Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2019

Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have no idea how dramatically your own role has to evolve as you develop a solution, start a business, and expect it to scale into a successful self-managed company. Thus my job as a small business advisor really is really more about getting you developed than perfecting the business.

Leadership 248

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Social Media 248

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Call it facts for hire. It would be a bit like the hired gun in the old west, but more suited for today’s times. Today, brands are hiring social media specialists for customer support, crowdsourced product development, promotions and even leads generation. Hiring The Right Candidate. You got it. Absolutely.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Who should you hire? In a way, you can think of BD as “sales when you don’t know what the product is yet.” It’s basically working with potential outside partners to reach your business goals--which could be revenue, distribution, financing, product development, awareness, etc. How are you ever going to get it done?

PR 157

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 157

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back.

Technology 145

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 145

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

One of them used to be a lead developer at [insert hot consumer tech company here]. They need to raise money before building anything substantial after determining that they needed a little dough to follow the Lean Startup methodology. They close on the $750k, hire a buddy or two, buy some Macs, and get to work.

Burn Rate 153

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 153

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Market Risk vs. Invention Risk - Click to Enlarge For companies building web-based products, product development may be difficult, but with enough time and iteration engineering will eventually converge on a solution and ship a functional product - i t’s engineering, not invention.

Vertical 167

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 167

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

He spoke at the Founder Institute last week, and his advice was to not hire a PR agency until there were so many inbound requests that you can’t handle them yourself. Page views drive his ad revenue, which is probably CPM based. He knows how to publish articles that drive page views, and this is a good one.

Silicon Valley 215

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 215

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

This Invaluable Lesson Will Keep You From Making Catastrophic Hiring Mistakes - crowdspring.co/XeV4JS. Hiring startup engineers? Busting the Lean-Startup Myth – crowdspring.co/1ozOXHA. Six Things Physical Product Development Taught Me About Experience Design | UX Magazine – crowdspring.co/X7NCjD.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. Before you indulge in marketing, sales and blinged-out offices, find product-market fit. Hire the wrong people. Be trigger shy about hiring.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

.&# Most startups tend to think they are selling into an Existing market – a market exists and your company has a faster and better product. If that’s you, by all means hire a VP of Sales with a great rolodex and call on established mainstream companies – and ignore the rest of this post.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 146

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

To create this first year in business checklist, I turned to our in-house experts here at Palo Alto Software: Sabrina Parsons, CEO; Noah Parsons, COO; Josh Cochrane, Vice President of Product Development; and Josh Fegles, Academic and Government Channel Sales Director, and founder of gluten-free cookie company Jude’s Foods.

Forecast 60

Forecast Software Review Lean Finance 60

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

I firmly believe that in this age where the product development life-cycle is so short and user feedback comes so quickly, you will know within a year whether you are focusing on a worthwhile one thing. The most important hiring criteria for your executives is cultural fit. As CEO, you are responsible for every hire.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Last May, I shared the news that long-time Lean Startup advocates Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits were working on a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur featuring illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. LitMotors approach to using Lean Startup to create a new vehicle category. That new book is about to hit bookstores everywhere.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur San Francisco Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 21, 2013

Lean Analytics is the latest addition to the Lean Series. Business growth comes from improving one of these five “knobs”: More stuff means adding products or services, preferably those you know your customers want so you don’t waste time building things they won’t use or buy. You can order Lean Analytics today.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

The Lean Startup Book is done. If you've been waiting for a comprehensive account of the Lean Startup and how it can help you achieve dramatically better business results, this is it. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. For example, some startup sales execs believe hiring the core sales team is a key objective. Here’s what the product development diagram looks like from a sales perspective.

Customer Development 229

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 229

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Product Startup RSS 271

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 30, 2010

They’ve seen a ton of similar patterns, things to be aware of, or even potential hires that may want to join a company like yours. This way, you're getting the product feedback you need from customers and partners, I'm seeing what the market thinks of what you have, and we didn't even talk money at all yet.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Later Stage 108

techcocktail.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

But while you are small and lean, take advantage of everyone skills; if someone on your team is a great writer, have them take charge of your press releases and marketing content. be the manager and product developer). So if you do find your duplicate, hire them as soon as possible.

