SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Bending over: How to sell to large companies - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , May 24, 2010 This is a guest post by Steve Hanov , who blogs about programming and startups.

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Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 10, 2012

She might be a “promoter” of your firm in Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, a member of several associations that interest you, and an avid social media networker, he explains. Third, they have access — and want to gain more access — to influential networks that contain more buyers like them. They won’t grow your business on their own.

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Customer Fractional CTO Canada Technical Review 154

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

This was followed by an 8-minute slide presentation describing their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ) Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique. It Takes a Village.

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Oakland Asia Lean Video 315

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2012

Instead, you ask neighbors or friends — your peer network — what or whom they’re using. They can do this by expanding the buyer’s network of peers who can provide trustworthy information and advice based on their own experience with the product or service. Find and leverage your customer influencers. How respected is she?

Social Media 164

Social Media Media Marketing Software Review 164

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

To do this they have to accomplish five things; 1) get deal flow – via networking and legwork, they identify likely industries, companies and teams with the potential for rapid growth (less than 10 years), 2) evaluate those companies and teams on the basis of technology, market opportunity, and team.

Silicon Valley 237

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 237

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Over the years we brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Fixing the Missing Pieces of Infrastructure.

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Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 320

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.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 22, 2012

What could make more sense than to leverage the enthusiasm of happy customers to convince buyers that they need your products and services? And in an increasingly social and networked world — not to mention an economy where every dollar of revenue is critical — this type of third party validation is more important than ever.

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Programming Customer Social Media Advisory Board 145

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

His Lee Consulting Group specializes in strategy, organizational performance improvement, execution, customer community building, market analysis, international growth, and business model innovation.

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Customer Social Media Retention Canada 168

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development? The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses. sustainable business.

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Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Customer Development , Agile Engineering and the Lean methodology enforced a process of incremental and iterative development. Startups could now get a first version of a product out to customers in weeks/months rather than months/years. That requires building a company using Agile and Customer Development.

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Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

For example, I’ve talked often about our belief that an instant messaging add-on product would allow IMVU to take advantage of a network effects strategy. Unfortunately, customers hated that initial product. Unfortunately, when we realized the product design was not what customers wanted, we had to pivot to a new product.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Why Are They Referring New Customers Completely Unprompted? One on one interviews, surveys, and other customer development techniques can help to reveal this. For example, Birchbox has built an entire business model around sending 4-5 monthly samples for grooming & lifestyle products you may not have known about before.

Programming 107

Programming Marketing Analytics Portfolio 107

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

Im going to be speaking on June 3rd at an event sponsored by the Technology Entrepreneurs Exchange (TeXchange), "the premier networking organization in Texas for business executives and entrepreneurs to meet, exchange ideas and share experiences." It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0,

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Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 20, 2010

As a good student of startup theory, especially modern theories of customer development, this time I was methodical and purposeful. I have the know-how to built it and even a blog to promote it. I'd been networking for a while so I had a nice list to call on. I needed something like WPEngine for my own blog.

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Startup Campaign Turkey Customer Development 239

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Resegmentation means these startups are trying to lure some of the current or potential customers away from incumbents by either offering a lower cost product, or by offering features that appealed to a specific niche or subset of the existing users. Me – “Have you used Company x’s product? Do you know have they distribute their product?

Silicon Valley 210

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 210

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. If network B has 20 users than it’s value is 400 (20*20). How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. The process, which Blank detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," uses customer feedback to refine and improve a product before scaling a business.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

I reminded her that all the Lean tools she learned in class–Customer Discovery, business model and value proposition canvases– contained her answer. This plan should include the category of media; print, internet, broadcast and then identify specific sites, blogs, magazine, etc. Here’s how. Step 4: Messengers.

Marketing 319

Marketing Technical Review Audience PR 319

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

And not keep investors informed about changes to your business model can have serious consequences. Coming up next on the blog: Emily Kennedy , founder and CEO of Marinus Analytics ; and Chris Cabrera , founder of Xactly. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. Where did this company miss?

