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Lessons Learned: Customer Development Engineering

Startup Lessons Learned

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. I havent had to work this model under those conditions, so I cant say anything definitive.

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The Small Business Guide To SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in 2017

crowdSPRING Blog

If you’re moving slowly or have yet to implement search engine optimization (SEO) strategies as part of your overall marketing efforts, you’re falling behind your competitors. SEO strategies, if done properly, can definitely help you do this. Image Source: SEO Linkbuilding. Define Conversions Properly.

SEO 48
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Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Startup Lessons Learned

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." In this model, you take some fraction of the lifetime value of each customer and plow that back into paid acquisition through SEM, banner ads, PR, affiliates, etc.

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Why Misunderstanding Startup Metrics Can Cost You Your Business

Both Sides of the Table

So if you paid $100 for a customer who converted via a Facebook ad or Google search ad (SEM) that is not your CAC. In general I find that raising large amounts of money when you haven’t figured it out ends up papering over problems more then helping solve fundamental issues in the business.

Metrics 150
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Freelancing is the new normal: oDesk and the future of the workforce marketplace

The Next Web

In our customer service team we have a hundred freelancers, in our trust and safety team we have another hundred, in our engineering team we have close to 150. Our own engineering team working for oDesk is made up primarily of Russians and Ukrainians. The competition was intended for software developers from Russia and Ukraine.

Russia 151
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Many Websites Look Like Zombies to Google Search

Startup Professionals Musings

I should have added that a website not optimized for search engines is lost in the heap of a billion dead websites. Search engines are programmed to rank websites based on their popularity and relevancy. The solution is keeping your site alive and vital, and following basic search engine optimization (SEO) suggestions.

Search 233
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Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

We lack a consistent and clear definition of the job. So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering. But since I spent a long time in a hybrid CTO/VP Engineering role, I still have this nagging question. Ive tried hard not to live up (or down?) to those stereotypes, but its not easy. Heres my take.

CTO 168