YoungUpstarts

JUNE 11, 2015

by Jeff Sauro, author of “ Customer Analytics For Dummies “. In a global economy that’s becoming more competitive each year, every customer (and customer’s opinion) counts. Every customer interaction counts. Certainly, every dollar spent on keeping customers happy and coming back counts.

Analytics 100

Analytics Customer Acquisition Metrics 100

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Similarly, customers are more knowledgeable, aware, and conscious to choose from the variety out there, which slows down the company’s revenue and growth. Capturing and analyzing data enables companies to get insights that benefit their companies in cost-saving, relevant marketing, product development, etc.

Technical Review 153

Technical Review Forecast Analytics Social Media 153

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

The most common mistake startups make is assuming they can operate the same way big companies do, and expect success with little to no feedback from potential customers. A corporation like Starbucks could pick locations by throwing a dart at a map and know they’ll at least break even with a new location and mediocre customer service.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 2, 2016

Product managers should also understand the company’s goals. It is one of the most important processes in a product development lifecycle to deliver the product. The product itself can be ideal and work faultlessly, but what really matters is how it enters the market. necessary product. necessary product.

Management 100

Management Product Churn Rate Green 100

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Women Entrepreneurs Can

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Among these, sales, marketing, customer service, and product development take center stage. Additionally, automated reminders for overdue payments prompt prompt action from customers, reducing outstanding balances. Moreover, personalized communication and timely follow-ups foster trust and loyalty among customers.

Software Review 40

Software Review Metrics Analytics Software 40

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. Every board meeting, the metrics of success change.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

As part of a startup business, you’ll know that there is no greater desire to win your first customer or your tenth customer. You’ll do whatever it takes to call a customer your own. It’s a neat analogy: Like customers, pets get stolen, escape, or get lost. See Also: How Should You Handle Unhappy Customers?

Customer 60

Customer Retention Startup Metrics 60

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

Some make big mistakes, such as Webvan expanding too fast with a huge infrastructure, and Pets.com , trying to grow the business with a negative margin, under the mistaken assumption that winning customers is more important than making a profit. Introduce new products and enhancements every month. Ask every employee to focus on sales.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 21, 2013

Through rapid experimentation, short product development cycles, and rigorous measurements of the right metrics, they can ascertain what customers really want. Such direct experiences allows one to test critical “leap-of-faith” assumptions about what customers like and dislike.

Lean 193

Lean Technical Review North America Startup 193

YoungUpstarts

JULY 16, 2019

Customers enjoy online shopping; their demands create enormous opportunities for eCommerce company’s growth. Have you developed any vision of a product development strategy? And keep in mind that the best option is to develop at least 5 domain names connected to your brand’s name to find an unoccupied domain.

eCommerce 113

eCommerce Software Developers Software Development Hosting 113

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, September 7, 2008 Customer Development Engineering Yesterday, I had the opportunity to guest lecture again in Steve Blank s entrepreneurship class at the Berkeley-Columbia executive MBA program. Unfortunately, positioning our product as an "IM add-on" was a complete mistake.

Customer Development 131

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? When we build products, we use a methodology. But too often when its time to think about customers, marketing, positioning, or PR, we delegate it to "marketroids" or "suits." a roadmap for how to get to Product/Market Fit."

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, March 16, 2009 Combining agile development with customer development Today I read an excellent blog post that I just had to share. In most agile development systems, there is a notion of the "product backlog" a prioritized list of what software is most valuable to be developed next.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Switch your attention from product development to sales. These only come with the proper training, investment in tools, and focus on customer relationships. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2012

Long before there was the Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas or Customer Development there was a guy in Santa Barbara California who had already figured it out. Frank Robinson of SyncDev has been helping companies figure out their minimum viable product and pivots since 1984, long before I even knew what it meant.

San Jose 256

San Jose Technical Review Customer Development Software Review 256

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 26, 2009 A real Customer Advisory Board A reader recently asked on a previous post about the technique of having customers periodically produce a “state of the company&# progress report. Many companies seek to involve customers directly in the creation of their products.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I believe it is the best introduction to Customer Development you can buy. As all of you know, Steve Blank is the progenitor of Customer Development and author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany. You can imagine how well that worked. On the plus side, that means its a great deal. I think theyve succeeded.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

” Below are our favorite pieces from the past few years, divided in to a few key categories: fundraising, company building, product development, industry trends, and the life of a VC. The Shape of Traction “First, founders tend to over-estimate how good a product needs to be before you start to see meaningful traction.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2021

Usually these people think they are doing a great job, and are totally oblivious to their unhappy customers or cash drain. An example of this would be finger pointing at unfair managers, blaming economic downturns, and irrational customer expectations for missed commitments. Use blame and complain in lieu of accepting accountability.