San Francisco 44

San Francisco Startup PHP San Diego 44

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2017

Before devoting resources to building a full version, consider launching an MVP (minimal viable product) first. Learn more about validating your business idea and product concept here. developers’ rates of $100-$200 per hour. No hiring or overhead costs for hiring employees. More competitive salaries.

Mobile 81

Mobile Application Development Web Software Review 81

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 26, 2018

Let me use the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework for product development to explain why. I will give you a high-level summary here, but if you are building products then I recommend spending some time with Google to find out a bit more. So lots of entrepreneurs skimp on this vital piece of work. That’s a bad decision.

Customer 75

Customer Framework Differentiation Customer Development 75

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

You have your general management meeting and in your general management meeting you talk about product development, about marketing and about finance. So again, none of this is me trying to say what you should do for product development, in fact, or what you should write in code in fact. Edwin: I know.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Up and Running

JANUARY 17, 2014

The phrase “lean startup” comes up a lot in conversations about entrepreneurship. I’ve been to several panel discussions on the topic, had it taught to me in a business school classroom, and read a book dedicated to lean startup methodology. Revise your product or service as quickly as possible. Deploying resources stringently.

Lean 107

Lean Startup Philadelphia Business Model 107

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

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.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Market Type also affects the market size as well as how you launch the product into the market.

Customer Development 222

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 222

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Are you in the “lean&# phase? I’m a very big believer in the “Lean Startup&# principles as espoused by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. they have a hiring advantage, both in terms of perception they’re going somewhere and in terms of dollars to allocate to people. They evolve the product faster.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Ideally, the economics of a development investment look like those of a cash investment; typically, a seed investor will get no more than about 20% of a company for his capital. Second, the company must eventually own the product development and maintenance functions in-house.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

MAY 22, 2019

Companies are investing in innovation training, mostly learning frameworks like Lean, Agile, or Design Thinking. Nearly all that training is for dedicated innovation teams , or employees who are focused on new product development. Many employees, hired to do operations, don’t feel that innovation is part of their job.

Operations 54

Operations Employee Technical Review Agile 54

bizthoughts.mikelee.org

MARCH 8, 2012

I was able to hire phenomenal software engineers and grow a strong team culture. With all the funded startups that are unable to hire, that’s a huge ace up my sleeve. link] # 4 hours ago Going #lean and testing with imagemaps, cuz concepts are cheap and code is expensive. # 2 hours ago What wise & mature words.

Technical Cofounder 40

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 40

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 245

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 245

Hearpreneur

APRIL 13, 2022

Thanks to Fletcher Wimbush, The Hire Talent ! #2- One of the most important lessons entrepreneurs can learn from Dropbox is to adopt the lean start-up methodology and start. He may not have rendered the other options obsolete, but the world has most certainly benefited from Elon Musk the disruptor. 2- Dropbox. 14- The Farmstand.

Artificial Inteligence 77

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Technical Review Andorra 77

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 14, 2015

We use the term “Minimum Viable Product” as a reminder to people with product development backgrounds that we’re going to build something. They recognize the importance of excellence and they strive to produce high-quality work —it’s why you hired them. Clarify what MVPs are and why they’re important.

Stealth 60

Stealth Engineer Leadership Design 60

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Hire a Programmer The Hope: You’ll use the programmer to build a prototype that will get you traction and experience. You know how to product manage and you’ve hired programmers before. I recommend you start by reading this post on how to hire a programmer. We tried this at Yipit and failed.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, January 19, 2009 Lean hiring tips In preparing for the strategy series panel this week, I have been doing some thinking about costs. Fundamentally, lean startups do more with less, because they systematically find and eliminate waste that slows down value creation.

Lean 140

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140