Building Your MVP as a Non-Technical Founder
SoCal CTO
FEBRUARY 13, 2013
Investors my tell you that, but what they can look at your product on paper and tell what it does and they will understand if it can be built.
Do You Have An Agile Social Media Policy?
The Startup Magazine
MARCH 8, 2020
Chief amongst these mistakes is the belief that your company can maintain a sluggish, sordid presence on popular platforms instead of needing an agile, fresh-faced approach. Do you have an agile social media policy? How to improve social media agility. Here’s how to determine if you’re making the best of social media.
Social Media 
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The startup’s long, winding path to viral adoption
The Next Web
JUNE 29, 2012
Like every startup out there mine is also after the holy grail of finding our viral loop — our interpretation of “invite a friend and get 1 GB free” of DropBox. I cannot stress enough the importance of finding the viral loop. If you don’t have a critical mass of users or customers you cannot start thinking about going viral.
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Startup CTO Speaking
SoCal CTO
MAY 21, 2012
Tony provides specific models and suggestions for how startups can leverage social networks for viral growth yet maintain their independence so as not to limit themselves long-term. What parts Agile addresses and the big problems with Agile for early-stage startups? What is our viral spread coefficient?
Fractional CTO 175
175 [Review] The Lean Startup
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 21, 2013
Customer development (the understanding of customer needs) must be married to agile development (a process which drives waste out of product development). Such direct experiences allows one to test critical “leap-of-faith” assumptions about what customers like and dislike. Key ideas from the book include the following: 1.
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Lessons Learned: Using AdWords to assess demand for your new.
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. Stevey's Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile Learning from Obama: maneuver warfare on the campa.
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Business ecology and the four customer currencies
Startup Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 14, 2009
In a previous post , I covered the three main drivers of growth: Paid, Sticky, and Viral. Let’s look at a viral growth company, like Facebook. If you are building a large, viral, ad-support consumer internet property, you just want to go big! They’re off to cross the chasm. As soon as possible!&#
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27 Entrepreneurs Share Tips on Building an Ecommerce Business
Hearpreneur
OCTOBER 25, 2023
As soon as you have 2-3 months' worth of sales data to work with, use a formula to calculate stock reorder levels to ensure you always have stock ready to go, especially if you're promoting your products on platforms known for viral content, like TikTok. Thanks to Dani Mechlowitz, Delta Fulfilment ! #6- Thanks to Ben Pu, Ship Sage ! #18-
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Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time
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). Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? Expo SF (May.
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Ecommerce Trendwatching: How To Find, Follow, and Set Trends
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 8, 2023
TikTok and Influencers One viral video on TikTok can reach 1.5 Most startups are driven by high-end technology, innovations, and agile testing, with the help of which new trends are being born. In 2023, customers will have high expectations, and the availability of customer support robots will only improve their shopping experience.
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Lessons Learned: Validated learning about customers
Startup Lessons Learned
APRIL 14, 2009
Products can find sources of validation with impressive stats along a number of dimensions, such as high engagement, viral coefficient, or long-term retention. Go on an agile diet quickly. With a product development team that is not shipping, any agile methodology will surface major problems quickly. Great post! Expo SF (May.
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167 Lessons Learned: The metrics and levers of engagement.
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. Heres why I dont think engagement loops are that helpful: unlike viral loops, its not bad if its not self-sustaining.
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88 Andrew Chen: Growing renewable audiences
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. Problem is, you inevitably become yesterday’s old news. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.
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Lessons Learned: Continuous integration step-by-step
Startup Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 8, 2008
Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets. Learning is better than optimization (the local ma.
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How to Choose Digital Marketing Channels for Long Term Growth
ConversionXL
APRIL 4, 2017
Virality and Referral. Virality is the key lever of many of the most famous growth examples: Dropbox, Uber, Facebook, Hotmail. If, for every customer you acquire, you can acquire 1-10 more with viral loops , you can spend a lot more on acquiring that first customer, right? If you sell shoes, would virality work for you?
