Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

The application of agile development methodologies which dramatically reduce waste and unlock creativity in product development. See Customer Development Engineering for my first stab at articulating the theory involved) Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by the Customer Development process.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

This was 2004, and we had never even heard of MySpace, let alone had any understanding of social networking. It required hearing customers say it over and over again for us to take a serious look, and eventually to realize that social networking was core to our business. But the early customers all compared it to MySpace.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Customer Lean Continuous Deployment 131

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

For companies in the early-adopter phase, you can play "the earlyvangelist game" whenever a customer turns out to be too mainstream for your product. Pick a similar product that they do use, and ask them "who was the first person you know who started using [social networking, mobile phones, plasma TV, instant messaging.]?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 133

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

1x hacker in charge of product/development. 1x hipster working with both product and growth. It’s significantly easier to get a press mention from smaller bloggers or internet evangelists (Youtube, Scoop.it). Google AdWords or SEM (expensive). Apr-15: Head of Marketing (growth team). Small press (cheap or free).

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

This is completely analogous to the situation elsewhere on the internet, where launching a new website, product, or service with PR is getting harder and harder. On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. Or if your lifetime value is high enough, you can just keep spending on SEM.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

If you sell an online service that solves a defined problem, you can compete in SEO or SEM. As with services like Yelp, reviewers can tend to be the subset of people who were disappointed by the product, not those who liked it or even loved it. Thoughts on scientific product development Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you?

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Here was our experience at IMVU, which I have seen replicated at many other consumer internet startups. Luckily, if your product isnt good enough to have traction, you simply cannot alienate very many customers - because you cant get them engaged with the product. So dont combine your product launch with a marketing launch.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168