Austin Startup

MARCH 23, 2018

And in Sweden and Finland, robots now write more news articles than humans. Newsrooms in Sweden and Finland are leading the charge into more fully-automated content, with algorithms analyzing the facts, writing the news, and pointing their human counterparts to the most interesting stories. J-schools are teaching Python.

Finland 54

Finland Sweden Arizona Audio 54

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

To acquire new money managers, the company makes traditional sales calls, which means they’ve interviewed many, many professionals and gotten a strong sense of their needs. .&# says Rachleff. At the same time, whenever a customer closes an account, kaChing contacts the person to find out why; most agree to a short phone interview. .&#

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

The book lays out a disciplined approach to make sure this period doesnt last forever, and clear criteria for when you know its time to move to an execution footing: when you have a repeatable and scalable sales process, as evidenced by early customers paying you money for your early product. If I get sales I will expand on the site.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

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

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Now its time to start to think seriously about how to find a repeatable and scalable sales process, how to position and market the product, and how to build a product development team that can turn an early product into a Whole Product. As the company grows, this kind of work generalizes into "executing the companys current strategy."

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

If you are trying to find a product that sells, than each test would require a different product to be created (or at least a different sales page).in This adds to the complexity of decision making since you dont know its the ad, sales page, product, keywords and so on. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

For example, I quickly learned that when I twittered about the event, more often than not I would make a sale. I’ve often wanted to wire up a bell to sales data, so that when we make a sale, we literally hear the cash register ring. When the incidence rate is small, emails or text messages are a great mechanism.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

The Startup Magazine

JULY 29, 2021

The initial product MVP was called Spotify Business and was only made available in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Ola: Soundtrack Your Brand started up as a joint venture with Spotify.

Founder 156

Founder B2C B2B Audio 156

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Although customers didnt flock to this offering at first, we had enough of a developer program active to start recruiting early adopters to start creating 3D objects for sale in our catalog. The net result was powerful: within six months of starting the company, we were able to get a basic version of our product into open beta.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Of course, the sales folks had new features as their #1 priority. But the results were excellent - customer satisfaction, sales, profits, quality, attitudes all improved dramatically. The major change was never starting any project without sales, marketing, manufacturing, field support, purchasing, etc. What a freaking mess.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

Because this language may lead you to believe this concept is for enterprise sales only, I thought Id walk you through an example from the world of consumer electronics. But if that piece-parts solution is great, then its unlikely they are going to need to buy any additional products. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. Is that a lot? I have given more than two-dozen paid speeches this year – is that a lot? Is that good? These are pretty interesting anecdotes, but they are hardly the kind of serious approach that these questions deserve.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

This makes lean supply chains more robust in the face of the unexpected: if sales suddenly dry up, they are stuck with less unsold inventory and simultaneously have less debt to service. Lean vs. debt In the world of physical goods, the leaner a supply chain is, the less debt is required to operate it.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Austin Startup

APRIL 12, 2011

Pros, in the sense of potential markets in which to sell goods far beyond any one entrepreneur’s national boundaries; cons, in the sense of a global, 24×7 competitive environment, prohibiting you from counting on any region as a safe harbor for cornering a sale. Must come from Scandinavia or Japan, right?

Global 69

Global Mobile South Korea Japan 69

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. In sales we often call these USPs (I wrote about them here: Unique Selling Propositions ).

Sales 150

Sales Silicon Valley Las Vegas Southern California 150

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

This can take the form of a traditional sales pipeline or a registration-activation-revenue chart. For example, on the "leading indicators" front, I think companies should use a funnel analysis to drive decisions and get rapid feedback on how they are progressing. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 16, 2010

Meanwhile, individuals and smaller companies emailed by the hundreds to say that they wanted the features of custom channels, but the sales model—arranged like a media buy—didn’t make sense to them. -Eric] Big companies said they liked the idea, but SlideShare found it hard to close deals.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Analytics Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Then, the company spends no more than a few hundred dollars marketing the product through search engines and to the contacts in its sales database and LinkedIn. Then, the company spends no more than a few hundred dollars marketing the product through search engines and to the contacts in its sales database and LinkedIn.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

VC Cafe

MAY 28, 2020

By the time the rap group JVG finished its set, about 700,000 people — nearly 12% of the whole population of Finland — had tuned in. IDC, another data analytics company, is expecting standalone VR headset sales to jump 30% before the year is out, despite a decline in the first half of 2020. Virtual Helsinki. This is the time to build.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Cloud Forecast 164

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

We set sales targets from day one, $300 the first month. As the experiments progressed, day-in-day-out we werent making sales. The bare fact of our failing to make sales forced us to peel back the onion, step by step, until we realized just how big a problem we had. that justify decisions already made.