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How to get distribution advantage on the iPhone
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.
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74 7 lessons we learned from the bankruptcy of Whatser
The Next Web
AUGUST 26, 2012
The metrics that matter the most are returning customers (user retention), turnover per customer and viral growth (k-factor). Keep the team small, agile and up-to-date. 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.
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Engagement loops: beyond viral
Startup Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 16, 2008
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, December 16, 2008 Engagement loops: beyond viral Theres a great and growing corpus of writing about viral loops, the step-by-step optimizations you can use to encourage maximum growth of online products by having customers invite each other to join. This is essentially a version of the viral loop.
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Lessons Learned: The hacker's lament
Startup Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 7, 2008
In school I was being pounded day and night with anything that has to do with agile software development. When I entered the company, I realized that there were no process and I quickly applied what I know about agile software development. I am basically a one-man shop. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.
New Rules for the New Internet Bubble
Steve Blank
MARCH 18, 2011
Over time, open source software the rise of the next wave of web startups and the embrace of Agile Engineering meant that startups no longer needed millions of dollars to buy specialized computers and license expensive software – they could start a company on their credit cards. Rules For the New Bubble: 2011 -2014. Tools in the New Bubble.
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9 Things That Tell You To Pivot
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 14, 2017
One of the great benefits of a startup is their ability to be agile and adapt quickly to a changing environment. There are three main strategies used today which are viral (word of mouth), sticky (they keep coming back) and paid growth models. You no longer feel passionate about your product. Engine of growth pivot. Channel pivot.
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The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part three
Startup Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 6, 2008
The advantages of cross-functional teams are well documented, and for a thorough treatment I recommend the theory in the second half of Agile Software Development with Scrum. I want to focus here on one particular strength: the ability to operate semi-autonomously. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.
HOW TO: Hire the Perfect CTO
mashable.com
MAY 9, 2011
It will be important that your CTO can execute on big projects, too, hacking away to build an amazing product that is agile. ); // Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Twitter to get started! Organization and Execution Your new CTO should be able to handle your development team so that projects run along smoothly.
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The Lean LaunchPad – Teaching Entrepreneurship as a Management Science
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 7, 2010
There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.) We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. to optimize this search. Others emphasize how to build a product.
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Native App vs. Web App: Which Is Better for Mobile Commerce?
mashable.com
MAY 24, 2011
Discovery by social and webapp html5 is more agile and less icon-find-item-search. ); // Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Twitter to get started!
Mobile 90
90 Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem)
Startup Lessons Learned
APRIL 7, 2010
Or should you focus on user engagement or virality? Or should you focus on user engagement or virality? Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down?
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Measuring Market Penetration with Brand Tracking (+ Metrics & Examples)
ConversionXL
OCTOBER 14, 2021
Brand momentum can be calculated similarly to physical momentum (mass x velocity): Brand momentum = brand mass (your company’s size, reputation, and relevance) x brand velocity (speed of growth, agility in keeping up with industry changes). Take Tesla. Short-term changes in brand awareness and perception are common.
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6 Effective Branding and Marketing Strategies for Your Beauty Business
crowdSPRING Blog
MAY 9, 2018
The design thinking process may have originated with designers, but the business world has started to take notice because of the agility, speed, and innovation that it promises. This is hardly a surprise: a viral-friendly experience and Instagram aesthetic heavily inform the Glossier marketing campaign.
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90 Lessons Learned: Q&A with an actual reader
Startup Lessons Learned
SEPTEMBER 29, 2008
Revenue is always my preferred measure, but you can use anything that is important to your business: retention, activation, viral invites, or even customer satisfaction in the form of something like net promoter score. If an optimization has an effect at the micro level that doesnt translate into the macro level - who cares? . Expo SF (May.
Assessing fit with the Wisdom of Crowds
Startup Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 30, 2008
Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets. Learning is better than optimization (the local ma.
