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

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization.

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. At least 6 team members should participate in your product development. What slogan do you see there?

eCommerce 113

eCommerce Software Developers Software Development Hosting 113

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2020

Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Ask every employee to focus on sales. Shorten the close cycle to grow faster.

Social Media 329

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 329

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Hire more help than helpers. In addition to fresh products, you need people smarter than you for real help, with the right combination of skills, experience, and passion to foster and manage new growth.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

To create this first year in business checklist, I turned to our in-house experts here at Palo Alto Software: Sabrina Parsons, CEO; Noah Parsons, COO; Josh Cochrane, Vice President of Product Development; and Josh Fegles, Academic and Government Channel Sales Director, and founder of gluten-free cookie company Jude’s Foods.

Forecast 60

Forecast Software Review Lean Finance 60

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

These founders specify, design, and build a fully featured product using classic product development methods without ever leaving their building. Traditionally, engineering, sales, and marketing have all focused on the immovable launch date. Executing on a sales and marketing plan. Focusing on the launch date.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

ConversionXL

APRIL 13, 2017

Call it whatever you like, but when businesses are hiring for any of those titles they simply want somebody who can generate lots of quality leads for as little cash as possible.”. The Growth Manager usually reports either to the CEO, the vice president of Product Management, or the vice president of Marketing. Product vs. Growth?

Analytics 99

Analytics Engineer SEO Channel 99

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. The problem stems from selling each customer a custom one-time product.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Version One Ventures

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

Be myopically focused on product-market fit and don’t waste your time on things that won’t contribute to achieving this goal. By fostering a metrics mindset in your organization from the start, you can run experiments more effectively and efficiently as you work on product-market fit. How to hire. Start to be data driven.

Seed Stage 163

Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics Hiring 163

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

They close on the $750k, hire a buddy or two, buy some Macs, and get to work. ASC starts building product, but as they get into the thick of it, the team realizes executing on their vision is going to be extremely hard. No updates, screen comps, or metrics have been publicly shared yet. Heads down on product, they say.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

Although every organization faces some uncertainty in developing new stuff, the conditions are not always extreme. For example, when your company adds ano ther blade to its disposal razors , the product’s technical development, marketing and sales will follow relatively predictable paths. in ten years?

Lean 165

Lean Technical Review Startup Software Review 165

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Hire more help than helpers. In addition to fresh products, you need people smarter than you for real help, with the right combination of skills, experience, and passion to foster and manage new growth.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Hire more help than helpers. In addition to fresh products, you need people smarter than you for real help, with the right combination of skills, experience, and passion to foster and manage new growth.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 21, 2023

Hiring a corporate chauffeur is a luxury that may provide convenience, but it does not necessarily improve one’s ability to think like a CEO. This involves understanding your customers’ pain points and addressing them through product development, marketing, and customer service.

Leadership 140

Leadership Technology Audience Customer 140

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Selling a product is a tough process, full of “no’s,” whether they come on the phone with a prospect or as a low conversion rate on your landing page. This is what our hiring landscape looked like over the past year: Pre-2015, we hired three founders: 1x hustler in charge of strategic growth hacking. Lean marketing.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Ask every employee to focus on sales. Shorten the close cycle to grow faster.

Social Media 120

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Focus on the output metrics of that part of the product, and you make the problem a lot more clear. I had the opportunity to pioneer this approach to funnel analysis at IMVU, where it became a core part of our customer development process. Whatever its purpose, try measuring it only at the level that you care about.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, June 8, 2009 Datablindness Most of us are swimming in a sea of data about our products, companies, and teams. That’s because many of our reports feed us vanity metrics: numbers that make us look good but don’t really help make decisions. Too much of this data is non- actionable.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2012

New product development process. Proper hiring of people with a natural curiosity, open-mindedness, and ability to see the big picture is the way to create and enhance the right mind-set. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Without risk, there can be no innovation. Idea management.

Intellectual Property 247

Intellectual Property IP Valuation .Net 247

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Hire more help than helpers. In addition to fresh products, you need people smarter than you for real help, with the right combination of skills, experience, and passion to foster and manage new growth.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

In an enterprise sales context, this is called a "repeatable and scalable sales process" - once you know how to do this, your company can graduate from early adopters and make an attempt at the mainstream. Thoughts on scientific product development Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you?

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

ConversionXL

AUGUST 24, 2021

News declaring it the number one job in sales and marketing, and a median average salary of around $142,000 in the U.S., Marketers can be involved in product development to ensure the product aligns with the customers’ needs, in communicating price points, in finding the best angles to keep customers coming back, and so on.

Management 141

Management Marketing Campaign Social Media 141

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

As the (very junior) product marketing manager I got a call from our local salesman that someone at Apple wanted more technical information than just the spec sheets about our new (not yet shipping) chip. I vividly remember the sales guy saying, “It’s only some kid in field service. What happened?

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2011

New product development process. Proper hiring of people with a natural curiosity, open-mindedness, and ability to see the big picture is the way to create and enhance the right mind-set. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Without risk, there can be no innovation. Idea management.

Intellectual Property 234

Intellectual Property IP Valuation .Net 234

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Most begin by doing the product development, marketing and sales alone, but struggle making the transition to hiring and coaching others, defining repeatable processes and focusing on future strategy. Take pride in your ability to get things done yourself. It’s a big change. Limit your scaling efforts to organic growth.

Social Network 120

Social Network Demand Valuation Acquisition 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Institutional Investors 230

Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping Database 230

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

When you put together a business plan, you have to spend time thinking about things like your target market , your sales, and marketing strategy , the problem you solve for your customers, and who your key competitors are. If you have “traction” in the form of early sales and customers, that’s even better. Marketing & Sales Plan.

Business Plan 138

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Exit Strategy 138

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Customer development is a parallel process to product development, which means that you dont have to give up on your dream. Our goal in product development is to find the minimum feature set required to get early customers. If I get sales I will expand on the site. This is a common mistake.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

www.lanceglasser.com

MAY 13, 2012

Metrics for cyclical businesses. Product development. Queuing theory and product development. The Essential Product Investigation Phase Gate. Marketing and sales. The minimum viable product. A Model for Return on Engineering Expenses. Growth, Profitability, and the Stock Price. Stock buybacks.

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Architecture 40

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Strategy - startups first encounter this when they have the beginnings of a product, and theyve achieved some amount of product/market fit. Growth - when you have existing customers, the pressure is on to grow your key metrics day-in day-out. And if you neglect maintenance, you may not have a business left at all.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

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. Of course, the sales folks had new features as their #1 priority.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Startup 255

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 255