article thumbnail

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. Its a nice complement on the product engineering side to his customer development methodology.

article thumbnail

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.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: The lean startup

Startup Lessons Learned

But by taking advantage of open source, agile software, and iterative development, lean startups can operate with much less waste. One that is powered by three drivers, each of which is a part of a major trend: The use of platforms enabled by open source and free software. What are the characteristics of a lean startup?

Lean 168
article thumbnail

eCommerce: A VC Story [guest post]

VC Cafe

They are accustomed to more frictionless buying, easier payments, smarter recommendation engines, sharper display (product images, 3D, HD), short fulfillment time, and excellent customer service. Just look at the history of computer hardware retail, for example, in considering the potential for other eCommerce sectors.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

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. If not, whos going to insist we switch to free and open source software? I mean, have you seen other people? They might do anything ! Heres my take.

CTO 168
article thumbnail

The Cost Equation for a Startup is Better Than Ever

Startup Professionals Musings

Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars. Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) yourself. Skip the IT consultants and build an entry website yourself to save $50K. Sales and marketing costs.

Cost 255
article thumbnail

Reincubate: Blog: Chief Technology Officer job description (for web, start-up or corporate)

www.reincubate.com

Start-ups often hire at one extreme -- closer to a Lead Developer or VP of Engineering -- whereas corporates may focus on their CIO, which is potentially quite a different role. Hold responsibility for IT governance of platform & services, including telecommunications, networks, infrastructure, engineering, media, and architecture.