Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Yet it always amazes me that I can find two different startups, seemingly working on the same problem, with one having a burn rate several times higher than the other. They understand startup realities. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems. Indeed, Silicon Valley was born as a center for weapon systems development and its software and silicon helped end the Cold War.

Government 308

Government Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley North Korea 308

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

Then as your business grows, you’ve already established a culture of good engineering practices, you already have the senior staff up to speed, and you’ll find it easy to attract more talent. NVV: Startups are all about tradeoffs, and engineering is a great example. You can reach Isaac on Twitter @icambron.

Technology 334

Technology Ruby Startup Engineer 334

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2019

Yet I believe that many more have benefited from this approach, especially in early startup stages. If your product is highly innovative, and speed to market is critical, you won’t get it right the first time anyway, no matter how cautiously you plan.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Startup Cost Product Development 233

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Final startup grind from msuster. And the folks at Startup Grind have been kind enough to invite me to present this morning in Mountain View on the topic. PMs are a vital part of a tech startup. Engineering is critical but it is not everything. And what your views / tips for early-stage startup teams are.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

For example, Artem is an expert in software engineering, product development and all things tech. It’s important for co-founders to each have their own personal strengths in a business so they can divide the responsibilities and succeed in their respective roles.

Cofounder 217

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Engineering Startup 217

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 21, 2013

Creators of new products in environments of extreme uncertainty, startups face enormous risks. As a startup owner, what can you do to improve your chances? Through rapid experimentation, short product development cycles, and rigorous measurements of the right metrics, they can ascertain what customers really want.

Lean 193

Lean Technical Review North America Startup 193

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. This engineering manager is a smart guy, and very experienced.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Yet it always amazes me that I can find two different startups, seemingly working on the same problem, with one having a burn rate several times higher than the other. They understand startup realities. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2022

Yet I believe that many more have benefited from this approach, especially in early startup stages. If your product is highly innovative, and speed to market is critical, you won’t get it right the first time anyway, no matter how cautiously you plan.

Marketing 302

Marketing Technical Review Cost Product Development 302

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 1, 2019

Startups are all the rage these days with innovative minds coming up with novel ideas and transforming them into reality. But wanting to materialize a product or service and sustaining its operations are two different things. When you’re heading a fast-paced startup, you can’t waste time managing everyday activities.

Software Review 113

Software Review Startup Azure SEO 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. Can this methodology be used for startups that are not exclusively about software?

Customer Development 131

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

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

femgineer.com

JULY 18, 2010

HOME About the Femgineer Speaking Engagements Reading List Recruiting Startup Engineers With the startup market taking off, there is always a clamor to find good engineers, developers, and designers. Engineers love to build, solve tough problems, and make progress. When to start recruiting?

Engineer 41

Engineer Software Review Startup Technical Review 41

YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2020

You envision your business as the next Uber or Spotify, yourself as the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, reaching that prestigious ‘unicorn’ startup status in record time. Like most entrepreneurs, you’ve probably mapped out the business plan, dreamed up the layout and you’re already snapping up domains and emailing developers with your plan.

Product 264

Product Cofounder Audience Product Development 264

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. Some startups hire more people to delay automation, or spend money wildly on new tools for the future. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Launching your startup in a down economy doesn’t make it any less likely to last. Two conditions that do matter to your startup’s out-year viability are the cost and length of its product development cycle. Surprisingly, macroeconomic trends have minimal impact on long-term business survival rates.

Cost 100

Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2013

Yet I believe that many more have benefited from this approach, especially in early startup stages. If your product is highly innovative, and speed to market is critical, you won’t get it right the first time anyway, no matter how cautiously you plan. business early execution entrepreneur planning ready-fire-aim startup'

Startup 250

Startup Technical Review Cost Entrepreneur 250

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

Like a teenager with a million-dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a startup with too much capital and no product-market fit will become capable of making larger mistakes. As an investor, I root for startups. Before you indulge in marketing, sales and blinged-out offices, find product-market fit.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Yet it always amazes me that I can find two different startups, seemingly working on the same problem, with one having a burn rate several times higher than the other. They understand startup realities. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

YoungUpstarts

JULY 16, 2019

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. To calculate precisely how much you need to spend on that, analyze the following factors: Developers’ seniority.

eCommerce 113

eCommerce Software Developers Software Development Hosting 113

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

blog.wepay.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

» 6 Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup By Rich Aberman Despite the obvious look of shock and panic on the faces of my WePay teammates, I recently committed my first lines of production code. Even for non-startups, though, the software is never finished. It also pisses off engineers.

Engineer 53

Engineer Software Review Web Technical Review 53

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 26, 2022

Businesses have a lot to think about when they have a new product idea and one missed step in the product development lifecycle can significantly impact business success. If your product has 200 parts, then there are more than 200 spec sheets to get familiar with and organize for the submission.

Design 133

Design Development Team Review Product Technical Review 133

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2020

Every entrepreneur and startup loves you, but too many forget that every potential customer is not like you. Unfortunately, even today many engineers and product developers believe that marketing is just for advertisements. Engineers and early adopters always love more options, even if some are esoteric or rarely used.

Kentucky 354

Kentucky Startup China Global 354

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

The Forrest Four-Cast: February 7, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Our team is experienced with over 150 years of research and software product development experience that includes five startups and an exit.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Technical Review Malta Startup 48

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 8, 2008 The lean startup Ive been thinking for some time about a term that could encapsulate trends that are changing the startup landscape. After some trial and error, Ive settled on the Lean Startup. Of course, many startups are capital efficient and generally frugal.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite of a startup if you don’t hold any. Here’s how I learned why they were critical to successful customer development. This post previously appeared in EIX.

Business Model 305

Business Model Product Development Early Stage Customer Development 305

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 19, 2017

by Steve Owens, Founder and CTO of Finish Line Product Development Services. In this article we explore the unique challenges of a lean start-up and how Outsourced Product Development (OPD) can be used to overcome them. Reducing product turn time. Extending the runway. The Lean Start-Up Environment.

Product Development 153

Product Development Lean Developer Product 153

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

We interviewed the heads of the top Web and mobile development companies, incubators, agencies and labs to understand what it takes to design and develop the most successful apps of our generation. Here are their breakdowns of the costs and time investments to create 10 of the world’s hottest startups. million to develop.”.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

blog.wepay.com

APRIL 28, 2010

» 6 Things a Non-Engineer Should Know Before Founding a Web Startup By Rich Aberman Despite the obvious look of shock and panic on the faces of my WePay teammates, I recently committed my first lines of production code. Even for non-startups, though, the software is never finished. It also pisses off engineers.

Engineer 53

Engineer Software Review Web Technical Review 53

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

As a startup co-founder with a growing team, here are the recruiting tips I’ve learnt over the last couple of years. You need to sell them on why your startup is the best. As an example, the reasons we provide to prospective engineers are 1. This is something we have previously underestimated at our startup.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 24, 2014

Do you want the product, or does your target market want the product? When I began developing the customer search engine SocialCentiv using Twitter, I envisioned the project as an add-on to our already popular SocialCompass. Professionalisms Adam Root Hiplogiq product development startup'

Fractional CTO 228

Fractional CTO Product CTO Hire Merger 228

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

If you’re interested in recruiting sales people, I wrote on the topic of startup sales people: who to hire & when – understanding the roles of Journeymen, Mavericks & Superstars. Evangelical sales – Understanding startup sales people and process. Also, this goes equally for business development.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 30, 2008 What does a startup CTO actually do? When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168