Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

That green button was part of a customer flow, a series of actions you want customers to complete for some business reason. If its part of a viral loop, its probably trying to get them to invite more friends (on average). Why did customers like your change so much that they didnt change their behavior one iota ?

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 15, 2013

Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. ViralSearch: Identifying and Visualizing Viral Content – [link]. Understanding the Consequences of the Business Decisions You Fudge On – [link].

Social Media 105

Social Media Small Business Design Media 105

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. Not many customers ever browse the app directory or search for specific apps - they dont have to, they find out about apps by being invited by a friend.

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

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 Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

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.

Viral 140

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Some products have relatively obvious monetization mechanisms, and the real risks are in customer adoption. Products can find sources of validation with impressive stats along a number of dimensions, such as high engagement, viral coefficient, or long-term retention. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 8, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

Software Review 136

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 136

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. Customers cant even remember what apps theyve signed up for, and become entirely dependent on notifications to bring them back.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck.

Product 436

Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Or should you focus on user engagement or virality? For more on how to figure out which question applies in which context, see Business ecology and the four customer currencies.) (For more on how to figure out which question applies in which context, see Business ecology and the four customer currencies.)

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Instead you will be getting your hands dirty talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. What are the 9 parts of a business model?

Wiki 318

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 318

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.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

ConversionXL

MARCH 28, 2014

Even though the video may contain some of these elements, an explainer video is NOT specifically: A Viral video. Also, always do qualitative research & conduct customer development interviews to help your script address as many pain points as possible. A Tutorial. A Company Overview. Or A Product Demonstration.

Video 122

Video Software Review Cofounder Metrics 122

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?) It also means you essentially have to build a viral product, because you can’t afford advertising.

Marketing 318

Marketing Viral Campaign Business Model 318

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” It’s an impressive portfolio.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 228

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

It’s as big of a deal as getting your viral loop working — it’s how you’re going to acquire customers at scale. It’s the same reason you can’t outsource customer development. It takes time to get the roadmap solid. The founders have to do the early sales.

Hiring 51

Hiring Founder Viral Early Stage 51

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Part-Time VPE 94

ConversionXL

MAY 29, 2013

Granted I have not done any customer development interviews here, and I’ll just go with what I think. “Add social sharing buttons so your landing page can go viral!” That’s a good idea. I will earn income? Sign me up! Is that a realistic thought sequence in the prospect’s mind? What can I do here?

PPC 132

PPC Mobile Conversion Stock 132

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

San Francisco 74

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

Either way, you would have been better off focusing your split-test on high level metrics that measure how much customers like your product as a whole. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

We naively thought we would have a viral campaign, but it took us 4 months to create and cost us $25,000. Filed under: Customer Development. How do you have proof that they’ll pay for this?” ” Kickstarter was the only platform we could think of to prove that people would buy our product.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 267

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 30, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

San Francisco 83

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 83

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

In the Udemy course, Alistair and Ben expand these basics into a description of how to create empathy, stickiness, virality, revenue, and scale. Stickiness, Ben and Alistair say, is where people move on too quickly--they don’t make sure they really have a product that has the right features and functionality to meet their customers’ needs.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

” April, 2012 – Andrew Chen writes Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing , which goes viral (2.4K Now, people begin defining growth hacking as a process, a systematic approach, a “viral loop”, etc. Conducted Customer Development. Established a strong value proposition based on Customer Development.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 5, 2014

Yesterday Kissmetrics blogged A recipe of viral features used by the fastest growing startups. It’s a good read for anybody who wants to increase the number of free customers they are getting. In other words virality is science not art. Who wouldn’t want that? It’s a design principle. It’s not a result of good luck.

Viral 92

Viral Lean SEO Software 92

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

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

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? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? January 28, 2009 1:54 AM startupcfo said.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

For example, if you are trying to determine viral coefficient (see Startup Metrics ), then the focus should be around those aspects of the MVP. Customer Development Notes I'm assuming founders are having customer development conversations. Seeing the evolution of thinking is not a bad thing.

Developer 354

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO Software Review 354

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

But even as nonpaying users, these earlyvangelists are willing or eager accelerators of your viral growth. We now know this results in wasted engineering effort, time and cash, as customers don’t use, want or need most of the features developed without their input. They understand they have a problem.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Cofounder Engineer 119

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Noah Parsons says, “Start collecting contact information for interested, prospective customers. Develop a landing page, do some lightweight advertising, and generally reach out to as many potential customers as you can.”. Start as soon as possible. That’s two votes for Product Hunt from two separate entrepreneurs.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Hippoland

DECEMBER 5, 2012

Customer Development. When I first started customer development , it was really daunting. I would often have to cold-call and approach random people I didn’t know to do these customer interviews. So, I would do a lot of cold-calling, cold-emailing to keep a pipeline full of customers. .

Founder 90

Founder Cofounder Advertising Customer Development 90

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? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

We naively thought we would have a viral campaign, but it took us 4 months to create and cost us $25,000. Filed under: Customer Development. How do you have proof that they’ll pay for this?” ” Kickstarter was the only platform we could think of to prove that people would buy our product.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 120

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

Someone else in the office just made a video of it, and it went viral on Facebook. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. That’s what someone in my office who’s a veteran was trying to do one day, and he kept, he got in this infinite loop on their phone system: Press 6. OK, back to the beginning.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Washington Government 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

The product is so good, helpful, and easy to use that it literally almost does its own marketing organically through the product’s viral nature, just as Hotmail and Gmail have done since inception. Filed under: Customer Development. It scaled like lightning by solving an urgent, painful problem for millions of consumers.

Startup 334

Startup Cofounder Customer Development Viral 334

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. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Social Network Lean Continuous Deployment 68

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.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167