July, 2009

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Rocket Science 5: Who Needs Domain Experts

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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Embrace technical debt

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Embrace technical debt Financial debt plays an important and positive role in our economy under normal conditions. Yet, especially in times like these, it’s easy to rail against the badness of being in debt; it’s a very human feeling. Remember Hamlet? LORD POLONIUS: Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

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Beware of Gym Salesman VC

Both Sides of the Table

The post is part of a series called “Pitching a VC&# – the outlines is here. You’ve been trying to raise VC for months. You’ve obviously talked with several funds to hedge your bets. You finally get your first term sheet. Time to celebrate! But wait. What? They’re giving me 48 hours to sign the term sheet or it expires?

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Transitioning from Developer to Software Entrepreneur

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← The Future of the Web is Small, Academic Earth, Beatles Rock Band, Top Developer Blogs, et al. Startup Marketing Advice, “Failure,&# Things I Learned the Hard Way, and more… → Transitioning from Developer to Software Entrepreneur Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

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Cracking The Code: United Breaks Guitar and more!

Cracking the Code

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Friday, July 10, 2009. United Breaks Guitar and more! A few months ago, as I landed back from a snowboarding trip in SFO, I realized that my new snowboard bag had been cut over two inches during the handling. To cut such a thick nylon cover, the handler must have tried very hard!

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Lessons from Joost

BeyondVC

I am not going to rehash Om Malik's excellent summary of "What went wrong with Joost" but I did want to dive deeper into a few points. As I have always said, raising too much money can be a curse and not a blessing. Here is an excerpt from my post in 2006 Trust me, I love having well capitalized companies. However, having too much money can be a curse, not a blessing.

More Trending

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How to conduct a Five Whys root cause analysis

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 2, 2009 How to conduct a Five Whys root cause analysis In the lean startup workshops , we’ve spent a lot of time discussing the technique of Five Whys. It allows teams to diagnose sources of waste in their development process and continuously improve, reversing the usual trend of teams getting slower over time.

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Bill Gurley on the “Free” Business Model

abovethecrowd.com

I have been intrigued by the back and forth between Chris Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mark Cuban on the topic of “Free” as a strategy and business model. For those that haven’t read the articles and posts, I highly reccomend them all. Here they are in a list: 1) Back in February of 2008, Chris [.].

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Startup Marketing Advice, “Failure,” Things I Learned the Hard Way.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Transitioning from Developer to Software Entrepreneur How to Compete Against Open Source Competition → Startup Marketing Advice, “Failure,&# Things I Learned the Hard Way, and more… Cool News, Links & Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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When do I need to incorporate a company?

Startup Company Lawyer

[It's been awhile since I wrote anything. I am giving a presentation to some of the founders in TheFunded Founder Institute on incorporating their companies, so I thought I would recycle some thoughts.]. Founders of startup companies often wait to incorporate a company until they are confident that their concept is viable or fundable. At some point, however, an entrepreneur will need to formally incorporate a company.

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Incorporate ‘yesterday’

K9 Ventures

Ever since I found the blog Startup Company Lawyer , I’ve had a high regard for its author, Yokum Taku , a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Yokum’s posts are always chock-full-of-good-information. His most recent post was on the topic of When do I need to incorporate a company? I’ve spent some time thinking about this before, and, in fact, had a couple of tweets related to this as well: Yokum already did an excellent job of laying down the legal considerations.

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Ask and It Shall be Given « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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The Principles of Product Development Flow

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 13, 2009 The Principles of Product Development Flow If youve ever wondered why agile or lean development techniques work, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald G. Reinertsen is the book for you. Its quite simply the most advanced product development book you can buy.

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Counter-Point to Calacanis on Yahoo-Microsoft Deal

abovethecrowd.com

Jason Calacanis penned an elegant and well reasoned blog post today implying that Yahoo has committed suicide by entering into a 10-year search deal with Microsoft. I would like to make a few points explaining why I respectfully disagree with Jason. I believe that board rooms all over America were heavily distracted by Google’s rise. Envious of Google’s success, [.

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Two Must-Read Books for Micropreneurs

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← One of the Most Time Consuming Startup Roadblocks The Future of the Web is Small, Academic Earth, Beatles Rock Band, Top Developer Blogs, et al. → Two Must-Read Books for Micropreneurs Cool News, Links & Reviews , Micropreneurship If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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In VC deals, Price Doesn't Matter - But The "Promote" Does

Seeing Both Sides

VCs have an unfair advantage when it comes to financings. They simply have more experience doing deals. A typical start-up company will do 2-4 venture capital financings before a successful exit (or, conversely, an ignomious ending). A typical serial entreprenur may lead 2-3 companies in their career before calling it quits (or checking themselves in to an insane asylum).

