Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems. But here’s where a truly great sales artist comes in. They are closing orders.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

What are the value propositions, benefits and the messaging (bait), the pricing structure and channels (tackle), and length of sales cycle (how likely a fish will snap your line)? Or will you need to staff and finance a whaling ship to be out at sea for months at a time to catch two or three whales (enterprise sales model)?

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

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. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Problem is, you inevitably become yesterday’s old news.

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

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. Last year, the co -founders of B ack to the Roots talked about their innovation accounting and how they were ignoring sales metrics in order to grow.

Lean 165

Lean Technical Review Startup Software Review 165

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

So instead of having sales, marketing, and business development, we have a problem team implementing customer development. Well be discussing in greater detail the three techniques I highlighted at the Expo: continuous deployment, split-testing, and five whys. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 132

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean Agile 132

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

This makes lean supply chains more robust in the face of the unexpected: if sales suddenly dry up, they are stuck with less unsold inventory and simultaneously have less debt to service. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. One last thought. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0,

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

These companies produced over $52 billion dollars in sales in 2005, and employed 450,000 workers that year. These companies produced over $52 billion dollars in sales in 2005, and employed 450,000 workers that year. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 121

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup 121

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Now its time to start to think seriously about how to find a repeatable and scalable sales process, how to position and market the product, and how to build a product development team that can turn an early product into a Whole Product. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

For example, I quickly learned that when I twittered about the event, more often than not I would make a sale. I’ve often wanted to wire up a bell to sales data, so that when we make a sale, we literally hear the cash register ring. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. All too often hackers stay hacking because of this lack of seeing the bigger picture or not having the support to make the transition.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Part-Time VPE 94

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ▼ 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. Is that a lot? Is that good?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Although customers didnt flock to this offering at first, we had enough of a developer program active to start recruiting early adopters to start creating 3D objects for sale in our catalog. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. At no time did IMVU ever employ more than three full-time 3D artists.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Similarly, government purchasing is a frustrating series of hoops, even compared to enterprise sales. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ▼ 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

www.subelsky.com

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Because it has an RSS feed, one could also use "Unresolved Hoptoad Errors" as a metric influencing the continuous deployment system. Update: I havent used Heroku , but as Ryan points out in the comments it definitely belongs on this list as a compelling, get-up-and-running fast deployment platform. It's quite interesting.I

Lean 41

Lean Baltimore Ruby Maryland 41

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

A few of the detailed case studies include: Tech legend Bill Gross building an MVP in 1999 to test demand for online car sales, which grew into CarsDirect.com. KISSmetrics building and empowering cross-functional teams to attack problems in their sales funnels via hypothesis testing. The result: a new idea I called The Lean Startup.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur San Francisco Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

This can take the form of a traditional sales pipeline or a registration-activation-revenue chart. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Then, the company spends no more than a few hundred dollars marketing the product through search engines and to the contacts in its sales database and LinkedIn. Then, the company spends no more than a few hundred dollars marketing the product through search engines and to the contacts in its sales database and LinkedIn.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

At that point, theres no opportunity for marketing or sales; the battle is already won or lost in the persons mind. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

Viral 140

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

We got instantaneous feedback on the validity of the idea and started our sales process concurrently. LOIs, while clearly not as good as signed sales contract, do have meaning and are valuable. We got instantaneous feedback on the validity of the idea and started our sales process concurrently.

San Francisco 144

San Francisco Customer Wiki Lean 144

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Of course, the sales folks had new features as their #1 priority. But the results were excellent - customer satisfaction, sales, profits, quality, attitudes all improved dramatically. The major change was never starting any project without sales, marketing, manufacturing, field support, purchasing, etc. What a freaking mess.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

In particular, a marketing launch can help you do three things (courtesy, as is most of my marketing advice, of The Four Steps to the Epiphany ): Drive customers into your sales pipeline. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. In the right situation, its a very useful tactic, too.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

Because this language may lead you to believe this concept is for enterprise sales only, I thought Id walk you through an example from the world of consumer electronics. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. One of my favorite gadgets at home is the Harmony Universal Remote.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2008

Sales depend on being right (whereas in UGC we can pretty much try anything, and promote the winners). Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

SVPG

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

If our customer service, professional services, or sales staff are blind-sided by constant change, they can’t do their jobs. This is why we use Gentle Deployment Techniques including assessing customer impact. Protect Employees and Customers. See Assessing Customer Impact.

Product 67

Product NDA Continuous Deployment Reputation 67

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 16, 2010

Meanwhile, individuals and smaller companies emailed by the hundreds to say that they wanted the features of custom channels, but the sales model—arranged like a media buy—didn’t make sense to them. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Analytics Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

It took hundreds of years for newspapers to learn to behave as worthy holders of this public trust and cover the news without fear or favour, and create a firewall between news and views and the ad-sales side of the operation. Since LL took over xstreet, they have seen a 34% DROP in users and sales, why? YOU and ONLY YOU.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Without a basis for comparison, you first have to drive home the need, then you will have an easy time making the sale (after all, youre the person who they trust to bring it to their attention). Toughest part of the sale is to get agreement that you really can deliver benefits that they didnt previously know were possible.

San Francisco 89

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean 89

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

This is usually exacerbated by zealous sales persons who oversell the features, or even more typical, promise completely new features. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ▼ 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79