A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 21, 2009

In the last post I beat you to death about ditching your business plan but failed to provide an alternative. Okay okay, "Planning == Bad," but the supposed benefits of planning are still important: designing for profitability, understanding your customers and competitors, focusing your attention, deciding what's worth doing next, changing directions, and ensuring the founders agree on important issues.

Startup 315

Startup Revenue Cofounder Sales 315

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 9, 2009

I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. The mess really comes from a developer who was willing to get started on a product that was not fully thought out. I always take a very different approach in early conversations. If I’m being asked to do startup software development, I’m going to push fairly hard on key questions that the startup needs to have answered before

Software Developers 292

Software Developers Software Development Developer Software 292

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. 2. Street Smarts - OK, so you’re a tenacious person – you never give up.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

Startup

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why vanity metrics are dangerous In a previous post, I defined two kinds of metrics: vanity metrics and actionable metrics. In that post, I took it for granted that vanity metrics are bad for you, and focused on techniques for creating and learning from actionable metrics. In this post, Id like to talk about the perils of vanity metrics.

Metrics 167

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Tim Keane

DECEMBER 14, 2009

'Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. Home. Archives. Profile. Subscribe. « Does the world need "tough" entrepreneurial coaches? | Main. | How To Change The World » December 14, 2009. Starting Startups. So, Paul Graham is a brainiac.  He is a partner in a pretty much exclusively software seed stage fund, Y Combinator that you can read more about.  He writes challenging essays at paulgraham.com

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Angel Groups Seed Stage Startup 60

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Just saw a great post by Mark Geller - Developers wanted… in Los Angeles, U.S.A. (you can get to know Mark a bit more in my post Product Manager Entrepreneur Mark Geller ). Mark tells us: there is a lot of demand for developers right here in L.A. If you have solid web skills and a few years experience, either with a commercial company or running your own legit projects, there are dozens of companies in L.A. who would love to talk with you.

Software Developers 150

Software Developers Software Development Software Developer 150

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2009

Early on in my career I took a “we’re moving too fast to deal with lawyers” attitude to patents and Intellectual Property (IP.) That changed when I joined the board of a startup, and we sued Microsoft and Sony on the same day for patent infringement – and won $120 million. A few caveats, this post is not legal advice, it’s not even advice, and it deals with law in the United States.

Intellectual Property 213

Intellectual Property IP Software Review Non-disclosure Agreement 213

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. I then covered Street Smarts. 3. Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Term Sheet Early Stage Affiliate 291

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 28, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 28, 2009 Continuous deployment for mission-critical applications Having evangelized the concept of continuous deployment for the past few years, Ive come into contact with almost every conceivable question, objection, or concern that people have about it. The most common reaction I get is something like, "that sounds great - for your business - but that could never work for my application.

Continuous Deployment 122

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Metrics 122

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 1, 2009

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Tuesday, December 01, 2009. Cloudonomics and 2010 Planning for your SaaS and Cloud Computing business. As we get close to the end of the year, I thought it would be interesting to put together a post on how to approach the 2010 planning.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Europe 48

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 14, 2009

"You need a business plan" is the mantra of MBA types. As they say , businesses don't plan to fail, they fail to plan! Who could argue with such a clever turn of phrase? Let's do some quotes: "Without a business plan, how will you know whether you can make a profit?" ( source ). "A complete business plan should include five-year financial projections.

Business Plan 312

Business Plan Salary Finance Web 312

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 16, 2009

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Startup Marketing Part 1: Losing People Through the Bottom of Your Funnel Startup Marketing Part 3: The Nine Levels of Traffic Quality → The Two iPhone App Stores, Lessons from a “Pay What You Want&# Sale, Lessons of Failure, and more… Cool News, Links & Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Sales 37

Sales Software Review RSS Software Developers 37

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 21, 2009

Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers. We Hired the CFO. Last week as a favor to a friend, I sat in on a board meeting of a fairly successful 3½ year-old startup. Given all that could go wrong in this economy, they were doing well. Their business had just crossed cash flow breakeven, had grown past 50 employees, just raised a substantive follow-on round of financing and had recently hired a Chief Financial Offi

Engineer 335

Engineer Valuation Hiring Stock 335

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. Yesterday I had lunch with a really interesting and capable serial entrepreneur who is raising his A round. The topic of &# strategic&# investors came up. It felt like Groundhog Day because I have this conversation again and again – literally dozens of times each year. And I had 2 “strategic&# investors in my first company.

Strategic Investors 279

Strategic Investors Venture Capital Due Diligence Early Stage 279

Altgate

DECEMBER 17, 2009

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← 2009 Startup Executive Compensation Survey Results More “Open Source&# Legal Tools → Some Practical Advice on Executive Compensation at Startups Posted on December 17, 2009 by fnazeeri Because it's that season (bonus season, not holiday season) I've been getting questions about executive compensation from friends.  But today I got an interesting ques

Venture Capital 47

Venture Capital Metrics Startup Software Review 47

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 7, 2009

I talk to a lot of founders of startups. My initial conversations normally focus on the core of the business, important Startup Metrics , probably marketing strategy (ex. SEO for Startups and Negative Customer Acquisition Costs ) and, of course, the product itself. Normally the product is defined as a web site. Most founders are fairly passionate about the features and functions of the web site, iPhone application, Facebook application, or whatever web application represents the product.