San Francisco 98

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 98

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2011

They’ve been thinking hard and smart about the lessons to be learned not only from Silicon Valley, but with only 16 million people, they are also looking for lessons from other small innovation clusters such as Israel, Singapore and Finland. The largest company, the state-run Chilean National Copper Corp CODELCO, has $23 billion in sales.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley Chile South America Venture Capital 335

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

They’ve placed it alphabetically between Denmark and Finland. They found that digital point-of-sale terminals, like the one at your coffee shop, increase the frequency and amount of tips left by customers. Negative Option features. ” Research from Software Advice backs this up. Again, the power of defaults.

Denmark 48

Denmark New York City Internet Finland 48

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

So instead of having sales, marketing, and business development, we have a problem team implementing customer development. Creating a company-wide feedback loop that incorporates both customer development and agile development is a challenge. Traditional department labels just make it harder. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 132

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean Agile 132

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 29, 2015

They’d placed it alphabetically between Denmark and Finland. They found that digital point-of-sale terminals, like the one at your coffee shop, increase the frequency and amount of tips left by customers. Image Source. Default Subscriptions. So we tip $2 on a $3 cup of coffee. Image Source. Avoiding Defaults By Mandating Choice.

Conversion 48

Conversion Illinois Architecture Austria 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

In particular, a marketing launch can help you do three things (courtesy, as is most of my marketing advice, of The Four Steps to the Epiphany ): Drive customers into your sales pipeline. In the right situation, its a very useful tactic, too. Thats because a marketing launch is a one-time event, and rarely translates into renewable audiences.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Similarly, government purchasing is a frustrating series of hoops, even compared to enterprise sales. I'll add one more point: The SBIR program is based on a dated notion of small business research, and the multi-year process doesn't line up with the speed of many modern startups. Take a look and let me know what you think.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

All too often hackers stay hacking because of this lack of seeing the bigger picture or not having the support to make the transition. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

David Teten

APRIL 30, 2018

Typically engineering, QA, and support are offshore, while CEO, sales, and marketing are in the US. In addition, HOF has backed 10 companies with roots in Canada, China, Estonia, Finland, India, Germany, Denmark and Russia. Bi-national companies , which from inception have an international presence. Companies founded by immigrants.

United States 60

United States Canada Silicon Valley Offshore 60

David Teten

APRIL 30, 2018

Typically engineering, QA, and support are offshore, while CEO, sales, and marketing are in the US. In addition, HOF has backed 10 companies with roots in Canada, China, Estonia, Finland, India, Germany, Denmark and Russia. Bi-national companies , which from inception have an international presence. Companies founded by immigrants.

United States 60

United States Silicon Valley Canada Offshore 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2008

Sales depend on being right (whereas in UGC we can pretty much try anything, and promote the winners). You do get the beneift of total control of your content, so you can guarantee your customers a quality experience. Your platform may require you to staff up a large production department to crank out enough content to satisfy your customers.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

Last month in London, I got a chance to sit with five startups from the UK, Italy, Finland and Estonia – each with a very different business. Internet technology start ups in Israel should apply *for free* on this link: Apply to Seedcamp Tel Aviv.

Estonia 99

Estonia Italy Finland Europe 99

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

At that point, theres no opportunity for marketing or sales; the battle is already won or lost in the persons mind. I wrote about this challenge for iPhone developers, in an essay on retention competition : the battle over what icon the user will click when they go to the home screen. Its analogous to walking down the aisle in a supermarket.

Viral 140

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 140

VC Cafe

JULY 2, 2012

Girls in Tech London picked the top women in 19 countries – the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Greece and Israel – on the basis of their leadership and excellence in innovation and technology.

Latvia 109

Latvia Russia Lithuania 109

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

We got instantaneous feedback on the validity of the idea and started our sales process concurrently. LOIs, while clearly not as good as signed sales contract, do have meaning and are valuable. We got instantaneous feedback on the validity of the idea and started our sales process concurrently.

San Francisco 144

San Francisco Customer Wiki Lean 144

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

These companies produced over $52 billion dollars in sales in 2005, and employed 450,000 workers that year. These companies produced over $52 billion dollars in sales in 2005, and employed 450,000 workers that year. Substantial research shows that immigrants play a key role in American job creation.

San Francisco 121

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

This is usually exacerbated by zealous sales persons who oversell the features, or even more typical, promise completely new features. Little refactoring sessions are certainly a good step and sometimes the business needs to realize they have leveraged their code base as far as it can take them. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Without a basis for comparison, you first have to drive home the need, then you will have an easy time making the sale (after all, youre the person who they trust to bring it to their attention). Toughest part of the sale is to get agreement that you really can deliver benefits that they didnt previously know were possible.

San Francisco 89

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean 89