In a startup, these channels of communication are critical to understand for advertising, launch and PR purposes. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 17, 2010

Conference updates continue to pour in: Want to see more preview videos? Our sponsors continue to support the conference as well as deserving entrepreneurs. Conference updates continue to pour in: Want to see more preview videos? Take a look at our new sneak-preview site , sponsored by KISSmetrics.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 4, 2010 Stop lying on stage Entrepreneurs crave information about successful startups, and they should. Many journalists and conference organizers attempt to fill this demand by giving successful entrepreneurs the opportunity to tell their stories: in magazines, on blogs, and on stage.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Any entrepreneur with a decent reality distortion field can find metrics that make it look like theyre being successful. This "success theater" is occasionally useful for PR or getting through a tough board meeting. Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review : The idea is simple.

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Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 121

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

What happened when we got early press (circa 2004) in violation of our own no-PR rule. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

This is completely analogous to the situation elsewhere on the internet, where launching a new website, product, or service with PR is getting harder and harder. On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. Dont do PR upfront, dont put out a press release. My advice: dont launch big.

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San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Even if you must launch to your customers, avoid the urge to also launch in extra places, just because your PR firm can do it at the same time. If you are having trouble raising money, sometimes a little PR can help. Help you raise money.

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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. BusinessWeek named me one of the top young entrepreneurs in tech , based on my work at IMVU. We go to mixers, buy fancy offices, focus on PR, and try to one-up each other.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2013

So we’ve added an extra day and expanded into two larger venues--giving us the chance to offer hands-on breakout sessions, increase your chances of meeting fellow entrepreneurs with events that let you share ideas and learn together, and create active mentoring opportunities with real experts. So we hope you''ll consider applying anyway.

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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.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

Journalists, PR firms, investors, and the public at large love a scrappy come-from-behind story about two guys in a garage who figured out how to take down Goliath. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

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. What the PR stories tend to leave out is that we can get attached to every part of our vision, even the dumb parts. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Since I first started writing about vanity metrics , I’ve met more and more entrepreneurs who are struggling with a simple question: how can I tell a vanity metric when I see it? Even worse, entrepreneurs are faced with a constant barrage of vanity metrics from competitors and other companies engaged in PR.

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San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

Thats exactly what the worlds best video games do. You could try and drive home that positioning with an expensive PR campaign, superbowl ads, and whatnot. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Expo SF (May.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

Launch with a PR blitz, including mentions in major mainstream publications. As with many Silicon Valley failures, a flawless PR launch turned into a flawed customer acquisition strategy. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Why do you think outsources have been happy to generate all this PR the past few years about people losing their jobs to India? If youre open to alternative metaphors with which to explain market-types, Porters Five Forces, etc, try the video game console wars. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

You should know that there are thousands of entrepreneurs who read this blog, some of whom are working on new platforms that will see the light of day someday. By participating, you've helped the next generation of entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes we made at IMVU. Thank you so much. So I thank you for that as well. Desperately.

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