Web 150

Web SMS HTML Distribution 150

Seeing Both Sides

DECEMBER 3, 2009

  A lot has been written in the last week about the scandal at Canopy Financial , a venture-backed, high-flying start-up that attracted $75 million in capital at increasingly higher prices from top-tier firms, only to come crashing down in a dust of rubble and fraud.   The VC community suffered a very similar scandal at Seattle-based Entellium last year, but few reporters seem to remember that one, perhaps because it wasn't located in the heart of Silicon Valley as Canopy was. &#

Technical Review 31

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley SEC 31

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 2, 2009

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Passion as a Competitive Advantage Darth Vader is My Father…and I’m on Twitter → Book Recommendations – The Best Marketing Books of All Time Cool News, Links & Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Software Review 27

Software Review RSS Marketing Software Developers 27

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Gathering real-world feedback from customers is a core concept of Customer Development as well as the Lean Startup. But what information to collect? Only 57 Questions. Yesterday I got an email from an ex-student lamenting that only 2% of their selected early testers responded to their on-line survey. The survey said in part: The survey has 57 questions, the last three of which are open ended, and should take about 20 minutes to complete.

Metrics 239

Metrics Customer Customer Development Lean 239

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences. This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate. Right after Techcrunch50 Michael Arrington wrote this great post on how to interact at business events and conferences.

Email 322

Email Hosting Boston Partner 322

Rembrandt Communications

DECEMBER 31, 2009

We are starting 2010 in a challenging, economic environment. But it’s not the time to give up and stop pursuing your career goals and dream lifestyle. Instead, use this negativity as a driving force to promote yourself and make things better for you and your family in the future. “Companies always need people who know how [.].

Public Relations 113

Public Relations SEO Sales Marketing 113

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 10, 2009

The other day I met with an entrepreneur I was advising as he prepared to raise his next round of funding. In the meeting, he wanted me to narrow in and focus on his financial model. Financial models for startups are important from a big picture perspective, but I never like to get mired in the full details as things always change in the early stages.

Churn Rate 112

Churn Rate Burn Rate Startup Metrics 112

Occam's Razor

DECEMBER 9, 2009

It is rare for me to work with a organization where the root cause for their faith based decision making (rather than data driven) was not the org structure. It is almost never tools. Not any more. Surprisingly it is often not their will to use data, that is there in many cases. Sometimes it is that they don't follow the 10/90 rule. It is always the organization structure.

Analytics 95

Analytics Framework Web Lean 95

VC Cafe

DECEMBER 29, 2009

Wibiya's toolbar gets a massive upgrade, goes public. Initially Wibiya launched with a small but well designed selection of built in “apps” into its toolbar including recent posts, sharing options, Facebook fan page and Twitter functionality. Today, after months of work and partnership negotiations, Wibiya is available to the public.

Design 75

Design 75

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 149

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 21, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. I then covered Street Smarts , Ability to Pivot , Resiliency and Inspiration.

San Jose 290

San Jose Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Los Angeles 290

Rembrandt Communications

DECEMBER 23, 2009

Congratulations! You’ve made it through the unique challenges 2009 had to offer small business owners, and now it’s time to celebrate. With this in mind, here are a few tips to have a G-R-E-A-T holiday: G: Give Back To The Community. Volunteer to help a local charity. Donate your used clothing and other items to [.].

Community 113

Community Small Business Public Relations PR 113

Babbling VC

DECEMBER 2, 2009

This post is very much directed at early stage companies in Germany as this is where I'm seeing it the most. Too many entrepreneurs are scared to take decisions. They are too often looking to their VC's to get consensus. I've seen this case both in portfolio companies where we've already invested as well as from targets we are considering for investment.

Management 72

Management Germany Early Stage Portfolio 72

Occam's Razor

DECEMBER 21, 2009

You know what is the one thing stopping you from finding truly actionable insights from your web data? Web analytics gems lie deep in the data and we spend our lives looking at the top ten rows of data. It does not matter which report you look at. Affiliates. Products sold. Referring URL's. Pages viewed. Search keywords. Promotions. Geographies.

Analytics 94

Analytics Metrics Cloud Web 94

VC Cafe

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Advice for Start up CEOS: Learn Your ABC (Always Be Closing). Lots of consumer Internet start ups won’t survive 2010 without taking a similar approach to Blake's in Glengarry Glen Ross. Imagine that your investors told you that you’re fired from the CEO role of the company you have founded with blood, sweat and tears. They do however give you a week to win your job back.

Internet 75

Internet 75

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2009

No posts until January. Time off for the holidays, out hiking at the ranch and getting ready for Stanford (E-145 and MS&E 178/278) and Berkeley (MBA 295) classes.

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140

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. I was reading one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs, VentureHacks, this weekend and noticed that they are running a long piece on how to pick a co-founder. If you’ve read my blog for a while you’ll know that I’m a fan of starting businesses in a non-traditional way. I recommend that you start a company by yourself and own 100% of it.

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

Rembrandt Communications

DECEMBER 17, 2009

If you are trying to save money and start the New Year off right, there may be a secret problem lurking in your business. With the stress of trying to balance a budget, pay bills, obtain new customers, and have a life outside of the office, it can be easy to overlook one key element [.].

Customer 113

Customer Media 113

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 9, 2009

There’s a big difference between your vision for your company, your mission and your goal. Your vision tells the world what you want to be as you contemplate in advance how you will change the world for the better. Your mission merely states who you are and what you do. It is used to limit and sift your opportunities to keep you from using resources for projects outside of your core, your mission.

Email 67

Email Employee Developer Marketing 67

Tim Keane

DECEMBER 30, 2009

'Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. Home. Archives. Profile. Subscribe. « Starting Startups | Main. | Power of Angel Investing in Milwaukee » December 30, 2009. How To Change The World. Top Ten Ways To Change The World. (from a new social entrepreneurship Honors Symposium, “How To Change The World,” Fall, 2009 at Marquette University).

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Milwaukee Angel Investor Committed Capital 60