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. Great post!

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

View from Seed

JULY 5, 2022

Founder: Connor Cash. Get to know the founder. I’m Connor Cash, the founder of Caesar and I grew up outside of Boston but currently live in DC! RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? CC: Being a founder is a rollercoaster ride. . Company: Caesar Sustainability. ” – Lee Hower.

DC 156

DC Software Review Government Boston 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

Serious investors expect founders to have their homework done before the first interaction – documented executive summary, business plan, and financial model. Product development. For a great idea person, the product details keep changing for the better, but nothing ever gets finished. Investor negotiations.

Technical Review 333

Technical Review Startup Software Review Retention 333

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

As the founder of Smartvu Ltd., This is why I like to include customers in product development and testing. I also like to be close with customer service finding out how the product is working and what problems the customers have. This helps build a great product but it’s not the best product that wins.

Portugal 119

Portugal Entrepreneur Internet Advertising 119

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2020

by Zain Jaffer, serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Zain Ventures. sales to product development), the problems will continue to exist. As the previous Co-Founder and CEO of Vungle, Zain secured $25 million in funding and was an instrumental player in the major growth of the company.

Customer 347

Customer Development Team Review Advisory Board Private Equity 347

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). (BTW,

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

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

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

by Saeju Jeong, CEO and Co-founder of Noom Coach. Here, I outline five principles all co-founders must agree on before working together. 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

Small Business Force

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Every entrepreneur wishes they were as prescient or creative as Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, or Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders, respectively of Apple, Amazon and Google. Few entrepreneurs or small business owners involve their customers in the product development process. I know what this market needs. He's been there.

Development Team Review 36

Development Team Review Product Development Developer Customer 36

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2019

Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have no idea how dramatically your own role has to evolve as you develop a solution, start a business, and expect it to scale into a successful self-managed company. Thus my job as a small business advisor really is really more about getting you developed than perfecting the business.

Leadership 248

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Social Media 248

Version One Ventures

MAY 3, 2023

But India is such a welcoming country that it only took a few weeks of preparation to fill a weeklong schedule with meetings – from a dinner arranged by Shiva with approximately 15 founders in Delhi to a talk about crypto at Builders Circle in Bangalore. group pic from meet-up w/ Delhi founders

India 87

India LP Silicon Valley Vertical 87

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

Early Growth Financial Services

DECEMBER 11, 2012

by Tony Karrer Originally published on SoCal CTO Almost every day I’m talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions) about what they plan to do. Many of these founders have talked with several developers or development firms about their plans.

Fractional CTO 44

Fractional CTO Developer Product Development Founder 44

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 24, 2014

by Adam Root, founder and CTO of Hiplogiq. Adam Root has worked in development and design for Fortune 500 companies, midsize agencies, and startups. He’s the founder and CTO of Hiplogiq , makers of marketing technologies SocialCompass and SocialCentiv. Professionalisms Adam Root Hiplogiq product development startup'

Fractional CTO 228

Fractional CTO Product CTO Hire Merger 228

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

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. You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite if you don’t have any. Think of profound beliefs as “strong opinions loosely held.”

Business Model 305

Business Model Product Development Early Stage Customer Development 305

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

It is necessary to cover the early stages of product development, thorough market research, and other processes during the initial step. Founders often prefer to approach syndicates ahead of an angel network due to the speed with which they might receive funding. The earliest investors in a business are usually syndication.

Seed Stage 127

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 127

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Quick summary: Be careful not to have too many co-founders. I don’t think VCs care as much about co-founders & economics as people think. Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use. it’s the most expensive dilution you’ll ever face.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

What I saw reminded me of some of the best and worst things I did as a founder. We’re building the wrong product!” Some of the engineers figuring if the founder was declaring they were toast in 90 days were updating their resumes. But like all great founders some of these insights are simply hallucinations.

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley. That’s in stark contrast to the traditional Product Development Model where it’s expected a customer is already there and waiting and it’s simply a matter of [.] familiar with Customer Development you should be.

Product Development 143

Product Development Developer Silicon Valley Product 143

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

by Felix Winstone, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Talkative. As a startup co-founder with a growing team, here are the recruiting tips I’ve learnt over the last couple of years. Robert Metcalfe, co-founder and CEO of 3Com, says you need to think about it as “recruiting, not hiring”. Hiring = Sales. Be Specific.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2013

“Scope creep” (or feature creep) is an insidious disease that kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. This term refers to the penchant to add just one more feature to the product or service before first delivery, just because you can.

Technical Review 275

Technical Review Startup Software Review Database 275

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. There is an art to efficient management of a process, whether that is the process of bringing a product to market from R&D to production or developing a new product’s launch program.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 118

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Competition from other startups and established incumbents, constraints on time and capital, and limited access to talent and technology resources are just a few of the hurdles nearly every first-time founder faces while trying to build a business.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 9, 2010 Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# theory of management At any given time, something like four percent of the US population is engaged in some form of new-company-creation. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Management Founder Lean 161

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 31, 2017

” According to Geoff Hedges, the founder of the CAD-focused blog creo.ptc.com, concept design is “a specific phase of the design process, within the product development process.” Hedges calls concept design as the initial big picture of your product. Contact us now!

Product Development 62

Product Development Design Developer Product 62

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

As a seed stage VC, I have a unique privilege of confidentially spending time with a number of entrepreneurs throughout their company formation and initial product development process. And it’s amazed me how many times I’ve seen two or more entirely separate groups of founders?—?without

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Cofounder Stealth 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2018

Plan to and assemble the right team, including co-founders. You need skills in finance, operations, and marketing to supplement product development, and more hours of work than one person can manage. Building and running a business is not a solo operation.

Angel Investor 249

Angel Investor Cofounder Finance Operations 249

YoungUpstarts

MAY 23, 2018

Most startups do not fail because they had a bad idea that could not find a market, but rather because the founders and startup teams got overwhelmed or were missing key ingredients to success. Many founders or startup teams gravitate toward sales or design. Often, founders have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Due Diligence 133

Due Diligence Startup Finance Leadership 133

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

There is a myth among first time tech founders that product is everything. Many lack intuitive financial sense that can help them build a great company once they achieve product-market fit. Here are five financial concepts that every startup founder should know to build an everlasting company. Asset valuation. venkatarag.

Founder 118

Founder Valuation Dividend Startup 118

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. 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. How do you know you have it? It’s an art.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

If you’re following Tesla, you might be interested to know that Sloan wasn’t the founder of GM. Where are the charitable foundations, business schools, and hospitals named after the founder of GM? The founder of what became General Motors was William (Billy) Durant. And a founder of Neuralink a brain-computer interface startup.

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 16, 2021

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “founder’s syndrome.” It’s not a disease, but it can kill your startup.

Startup 287

Startup Founder Leadership Demand 287

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Two conditions that do matter to your startup’s out-year viability are the cost and length of its product development cycle. Startup founders counting the days until break-even or actively seeking outside capital must focus on streamlining their development cycles. Work Off a User Manual Template.

Cost 100

Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. It has to find product-market fit before running out of cash. Lean was designed to inform the founders’ vision while they operated frugally at speed. The result?

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335