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These Robots Are Getting Pretty Good

Altgate

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Last Chance To Take CompStudy Survey Seeking CTO in Boston for Healthcare IT startup → These Robots Are Getting Pretty Good Posted on July 13, 2009 by fnazeeri You have to admit that there is some pretty cool technology here in Boston.

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Rocket Science 2: Drinking the Kool-Aid

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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Lean Startup fbFund slides and video

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 6, 2009 Lean Startup fbFund slides and video As a follow-up to my previous post on my talk for fbFund at Facebook , there was enough interest in watching video of the talk that I have finally uploaded it using Apples MobileMe. There are three sizes of video available here ; Ive embedded the medium quality below.

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I Do Not Believe that Zappos Was “Forced” to Sell

abovethecrowd.com

There are quite a few stories circulating in the blogosphere and Twittersphere discussing the recent acquisition of Zappos by Amazon. Some of these articles have a quite sinister and devious tone, imagining some remarkable behind-the-scenes drama that would make Spielberg pay attention. Here are two specific example: PE Hub’s “Zappos CEO Wanted To Stay Independent, Sequoia Wanted [.

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The Future of the Web is Small, Academic Earth, Beatles Rock Band.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Two Must-Read Books for Micropreneurs Transitioning from Developer to Software Entrepreneur → The Future of the Web is Small, Academic Earth, Beatles Rock Band, Top Developer Blogs, et al. Cool News, Links & Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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ProfessorVC: Burn Rate

Professor VC

ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley. Wednesday, July 22, 2009. Burn Rate. The burn rates of my portfolio companies is certainly top of mind right now, but thats not what this post is about. Not yet anyway.Things may change by the end. Ever wonder what your ops guy is doing when hes not obsessing over your sites health 7x24. If anyone still carries a beeper these days, its him.

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@altgate » Blog Archive » Seeking CTO in Boston for Healthcare IT.

Altgate

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← These Robots Are Getting Pretty Good Words of widsom from my youth → Seeking CTO in Boston for Healthcare IT startup Posted on July 14, 2009 by fnazeeri This opportunity is with an unannounced healthcare IT startup lead by a MD/PhD with a successful track record of building and selling companies.

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He's Only in Field Service

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 30, 2009 Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder Im very excited to announce a pair of events that will kick off a very busy fall speaking tour. Ill be in Boulder for two days. Ill let David Cohen of Techstars , who organized the trip, describe the plan: On August 19th, Eric will be speaking at a dinner in Boulder.

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Bob Ackerman of Allegis Capital– America Depends on Entrepreneurs While Current Public Policy Assaults Them

Pascal's View

On June 25th I moderated a panel on the implications of America’s. Innovation Crisis for Cybersecurity at the National Press Club in. Washington, D.C. The full transcript of the slides integrated with my. prepared remarks is now posted at www.levp.com. This event was sponsored by the non-profit Security Innovation Network. At the end of the panel I asked each of the panelists, Bob Ackerman of Allegis Capital , Professor Randy Katz of Berkeley , and Dave Robbins of BigFix , to answer the

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Power to the people | Seth Levine

VC Adventure

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One of the Most Time Consuming Startup Roadblocks

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← A Micropreneur’s Perspective: Selling Physical Products vs. Digital Products Two Must-Read Books for Micropreneurs → One of the Most Time Consuming Startup Roadblocks Micropreneurship If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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Last Chance To Take CompStudy Survey

Altgate

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Cracking the Code on Patient Medical Record Search These Robots Are Getting Pretty Good → Last Chance To Take CompStudy Survey Posted on July 12, 2009 by fnazeeri I’ve posted a couple of times on CompStudy , the annual survey of executive compensation in private / startup companies.

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Customer Development Fireside Chat

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 3, 2009 Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up Last week I had a real blast meeting with the companies at the fbFund incubator at Palo Alto. They were kind enough to open the event up to the public, which meant we were seriously stressing the buildings HVAC - and I have pictures to prove it: Thank you all so much! As usual, Id like to post the slides and then offer some additional commentary.

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Dave Robbins– BigFix CEO, on Top Priorities for Protecting U.S. Critical Infrastructure

Pascal's View

Last Thursday I moderated a panel on the implications of America’s Innovation Crisis for Cybersecurity at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The full transcript of the slides integrated with my prepared remarks is now posted at www.levp.com. This event was sponsored by the non-profit Security Innovation Network. At the end of the panel I asked each of the panelists, Bob Ackerman of Allegis Capital , Professor Randy Katz of Berkeley , and Dave Robbins of BigFix , to answer the fo

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Power to the people

VC Adventure

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Rocket Science 4: The Press is Our Best Product

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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Rocket Science 3: Hollywood Meets Silicon Valley « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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A Wilderness of Mirrors

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico