Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

In a previous post , I covered the three main drivers of growth: Paid, Sticky, and Viral. A minimum viable product in this category must answer the question: does my media content or channel command the attention of a valuable audience? Let’s look at a viral growth company, like Facebook. As soon as possible!&#

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

mashable.com

MARCH 7, 2011

Mashable | The Social Media Guide Viral Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video About Mashable Company About Us Advertise Submit News Contact Us Announcements Resources Guidebooks Lists How To Trending Twitter List Directory Mashable Awards Subscriptions Partners W3 EDGE Rackspace Concentric Sky Dynect DNS Intridea Welcome to Mashable!

Developer 93

Developer HTML API Ruby 93

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2018

— Northwoods Web Solutions (@northwoods) March 28, 2018. — Northwoods Web Solutions (@northwoods) March 28, 2018. Virality: # of users that refer your product for you: exponential growth if your K factor is greater than 1. Dropbox: first achieved growth through virality. pic.twitter.com/pdYfvf7vUb.

Retention 106

Retention Artificial Inteligence Channel Email 106

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

On Facebook, viral distribution has proved decisive. Those companies who have learned to build apps that optimize the viral loop dominate in every category where they compete. So far, I dont see any apps that have much in the way of viral distribution. We're leading the charge in enabling viral distribution for iPhone apps.

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 16, 2013

Freemium is not customer development Just imagine how much you’ll learn once you have 1,000 real, active users of the system: Everything from behavioral statistics (which features are actually used?) to democratic product development (voting on which features customers would like to see next?). Easy to start.

Marketing 318

Marketing Viral Campaign Business Model 318

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

This is a common problem that results from viral-loop optimization. By copying the exact same registration flow as every other successful viral app, many viral apps completely lose their positioning. And most web applications do their positioning right in the first few screens of the app.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

vs. sustainable: Compare this to the renewable strategies, like viral marketing, SEO, widgets, and ads, which can scale into 10s of millions of users but are primarily centered around tough, non-user centric work. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0,

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. Their product development team is hard at work on a next-generation product platform, which is designed to offer a new suite of products – but this effort is months behind schedule.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

If its part of a viral loop, its probably trying to get them to invite more friends (on average). This gets me into trouble, because it conjures up for some the idea that product development is simply a rote mechanical exercise of linear optimization. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

For example, my company decided early on to hire a UI designer, which has helped tremendously with our product development. Then we allocated the saved money into hiring the highest quality developers available — especially those who have experience working with a distributed team.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

VC Cafe

JULY 15, 2021

Build virality into the product – it might be counter intuitive to launch your product as “invite only” – after all, the goal is to grow the audience, not to restrict it. Several startups, like Copy.ai Recent examples include Clubhouse , Racket or Polywork. It can also backfire, so execution is key.

Mobile 190

Mobile Social Media Distribution PR 190

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

In fact, the curse of product development is that sometimes small things make a huge difference and sometimes huge things make no difference. When we’re optimizing, product development teams encounter similar situations. I mean, here we are, paying them to be there, and they won’t use the product!

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2012

For this reason you should find out as quickly as possible if the product is indeed offering real value to your customers by looking at real data. The metrics that matter the most are returning customers (user retention), turnover per customer and viral growth (k-factor). Most start-ups fail.

Bankruptcy 121

Bankruptcy Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence 121

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

I too would be concerned about false negatives, but perhaps this strategy could be integrated into a broader market research strategy that included user engagement, viral marketing, etc which would all be quantifiable under the Google analytics. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. A very interesting strategy.

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

It is a platform to help brands building viral marketing campaigns. The investment will be used for product development initiatives. There are three “megatrends” as he puts it – real time data, the social web and flash marketing. Wildfire was one of the darlings of the fbFund incubator program. Read more: TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

This is native advertising in real life, on a real website, acting as a key player in the race for the strongest, viral, engaging content. Native advertising evokes an organic experience – one that pays tribute to the design and UX which has and continues to advance the Web. An example of sponsored content on The Next Web.

Advertising 139

Advertising San Francisco New York Viral 139

David Teten

MAY 1, 2013

There are some automated valuation tools on the web like valuate.com and estibot.com that use search traffic, backlinks, and other data to appraise the value in the domain name. Facebook paid $8.5 million for FB.com; see the top 30 list of all time. Thanks to Matt Joyce and Saumil Jariwala for research help on this blog post.

Naming 114

Naming Semantic Venture Capital Startup 114

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

(This is similar to the problem that viral loop companies have with the engagement loop : by making it too easy to join, they actually give away the positioning that allows for longer-term engagement.) Why was a team this smart, this disciplined, and this committed to waste-free product development creating so much waste?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Metrics Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 8, 2008

The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. ► April (11) Video update on the Startup Visa Act Lean Enterprise Institute webinar, April 28 Four myths about the Lean Startup Sneak preview, KISSmetrics (and more) Sneak preview, Grockit The Lean Startup Intensive at Web 2.0 Expo SF (May.

Software Review 136

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 136

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

Imagine you have incredibly precise metrics about every minute that every customer spends with your product, every mouse click, movement - everything. So you do a split-test, and you discover that Feature X causes people to spend 20% more time on a given part of your product, say a particular web page. Is that a success?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Sometimes, a great hacker has the potential to grow into the CTO of a company, and in those cases all you need is an outside mentor who can work with them to develop those skills. At the end of the day, the product development team of a startup (large or small) is a service organization. Does this sound familiar? Expo SF (May.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

In Web/mobile apps, where multi-sided markets (separate users and payers) are often found, earlyvangelists can be users or payers. But even as nonpaying users, these earlyvangelists are willing or eager accelerators of your viral growth. The risk here is lost time and no product for customers to provide feedback against.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Engineer Cofounder 119

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Money to be used for hiring and additional product development. 2. -A social analytics platform for Facebook app developers and publishers that provides detailed demographic and engagement data. Offers virality optimization tools and A/B testing inside Facebook. Competitors: Gowalla. Total Raised: $21.4mm.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. ► April (11) Video update on the Startup Visa Act Lean Enterprise Institute webinar, April 28 Four myths about the Lean Startup Sneak preview, KISSmetrics (and more) Sneak preview, Grockit The Lean Startup Intensive at Web 2.0 Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 74

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 30, 2008

Because of the experiences I had while in that job, trying to manage the process of hiring while still getting other work done, I built a web application to help people in a similar role to manage the hiring process, called Catch the Best. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 83

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 83

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

If the product needs to be tweaked just a little bit in order to convert users into customers, you want to figure that out before the launch. If the viral coefficient is 0.9, And if your product doesnt retain customers, whats the point of driving a bunch of them to use it? The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Software By Rob

AUGUST 5, 2010

The knowledge that you need 10,000 hours to master a subject, that certain trends become viral after the 412th person adopts it, or that you should make your product remarkable, is not going to help you launch. Nor will it save you a single minute during product development, or sell one more copy of your application.

Founder 78

Founder Startup Software Review Software 78

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. It’s a particularly popular strategy in the world of product development and is used to quickly and quantitatively test a product or a product feature. You can learn more about the agile development methodology on Version One’s site.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

It has been awesome, flattering, and humbling to see that post went viral and has been seen by so many thousands of people — mainly aspiring entrepreneurs — and has been translated into many languages. The time to start thinking mobile first vs. web first was 6 months ago. If you cannot gain traction in 1 year, pivot.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Others would go even further and say it is better to launch half a product than a half-assed product. The Four Steps to the Epiphany (highly recommended book by Steve Blank) preaches for customer development before product development, advocating a quick launch with a minimal feature set rather than a full fledged product offering.

Lean 120

Lean Customer Development Audience Viral 120

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 15, 2017

Practically speaking, the burning need was to begin hiring employees so that I could spend more of my day on product development, partnerships and driving sales. RL: At a high level, technology has created many ways to increase our productivity while also providing freedom to run the business from anywhere in the world.

Marketing 48

Marketing Design Acquisition Bootstrapping 48

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

1x hacker in charge of product/development. 1x hipster working with both product and growth. There are a number of other variables here like virality (the chances of a user referring another user), but I don’t want to overcomplicate things. See Also: The Top 10 Tools for Tracking Your Web Metrics.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

The Next Web

OCTOBER 17, 2013

A lot of entrepreneurs talk about optimizing their products so they run faster, look better, go viral – but it’s important to remember that none of this can happen unless you are constantly getting feedback from your most valuable asset: Your customers. Seedcamp invests in approximately 20 companies annually.

Customer 128

Customer B2C Startup Early Stage 128

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 13, 2016

In some situations the product or service itself can accomplish these goals, but often it is great brand identity that can make the difference between your first customer or a lost lead. Though most startups know the importance of brand identity, it can often take the back seat to more pressing matters such as product development or finances.

Marketing 48

Marketing Startup Differentiation Naming 48

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

At a high level, anything that drives virality should be free. To take your specific example about virality - why do we want to have more users sign up? Is it that they act as free advertising for our premium product? The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. January 28, 2009 1:54 AM startupcfo said.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 11, 2009

If you ask an expert in Facebook apps to come help build yours, youll usually hear the same advice: build your app for virality. Thats sensible advice; most people who have made a business on Facebook rely on the viral driver of growth. If you have a virally-growing app, you dont need the extra installs. . Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Social Network Lean Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Is the company growing because of an amazing viral loop paired with a strong engagement loop? Most of the article is about the features – new and old – of the product. Is the company growing because of an amazing viral loop paired with a strong engagement loop? The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154