Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

The last couple of years has also seen the huge initial success of Ycombinator, the Lean Startup and many other product driven approaches to going to market. That died with waterfall software development. Do you really want to spent $100k building a product to discover through Customer Development that the market is too small?

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

The product or website (be it software, e-commerce, or a service) might be awesome , but if it puts itself in front of the wrong market, or packages itself so the right market can’t figure out why it’s awesome, the startup will fail. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development?

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. This is the pivot, a crucial tactical maneuver for the lean startup [.] Are These Your Slides?

Silicon Valley 261

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

I know that this all seems obvious now with the movements started by Steven Blank ( Four Steps of Epiphany ) with the whole Customer Development processes / Lean Startup movements also popularized by people like Eric Ries. but it is so important to see what your customers do in their daily lives. It was Salesforce.com.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

Berkeley Haas Business School was courageous enough to give me a forum teach the Customer Development Methodology. Most of the ability to create a radio industry in the 1920s was due to the accident of ionospheric radio propagation. After I retired, Jerry Engel , director of the Lester Center on Entrepreneurship , at U.C.

Silicon Valley 302

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 302

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept for starting and growing successful companies: Lean Planning™. Before I dive too deeply into the Lean Planning methodology, it makes sense to talk about its history and where it comes from. Lean Planning is born.

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

When I went through their financials as part of my due diligence I realized that if they ditched their low margin disk drive products, it wouldn’t take much to make them a profitable company. They had an existing distribution channel and their dealers and customers thought they knew who the company was and what it stood for.

Silicon Valley 170

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 170

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

I was having coffee with the CEO of a new startup, listening to her puzzle through how to communicate to potential customers. She was an academic on leave from Stanford now selling SAAS software to large companies, but was being inundated with marketing communications advice. “My Filed under: Customer Development , Marketing.

Marketing 318

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 318

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. These processes reduce risk to an overall organization, but each layer of process reduces the ability to be agile and lean and – most importantly – responsive to new opportunities and threats. Process Versus Product.

Government 322

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 322

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital | Tagged: Entrepreneurs « Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type (part 4) Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) » 16 Responses Jon Ziskind , on September 14, 2009 at 9:19 am Said: Steve – Great post and really great advice.

Silicon Valley 237

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 237

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Within these applications how did our customers spend their day? And since the card was useless without any application software, what other software products did they use on it? What reviews did they trust? No one remembered our ads, saw our reviews or had read a positive article about us. Which ones?

Silicon Valley 213

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 213

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 15, 2013

Lean Business: Capacity Management, Overhead, and Your Business – [link]. Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. How You Can Benefit from All Your Stress | Heidi Grant Halvorson – Harvard Business Review – [link]. Ray Fisman-Harvard Business Review – [link].

Social Media 105

Social Media Small Business Design Media 105

The Next Web

JANUARY 27, 2013

I couldn’t write a single line of code, and I didn’t have any clue how to start a business. Four books helped me out a lot over the last few years: Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank, Running Lean by Ash Maurya, The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris and Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson. Learn to code.

Netherlands 159

Netherlands Technical Review Software Review Cofounder 159

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Since the term “cloud computing” was coined in 1996—at least as we have come to understand its meaning—the software as a service industry has exploded. Step 1: Start with a lean plan. I started UpKeep after seeing and using traditional enterprise software. Use your knowledge of an industry to solve a problem. “I

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « Am I a Founder? What is your advice to someone who has financial strain due to a startup? The Adventure of a Lifetime. I do have the work life balance reasonably well tuned now , incidentally.

Entrepreneur 295

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 295

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Since no benchmarks existed, we enlisted our engineering department in a serious software development effort and wrote our own. And we made sure that instead of some artificial numbers, the benchmarks truly measured performance on these four key applications our customers told us were important.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 128

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Video Games At SuperMac , Peter Barrett was the witty and creative 24-year old Australian engineer who had designed several of our most successful products, culminating with the software for the Video Spigot. But I wonder if the success is due to or in spite of VCs. Now he wanted to go off start his own company.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. The product or website (be it software, e-commerce, or a service) might be awesome , but if it puts itself in front of the wrong market, or packages itself so the right market can’t figure out why it’s awesome, the startup will fail.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

His most recent company, Filtrbox, participated in the inaugural Techstars class (Techstars Boulder 2007) and was a win for all parties involved; Filtrbox was acquired in 2010 by Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE). One of them used to be a lead developer at [insert hot consumer tech company here]. In startup time, that feels like forever.

Burn Rate 153

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 153

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

The USP that communicates this is: “ConvertKit helps you find your audience, turn them into true fans, and earn a living as a creator with our audience building and email marketing software.”. Advocates are more likely to agree to an interview due to positive sentiment. However, it’s necessary due to the nature of the interaction.

