Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

Names have, of course, been changed to protect the innocent: Hope youre well; I thought Id relay a recent experience and thank you. Another question that always comes up when talking about customer development, is whether VCs and other financial backers are embracing this way of building companies. Take a look and let me know what you think.

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Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

It’s easy to overestimate the impact of this kind of traffic because it just feels good to have your name and company featured. It strokes your ego. You might get a bunch of inbound emails from other press and partners, and all of these things can contribute to a feeling that you’re on your way to getting tons of traffic.

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

I want to thank Techstars for putting this event together and giving me a chance to experience the scene, even if it lacks a name. Traveling to new startup hubs is one of my favorite things about being able to do this full-time. For what its worth, I like Silicon Mountain. Brad Feld also had some thoughts on this event on his blog.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

I think Jim Murphys confusion comes where many peoples did, with the XP term "Customer", which was XPs name for the product management role. That naming issue aside, I think its probably good that Scrum and XP didnt really say much about how to manage products. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

If she is, return the name of the hypothesis she was exposed to before. Return the name of the hypothesis chosen or assigned. From the point of view of the caller of the function, they just pass in the name of the experiment and its various hypotheses. Check if the currently logged-in user is part of this experiment already.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

In 2007, BusinessWeek named Ries one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech and in 2009 he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. He previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2010

I was once asked by a division manager of a major software company why we were not selling more products in Finland. He did not seem to understand that Finland was not part of Scandinavia and that English is not too well understood by most people there (with the exception of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland).

Brazil 121

Brazil Finland Silicon Valley Italy 121

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Accept that many successful companies are going to want to be backed by big-name firms in other cities. Then, create an encouraging environment for early-stage companies. You dont need massive amounts of capital available for VC investment - modest amounts will do. Instead, focus on getting them ready for that stage.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Its had tremendous impact in many areas: continuous deployment , just-in-time scalability , and even search engine marketing , to name a few. Of all of the insights Ive contributed to the companies Ive worked at over the years, the one I am most proud of is the importance of working in small batches.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

The book takes its name from Steves theory of the four stages of growth any startup goes through. Or, you might start to iterate the concept, each time testing it against the set of facts that youve been collecting about potential customers. You dont have to wait to iterate until after the splashy high-burn launch.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned quite a few of these, including these most important ones: having engineers post on the forums in their own name when they make a change routinely split-testing new changes routinely conducting in-person usability tests and interviews Net Promoter Score Each of these techniques is fundamentally bottoms-up.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

The Startup Magazine

JULY 29, 2021

The SaaS startup out of Sweden was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies last year and has recently been getting a lot of buzz from music publications, including Billboard , for its pioneering work in the B2B music streaming space. Ola: Soundtrack Your Brand started up as a joint venture with Spotify.

Founder 156

Founder B2C B2B Audio 156

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Much of what I have found effective is counter-intuitive, because it requires investing more effort in each hire - all in the name of efficiency. Its one of the hardest things to see while its happening, and its one of the hardest mistakes to undo, because of the human and emotional costs of layoffs.

Lean 140

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

We're starting our new business, fanminder.com, to help small merchants instantly communicate with their customers, and I'm increasingly hearing your name and reading your keen insights. I also think you're spot-on with the solution - viewing spreadsheets as big holes to fill in with early learnings.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Now, in some situations, this over-selling would lead to a secondary problem, namely, that customers would realize they had been duped and refuse to re-subscribe. This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

Ive previously named his post Achieving Flow in a Lean Startup as one of my favorite blog posts of 2009. Ive previously named his post Achieving Flow in a Lean Startup as one of my favorite blog posts of 2009. What follows is his own account of the challenges he faced as well as the solutions he adopted, lightly edited for style.

Continuous Deployment 151

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Wiki 151

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

But we were cutting corners in the development methodology as well as in the code, in the name of increased speed. a is name, b is address, and c is tax percentage. Even worse, agile wasnt really helping me ship higher quality software. We were using it to get features to market faster, and that was working well.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

So far, this is all an academic exercise in naming - but I think it has an important real-world effect. When we work on a product that takes many years to design and build, it natural to start seeing design decisions on a linear scale - because the product's purpose is clear and relatively stable throughout.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

If youre a startup investor, and you support the goals of the Startup Visa proposal, wed like you lend your name to our efforts. If youre a startup investor, and you support the goals of the Startup Visa proposal, wed like you lend your name to our efforts. You can read about the latest iteration of the proposal at StartupVisa.com.