Leadership 410

Leadership Employee Metrics Restful 410

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 30, 2011

times more likely to spend more than one standard deviation above the average on customer acquisition. Inconsistent startup outsource 4-5 times as much of their product development than consistent startups. In the validation phase, where startups should be testing demand for a functional product, inconsistent startups are 2.2

Silicon Valley 189

Silicon Valley Software Review Startup Cofounder 189

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

On the other hand, if you arrive at a VC pitch without a comprehensive understanding of the industry you’re hoping to compete in, or without a clear path to profitability or a thoughtful product-development road map, you’ll likely leave empty-handed. Investors want to feel confident that they’ll see a return on their investment.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Women Entrepreneurs Can

OCTOBER 19, 2021

While there is an element of innovation needed to be successful, you also need to keep in mind the customers that you are serving, and the experience they will endure with your software. When designing and building software, it is easy to get carried away with fancy features that will help you stand out in the market.

Software 59

Software Software Developers Software Development Hiring 59

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Switch your focus from product development to sales. Explosive growth to an enterprise normally requires a scalable sales model, a well-documented process with incentives, training, and metrics for tracking and management. Of course, customer relationships, and penetration into new market segments are also critical elements.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2020

Some make big mistakes, such as Webvan expanding too fast with a huge infrastructure, and Pets.com , trying to grow the business with a negative margin, under the mistaken assumption that winning customers is more important than making a profit. Introduce new products and enhancements every month. Ask every employee to focus on sales.

Social Media 329

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 329

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

Here are key maxims that I believe indicate a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset: A need to learn from customers, rather than educate them. Successful entrepreneurs start with a customer problem, and develop a solution, rather than the other way around. Develop market insights and a growth vision far beyond today.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Metrics Hosting Leadership 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 5, 2010

In the quest for optimization, A/B tests, metrics, and funnels, we're in danger of losing the fun and value of creative work. When we demand overwhelming customer outcry before committing to the slightest product change, we're in danger of losing the value of creating a cool feature that takes too much effort but people just love.

Software Review 226

Software Review Metrics Lean Algorithm 226

Version One Ventures

APRIL 11, 2019

Value to customers. Above all, the purpose of product development is to create value for customers. Therefore one of the most important ways to evaluate code is whether it provides value to customers. Before even a line of code is written, our product team conducts customer research to get and vet product ideas.

Part-Time VPE 100

Part-Time VPE Software Review Engineer Technical Review 100

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, September 14, 2008 How to listen to customers, and not just the loud people Frequency is more important than talking to the "right" customers, especially early on. Youll know when the person youre talking to is not a potential customer - they just wont understand what youre saying.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Customer Lean Continuous Deployment 131

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Customer service and support.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Minimum viable products (MVPs) are recommended for validating the market, with iterative enhancement to quickly meet market feedback. Building your public image and presence should start even before product development, through your website, logo, and blogging.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

Traction and evidence from customers were what investors were looking for – even in “slow” sectors like healthcare and energy. The disadvantage is that its methodology was based on the old waterfall model of product development and not the agile and lean methods that startups use today. And there it was. Berkeley-wide.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. Further Reading.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

ConversionXL

APRIL 17, 2019

Conversations with prospects or customers can improve practically every metric or user state model you’re aiming for. As Jen Havice noted here on the CXL blog , insights from customer interviews can: Accelerate the customer journey; Increase conversions; Drive more leads, sales, and revenue. Under “What’s Missing?,”

Customer 120

Customer Framework Conversion Search 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 13, 2009 The Principles of Product Development Flow If youve ever wondered why agile or lean development techniques work, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald G. Reinertsen is the book for you.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2014

As an entrepreneur raised in the era of analytics, I want to find metrics for everything. PopInShop’s progress retroactively validated my decision, as the metrics on overall growth supported my gut: after reverting to my status as a lone founder, the company made fast strides on product development and partnerships.

Partner 113

Partner Cofounder Equity Metrics 113