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? I’ve talked with a number of software development shops who are eager to get into the business of cofounding companies, i.e., getting product revenue and equity instead of just consulting revenue. mentor VCs, e.g., most VCs. Our model at Casual Corp.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

And the odds in your favor are even higher, as most of your peers wouldn’t even get into the game due to some unspoken belief that in a meritocracy, good things will come to those who wait. OK, done.) “Steve, I would really appreciate it if you could review my business plan and forward it to Mike Maples at Maples Investments.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

ConversionXL

JANUARY 24, 2014

The importance of the customer feedback cycle & the role it plays for AWeber. How to get your software business to the point where you can hire a business development director. Hunter shares some extremely valuable insights that will prove useful in building beneficial relationships and getting highly qualified customers.

Developer 104

Developer Cofounder API New Jersey 104

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

But a decade earlier as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, he was the father of the second offset strategy using software and semiconductors to build smart weapons, smart sensors, and stealth aircraft that helped end the Cold War. Perry eventually became the 19th secretary of defense. It’s a ton of work. Pivot stories.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley San Diego Technical Review Incubator 120

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

These days, many agencies start as a lean operation. Inversely, if you’re using the agency model to fund another startup or product, you should probably keep things lean. A dramatic example of this is a software development agency offering UX and UI services. Why—or why not—pivot your agency service offering?

PR 120

PR B2B Lean Audience 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

It needs to be more mature, so let’s focus on the small-sized companies where my ideal customer and the people that pull out credit cards is in general the CEO. Jason: And to me, trying to replace someone’s to-do software or their actual organization software? They’re doing something else by that point.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Lean Startup Circle Boston – Meetup dedicated to the lean startup and customer development methodology. Raizlabs – Mobile Development. Intrepid – Mobile development. Extension Engine - Software engineering and design. Walter Frick - Harvard Business Review. Coworking Spaces and Accelerators.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

After quitting my job and starting Sorced , I spent a few months validating my business concept by creating the product mockups and doing customer development. My delusions of coding grandeur quickly subsided and realized that I was not going to hack it. The Alchemist Series: Customer Development and Metrics.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

The rent was due. It was by far the easiest software around to build online courses and membership sites. When we launched Traindom, we knew nothing about lean startup methodology or customer development. They asked me to keep on working and they’ll pay me later once they find a new investor, but no promises.

Panama 124

Panama Africa Internet Email 124

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

At Palo Alto Software, I am surrounded by entrepreneurs. Our LivePlan customers are entrepreneurs, our founder and staff have run and sold companies, the Bplans readers are aspiring entrepreneurs (or actual entrepreneurs), and as I sell my own handmade jewelry, I like to think I have a very small claim to the title.

Curation 60

Curation Lean Software Review Finder 60

The Startup Toolkit

AUGUST 29, 2012

If the founding team is non-technical and you can’t figure out whether you are being screwed by your developers or whether your potential new CTO is amazing, a tech advisor can help by joining you in interviews and reviewing commits. Just adding their stamp of approval to your pitch can make a world of difference.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review CTO Hire Cap Table Software Review 38

andrewchenblog.com

MARCH 10, 2010

Coupled with A/B testing, customer development, and thinking through business problems in a scientific, hypothesis-driven way, you end up with a powerful cocktail of techniques to build a modern startup in the most iterative way possible. Another great article is from Joel on Software called Duct Tape Programmer.

Technical Review 47

Technical Review Design Las Vegas Product 47

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

If engineers want more time to spend making their old code more pretty, they are invited to do so on the weekends. The idea is that once we move to the new system (or coding standard, or API, or.) The current code is spaghetti, but the new code will be elegant. Its become "legacy code" and part of the problem.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

A new bit of code contained an infinite loop! why did that code get written? Hes a new employee, and he was not properly trained in TDD So far, this isnt much different from the kind of analysis any competent operations team would conduct for a site outage. Most engineers would ship code to production on their first day.

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

Software By Rob

MARCH 17, 2011

Let’s Hang in Vancouver – I’m speaking at the Lean Startup Conference in Vancouver, B.C. May 5th and 6th along with Ash Maurya and the authors of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development for Tech Startups. Linus Torvalds Goes Missing For 20 Days. Torrent of all Zynga Passwords.

Lean 40

Lean Technical Review Customer Development Startup 40

usersknow.blogspot.com

APRIL 30, 2010

A good answer to this question should really include all of the following: I have both development and design time scheduled for quick follow up work on the feature over the next few sprints. My code base can be changed or refactored to support major changes to the feature. Use the code “LAURAK&# for 20% off your ticket price!

Software Review 40

Software Review Agile San Francisco Metrics 40