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. Finance is about reporting on historical performance and future planning through the lens of financial metrics.” Developing Your Product.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

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. Ive attempted to embed the relevant slides below. Talk about waste.

Customer Development 131

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Then there is the pressure to go public ( IPO ), and open your investment to thousands, maybe millions, of small investors. Switch your focus from product development to sales. Now is the time to start buying your competitors, rather than just crushing them, or trying to develop enough new products internally to overrun them.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

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. I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

You’ll find exceptions to this rule, like Snapchat, which was operating at a loss at its IPO, when it experienced high initial trading prices due to its huge popularity and untapped monetization capabilities. Another important metric is churn. Develop a Plan to Separate You From the Business.

Valuation 145

Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? Steve Blank has devoted many years now to trying to answer that question, with a theory he calls Customer Development. You can learn about customer development, and quite a bit more, in Steves book The Four Steps to the Epiphany.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

On top of all this it was considered very bad form not to have at least four additional consecutive quarters of profits after an IPO.) The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down. Tech acquisitions went crazy at the same time the IPO market did.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 15, 2010 Some IPO speculation Inspired by Steve Blank’s post today about the “lost decade&# of IPO’s , I’d like to make some predictions. The fact that IPO’s are disappearing makes intuitive sense to me. Let me be clear: Steve is the historian.

IPO 166

IPO San Francisco Lean Silicon Valley 166

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 25, 2011

Interesting perspective on LinkedIn’s IPO – arguing that the IPO price was reasonable – [link]. And here’s another side – suggesting that LinkedIn shareholders might have been scammed in the IPO – [link]. Optimizing Emotional Engagement In Web Design Through Metrics – [link].

Social Media 86

Social Media Small Business Design Media 86

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Its a key lean startup concept.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

BeyondVC

APRIL 4, 2018

Look at the Dropbox IPO which priced above its initial value and came out white hot at the end of one of the worst weeks in stock market performance. There will also still be some amazing companies that raise their Series C, D and beyond funding rounds with scaling metrics. Rise of multi-cloud.

Cloud 60

Cloud Agile Architecture Azure 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 1, 2008 Test-Driven Development as andon cord You cannot control what you cannot see, and the hardest part of managing software projects is that the final product is so intangible. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Developer Continuous Deployment DC 68

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Generating liquidity usually entails either selling the venture or an IPO. The goal is to gather a skill set around that table that reflects the next level of maturity of the business, and to regularly refresh it as the business scales up and needs a different skill set for each stage of its development. pivot the business.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

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

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 18, 2013

Thanks To Facebook, Strongest Year For IPOs Since 2000 With $21.5 The 6 Marketing Metrics Your CEO Actually Cares About [Cheat Sheet] | Hubspot Blog - [link]. The 6 Marketing Metrics Your CEO Actually Cares About [Cheat Sheet] | Hubspot Blog - [link]. 5 Design Tips Every Developer Should Know | Treehouse Blog – [link].

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

He says that one is too lonely, two is good and three is a great number if they can combine their skills to cover design, development and distribution. Kedrosky: "In the 90's I was an analyst through all this [tech investment and IPO] madness. You want to build your own IPO and exit. How to Hack the Investment World.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 4, 2010

Kent is a significant figure in the field of software development. Kent is a significant figure in the field of software development. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Our mystery keynote is now revealed and I couldnt be more excited.

Agile 99

Agile Software Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 99

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

In 2001 companies IPO’d very quickly if they were working, by 2011 IPOs had slowed down to the point that in 2013 Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures astutely called billion-dollar outcomes “unicorns.” At the time I wasn’t 100% sure but he made compelling arguments about how other markets have developed as they matured so I took note.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

This is the first post that moves into making specific process recommendations for product development. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? Labels: product development Speed up or slow down? Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Software Review 141

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 8, 2010 Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Review) The next article in my series on entrepreneurship for Harvard Business Review is live today. Once again, we revisit the topic of Actionable metrics and their nemesis: Vanity metrics. Remember "metrics are people, too."

Metrics 121

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 121

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

I've previously addressed the role of a CTO in early-stages in my post Startup CTO or Developer. for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build? for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build? How can I control costs but effectively get stuff developed? Accounting?

CTO Hire 231

CTO Hire Technical Review Developer Software Review 231

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ▼ June (3) What is a startup?

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” There are certain topics that even some of the best journalists can’t fully grok. One of them is profitability. Investors value growth.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

But by taking advantage of open source, agile software, and iterative development, lean startups can operate with much less waste. I am heavily indebted to earlier theorists, and highly recommend the books Lean Thinking and Lean Software Development. Labels: customer development , lean startup 8comments: Amy said.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. NextView Ventures: Thinking back to before anyone knew HubSpot or the company was headed towards an IPO, where did you even start to market the company?

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

The goal is to have split-testing be a continuous part of our development process, so much so that it is considered a completely routine part of developing a new feature. Focus on the output metrics of that part of the product, and you make the problem a lot more clear. This is not what I have in mind.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 17, 2014

One way to suss this out – ask the co-workers about the metrics or key performance indicators they owned. You want to see someone who has hustle in them, and can develop a point of view in advance of an employment offer. Use LinkedIn and your network to find people who worked with him or her. Who did they report to?

IPO 86

IPO Cofounder Hiring Reputation 86

ConversionXL

AUGUST 13, 2019

SaaS sales and marketing teams can get overwhelmed by metrics. But without any metrics, it’s impossible to track growth. If growth is the best way to get out alive, marketing metrics do little unless they correlate with sales. According to Gartner , three metrics form the foundation for those growth levers: (Image source).

Metrics 117

Metrics SQL Retention Churn Rate 117

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Behind this analysis is a spreadsheet model, complete with detailed metrics for a set of customer behaviors that show just how valuable the new product will be. They are long-term bets on the development of a new line of business, a new technology platform, or the creation of a new market.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, October 5, 2008 The product managers lament Life is not easy when youre working in an old-fashioned waterfall development process, no matter what role you play. I met one recently that is working on a really innovative product, and the stories I heard from their development team made me want to cringe.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Management Software Review Product 158

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). I certainly bear no ill will to the various firms that ultimately passed on our fundraise… as a seed stage VC myself now I can appreciate how hard it is evaluating companies at the earliest stages of development. We’ve been lucky.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

After all, the worst kind of waste in software development is code to support a use case that never materializes. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Thoughts on scientific product development Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you? Seth Godin: How often should you publish?

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean 94

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2012

IPO stands for Initial Public Offering, and is the first sale of a private stock to the public. Most recently, the mass media has been concerned with the Facebook IPO. EBITDA, or Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, is a metric of measurement of cash earnings that is generally non-GAAP.

Non-disclosure Agreement 202

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA IPO Covenant 202

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now A great checklist of techniques and tools for making your development more agile, written from a Rail perspective.

Software Review 68

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

With Airbnb’s IPO, I thought the time was right to take a look back at the past decade (Greylock led Airbnb’s Series A in November 2010) and reflect on what I learned from the journey. it took years for Airbnb’s metrics to really start accelerating. This essay is based on a Greymatter podcast episode, which you can listen to here.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69