San Francisco 118

San Francisco DC Startup Lean 118

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

MVP, despite the name, is not about creating minimal products. Alan mentions above what I believe is the critical learning element your team needs to gain insight into via the Minimum Viable Product, Compelling Product Offering or other named approach. Some caveats right off the bat. There is a distinction between product and offering.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2009

As Im pontificating about agile, I see the name Kent Beck in my peripheral vision. Eric Names matter. By pulling in a web of associations, names help people quickly assess ideas. There is a dark side to naming. The naming question has been raised about the "lean" in Lean Startups. Eric Names matter.

Lean 140

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 140

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli

JUNE 9, 2010

Aim for educated countries that speak fluent english instead like Norway, Finland, etc… Fine grained Facebook ads The Facebook ads platform is a different paradigm from Google Adwords advertising. Long tail keywords (generally at least three words) have less traffic, but they are also cheaper. Yes, using the Pages criteria.

Norway 46

Norway South Africa Finland Ruby 46

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

The same is true of brand-name products in almost every category (and it can be measured ). This is always true, because modern economies have become increasingly virtual over the years. Why do Citizens of Humanity jeans cost $200 , when physically similar pants can be had for one-tenth the price? Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 102

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 2, 2010

I had come across a guy from the US named Michael Rhattigan who had transfered from the Chicago office to a place called Sophia Antipolis in the south of France (mid way between Nice & Cannes). He introduced me to a senior guy from the “network solutions&# practice, a Dutchman named Valentijn Bonger.

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Europe France San Francisco Chicago 352

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

My name is Reid Hoffman. For example, in Finland, broadband Internet access is enshrined as a legal right—because the Finnish government recognizes how important Internet access is now to personal and professional development. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Excellencies: Good morning.

Networking 28

Networking Chile Government Global 28

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Pivotal Labs doesn't carry "Pivot" in its name by accident. I'm glad there's a 'name' for this part of the process Eric. Thank you for your nice posting. I am very happy while reading your blog. August 24, 2009 1:42 AM RubyFocus Groups said. I like this term. September 27, 2009 4:08 PM Patti said.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

All the good domain names were taken, all the good ideas were being implemented. If Id bought just a handful of the "best of the rest" domain names that were available at the time (for a whopping $70 each), I probably could have just retired right then. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

If necessary, consider doing this under a different brand name than the one you are wedded to using. Dont do PR upfront, dont put out a press release. Figure out how to launch quietly, so you can find out what your retention and referral rates are going to be. Its like knowing the future. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 24, 2020

And I don't know if this is related to his work as a science fiction author or not, Hannu has the ability to see the big picture and so he has put together this proposal for a vaccine Manhattan Project, taking inspiration for it's name from the legendary science project that led to the creation of the Atomic Bomb. I grew up in Finland.

Founder 60

Founder Technical Review Leadership Software Review 60

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli

JUNE 9, 2010

Aim for educated countries that speak fluent english instead like Norway, Finland, etc… Fine grained Facebook ads The Facebook ads platform is a different paradigm from Google Adwords advertising. Long tail keywords (generally at least three words) have less traffic, but they are also cheaper. Yes, using the Pages criteria.

Norway 28

Norway South Africa Finland Ruby 28

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

It moves at a rapid clip, each argument backed up with the relevant math and equations: marginal profit , Littles law , Markov processes , probability theory , you name it. The book is structured as a series of principles, logically laid out and briefly discussed - 175 in all. This is not for the faint of heart.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 31, 2009

lets you post a description of a job without having to reveal the name of the company who is offering it, or the contact information of the hiring manager. Its incredibly simple, and its called joblink.tw. Think of it as a bit.ly Using it to recruit takes less than a minute. Who wants that stuff posted on the internet?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Startup Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

In a lot of cases, thats just a fancy name for revenue or profit, but not always. As Ive argued elsewhere , my belief is that startups (and anyone else trying to find an unknown solution to an unknown problem ) have to measure progress with validated learning about customers. Take a look and let me know what you think.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 123

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

In fact, we know so much that we already know what they will care enough about (namely, the product’s quality – as opposed to, say, missing features). The second misunderstanding is a concern for what will happen if things turn out exactly as we originally predicted (namely, badly). I understand this fear.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

Pay attention to whether people are comfortable “naming names&# in the meeting. Why didn’t our tests/QA/immune system catch and prevent the problem? Why wasn’t it immediately obvious how to fix the problem? There’s no easy fix to this problem. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

All I see is a name, an icon, a price, the developers name, and a review star-rating. Even with only a few months of development, third parties have crammed every single category in the store full of apps. Most of my time in the store is spent scrolling through endless lists. And what distinguishes a good app? I cant really tell.

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

We would pretty much bid on any phrase that was "[name of competitive product] chat" and variations like that. We tried obvious competitors as well as long-shots. Since we were only paying per click, it didnt cost us anything to cast a wide net. Take a look and let me know what you think.

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164