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Columbus Entrepreneur Cofounder Ohio 250

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

So here’s another way of thinking about the stages of a startup in visual terms using the business model canvas[2]. Important Business Question #1: does anybody care at all and will they pay us? You shift from qualitative feedback (customer development) to quantitative feedback (metrics). Up to you! [1]

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Startup Business Model Retention Acquisition 55

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

We had some radical thoughts how companies were going to have change to remain competitive in the 21 st century in a blog post. For most big, established companies like us, our business models were developed years—even decades ago. We’ve built up strength in executing our business model, not creating new ones.

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Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 331

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

At a university business plan competition, for the first time they can swim in the sea of expertise that we/I take for granted in the middle of Silicon Valley. Win, lose or draw, these students have a life changing experience where they can network and get smarter as they see what good startup thinking looks like.

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Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 160

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

And not keep investors informed about changes to your business model can have serious consequences. Coming up next on the blog: Emily Kennedy , founder and CEO of Marinus Analytics ; and Chris Cabrera , founder of Xactly. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. Where did this company miss?

Columbus 120

Columbus Entrepreneur Cofounder Ohio 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

Much of what Ive learned over the years has been invested in this blog, and that makes creating a sweeping summation challenging. Unfortunately, we were fixated on "building a real business" and never noticed that maybe students would want to share their profiles with each other. No business model, either. And Google?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Hippoland

JUNE 19, 2018

It also means that you will be tied to horrible health care providers if your employer bought a cheap plan with a limited network. I’m most interested in funding completely new health insurance models that give power back to the consumer. (And rightly so – from an economics perspective, you should take advantage of this).

San Francisco 48

San Francisco California Cost Software 48

Hippoland

JUNE 19, 2018

It also means that you will be tied to horrible health care providers if your employer bought a cheap plan with a limited network. I’m most interested in funding completely new health insurance models that give power back to the consumer. (And rightly so – from an economics perspective, you should take advantage of this).

San Francisco 48

San Francisco California Cost Software 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Do some Customer Development instead. You have to know your business model. Most startups launch before theyve figured out what business theyre in. 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. Gattiker said.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

ConversionXL

JANUARY 28, 2013

Steve Blank , a Silicon Valley mentor and serial-entrepreneur, recognized for developing the customer development methodology, says it best: No plan survives first contact with customers. Sure, he was talking about business models and business plans, but it applies to websites as well.

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Conversion Silicon Valley Matching Design 106

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

You can listen by subscribing to my podcast on iTunes , or it’s enclosed in this blog’s RSS feed , or you can just download the mp3 of the first hour. Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem.

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Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. Thats what business is designed to do.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Steve Blank

APRIL 19, 2012

While the class teaches a process to search and validate a business model , it does not offer any hints on how to create a killer startup idea. Or it fulfills a fundamental human social need (friendship, dating, sex, entertainment, art, communication, blogs, confession, networking, gambling, religion, etc.). Hard-wired.

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Startup New York Customer Development Business Model 335

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

It’s also a great way to get inspiration for blogging. How to stay lean and iterate quickly while you’re building a two sided marketplace, especially when “network effect” and “critical mass” are the two main focuses? I would go back to the blog – it’s the #1 ROI if done right. Why do I do it?

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

grasshopperherder.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2011

If I can steal your idea by just hearing it, there is no defensible business model there. Reply Josh Strike says: January 18, 2011 at 10:50 am Tristan, the only thing I disagree with on an emotional level is the NDA business. A co-founder is investing in the business, they should get the same pitch if not more information.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder NDA Founder Sweat Equity 47

www.aaronkharris.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

Skipping ahead a bit Suffice it to say that we spent much of the last few months on customer development, a topic which merits its own post, and at which I think we’ve done a decent job. At that point, I shifted a major part of my time to tech specific networking, as did Josh.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire New York City .Net Cofounder 40