Transcript of How to Discover and Embrace Your Creative Side
Duct Tape Marketing
AUGUST 14, 2019
This is something I actually learned from my time working for a software company, which is something called agile methodology. Anyway, long story short, within an agile way of making software, you have to invite people from diverse departments in to help you solve the problem. It went viral as the kids say.
boldstart ventures in 2014 – our ethos
BeyondVC
FEBRUARY 12, 2014
With a focus on seed investing in the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise and business models that harness the power of network effects, our entrepreneurs have successfully been able to raise over $200 million of financing following our initial seed investment. focus on the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise".
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The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Software Company
Up and Running
MAY 23, 2016
Noah says, “Agile is what most software companies use. You can learn more about the agile development methodology on Version One’s site. Producthunt.com is a great resource for viral marketing for the product launch as well as community feedback.”. Use a development methodology. Keep core development in-house.
5 Ways To Get Web Traffic Without Paying
YoungUpstarts
AUGUST 21, 2012
Minnows can maneuver with extraordinary agility, and their size causes bigger fish to overlook them. Simple phone videos can sometimes go viral when they hit a nerve with the public. Minnows thrown into the pool with sharks and piranhas stand little chance of eating tuna. Free Ways to Target Customers.
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Joseph Ashford’s Top 8 Marketing Tips for Startups
The Startup Magazine
MARCH 14, 2021
Given that the product may still be in development, the marketer also needs to be agile and ready to respond to unexpected obstacles with an early startup marketing strategy. Insightful content has a higher chance of “going viral” on social media, which also can help in reaching key stakeholders like potential investors, clients and partners.
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GrabCAD’s Acquisition: From Talinn to London to Boston
Agile VC
SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
But my partners and I saw the potential for the community to grow virally, just as LinkedIn did, and to be monetized with a variety of products built on top of this community. I got to share some of our early dashboards from LinkedIn as GrabCAD crafted their own dashboards for early viral growth.
Boston 154
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Lessons Learned: Three freemium strategies
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? January 28, 2009 1:54 AM startupcfo said. Thanks for adding to the discussion on freemium these days. As mentioned segmentation is key to figuring out the free/ paid mix. Expo SF (May.
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The Superbowl ad test
Startup Lessons Learned
SEPTEMBER 13, 2010
Is the company growing because of an amazing viral loop paired with a strong engagement loop? Is the company growing because of an amazing viral loop paired with a strong engagement loop? But notice what’s not listed: messages sent per person, churn rates of active users, or activation rate of new user. Expo SF (May.
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20 Entrepreneurs Explain What They Love About Being An Entrepreneur
Hearpreneur
SEPTEMBER 14, 2015
Not being caught up in a corporate management structure gives me the freedom and agility to be at the top of our game. We see ideas really take off, go viral and power sales for anyone with a creative idea that resonates with like minded people. And, not being stuck in the 9 to 5 grind is an added bonus.
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48 boldstart ventures in 2014 – our ethos
BeyondVC
FEBRUARY 12, 2014
With a focus on seed investing in the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise and business models that harness the power of network effects, our entrepreneurs have successfully been able to raise over $200 million of financing following our initial seed investment. The other big theme is one of big data.
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60 [Excerpt] Earlyvangelists: The Most Important Customers of All
ReadWriteStart
JUNE 20, 2012
But even as nonpaying users, these earlyvangelists are willing or eager accelerators of your viral growth. A third, more productive approach is to develop the core features of the product (incrementally and iteratively with agile engineering methods), with the feature list driven by the vision and experience of the company’s founders.
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Lessons Learned: CPI > CPC
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.
Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.
Startup Lessons Learned
SEPTEMBER 22, 2008
I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." Here, the key metrics are Acquisition and Referral, combined into the now-famous viral coefficient. If the coefficient is > 1.0 , you generally have a viral hit on your hands.
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Lessons Learned: The App Store after the gold rush
Startup Lessons Learned
OCTOBER 7, 2008
On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. If your app has strong word-of-mouth or viral components, your retention drives new acquisition, and its not so important to have good placement in the store. Acqusition competition is how new apps get new customers. Expo SF (May.
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