YoungUpstarts

MAY 23, 2018

Many founders or startup teams gravitate toward sales or design. One of the reasons why startups often don’t make a profit is that the leadership is either unaware of their own strengths and weaknesses, or is unwilling to relinquish information or power to let others with necessary strengths come in and help in areas in which they are weak.

Due Diligence 133

Due Diligence Startup Finance Leadership 133

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 233

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 233

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Many entrepreneurs never get past their first-stage focus on their innovative product, to scaling the business globally, organizing a structure to handle thousands of employees, and concentrating their focus “on the business” rather than working “in the business.” Switch your focus from product development to sales.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

Hiring = Sales. A good recruitment process has many parallels with a sales funnel. As with sales, these core reasons need to be compelling to candidates, while being as unique to you (competitive differentiation) as possible. Not sales, product development, or fundraising.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2012

There are unknowns at every turn, leading product development, attracting customers, managing cash, and dealing with human resources and office politics. To get competitive leadership, you can’t be an industry follower. Build a learning organization that shares your vision and drive. Strategically timid and haphazard marketing.

Advisory Board 240

Advisory Board Forecast Early Stage Product Development 240

YoungUpstarts

MAY 25, 2017

author of “ The EQ Leader: Instilling Passion, Creating Shared Goals, and Building Meaningful Organizations through Emotional Intelligence “ In today’s work settings, many of the old-style hierarchal and authoritarian styles of leadership have become obsolete. by Steven Stein, Ph.D., Express authenticity on every level.

Leadership 167

Leadership Database Employee Global 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 6, 2013

Dan comes to this conversation as an engineer, product developer, and startup veteran with a career-long interest in how people interact with the complex systems they themselves build. Dan and Eric will also talk about how engineers can contribute to containing uncertainty—including in the way they interact with leadership.

Lean 167

Lean Engineer Startup Cofounder 167

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2011

There are unknowns at every turn, leading product development, attracting customers, managing cash, and dealing with human resources and office politics. To get competitive leadership, you can’t be an industry follower. Build a learning organization that shares your vision and drive. Strategically timid and haphazard marketing.

Advisory Board 232

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 232

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

You take that money and invest a good portion of it in traditional sales and marketing efforts — including product developers, creative people, and salespeople, all of whom are paid to figure out what buyers want and to say good things about your company — in a quest to get even more customers. Believably promote your product.

Customer 168

Customer Social Media Retention Canada 168

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Do they have better sales, marketing, or product development groups? What the winners start with is the realization that in a world of continuous disruption, they have only a few years to develop new capabilities or be pushed over the brink. Is it that some CEOs are better than others? Are their people smarter?

Incubator 420

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 420

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

If your organization’s mission is to improve the lives of others with your product(s), you will perform better than any executive hell-bent on merely selling more product(s). Executives can take the power of visualization and apply it to any objective they see fit, whether it means increasing sales or nailing out the kinks in a budget.

Operations 113

Operations Sales Restful Green 113

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Talented product developers. If you can harness the knowledge, natural enthusiasm, and peer influence of your very best customers — I call them “Rock Star” customers — they’ll market, sell, and help develop breakthrough products for your firm better than your internal resources can do, and often at a fraction of the cost.

Customer 154

Customer Fractional CTO Canada Technical Review 154

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 272

Silicon Valley Product Startup RSS 272

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

" A recent article in The Wall Street Journal noted that Lego, the Danish manufacturer of interlocking toys, would lay off 1400 workers after the first sales drop in more than 13 years. Lego’s announcement reminded me of these six leadership lessons. . "We realized we weren’t going to make our numbers."

Small Business 32

Small Business Leadership Salary Forecast 32

YoungUpstarts

MAY 19, 2014

Oh, and Northwestern Mutual has been in business for over 157 years and is worth $25 billion in sales. First, there’s the external trust between an organization and its customers: Will a company stand behind its products? You can be loud, you can be quiet, but leadership is what you are, not what you say. Here’s how: 1.

Employee 160

Employee Leadership Balance Sheet Chicago 160

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products.

Technology 146

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 146

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 25, 2012

There are numerous great books out there on business, entrepreneurship, leadership, and other topics of interest to MBA students that can be immensely valuable to anyone looking to build their knowledge and prepare for a career in business. Management and Leadership. Productivity. Why work hard when you can work smart?

Merger 228

Merger Leadership Design Management 228

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

Sometimes the sales process is accelerated/fast while the product development is slow, so taking the time to get something right before rushing to market is a trait to embrace. . Go at your own V-speed. Flight paths can be tricky. There is a time to accelerate other times take a step back and assess the situation.

San Francisco 153

San Francisco Cofounder Leadership Chicago 153

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 21, 2014

Oh, and Northwestern Mutual has been in business for over 157 years and is worth $25 billion in sales. First, there’s the external trust between an organization and its customers: Will a company stand behind its products? You can be loud, you can be quiet, but leadership is what you are, not what you say. Here’s how: 1.

Employee 189

Employee Balance Sheet Leadership Chicago 189

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

One of the greatest threats to long-term success is when companies aren’t vigilant enough about responding to the changes in their market—whether it’s by failing to spot product or channel fatigue, acknowledge new competition, make needed updates to products or marketing adjustments in a timely fashion, or embrace new technology coming online.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2010

There are unknowns at every turn, leading product development, attracting customers, managing cash, and dealing with human resources and office politics. To get competitive leadership, you can’t be an industry follower. Build a learning organization that shares your vision and drive. Strategically timid and haphazard marketing.

Advisory Board 125

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 125

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 21, 2023

Enhancing your tech leadership approach means taking a more holistic view of the business, thinking strategically about long-term growth, and making decisions that impact the entire organization. This involves understanding your customers’ pain points and addressing them through product development, marketing, and customer service.

Leadership 136

Leadership Technology Audience Customer 136

ConversionXL

APRIL 13, 2017

Jonathan Price wrote on the same Quora thread that he believes growth marketing to differ from regular marketing because it “is technology-centric and it blurs the boundary between marketing and product development.” A growth team, however, is largely overlapped with product, engineering, and design as well.

Analytics 99

Analytics Engineer SEO Channel 99

YoungUpstarts

JULY 2, 2020

Many companies, in the face of declining sales, are becoming more aggressive in their marketing strategies. Empathize with your customers and understand that pushy sales pitches won’t work – worse, you could come across as uncaring and greedy. If you use these same metrics, you’re going to be sorely disappointed in the results.

Marketing 262

Marketing Metrics Channel Differentiation 262

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 18, 2014

(Quicken, TurboTax, and QuickBooks are a few of its products.) One of its primary goals was to galvanize product development by discovering often-unstated customer needs and creating solutions for them. Unfortunately, Toyota diluted that system in its drive for global expansion and global sales leadership.

Employee 162

Employee Operations Global Dilution 162

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

In addition, I’ve noted a few multi-product lending firms, e.g., Kapitus and United Capital Source , which provide RBI as one of many structural options to companies seeking capital. . We have a special program if you are pre-seed and need product development. Alternative Capital. “ You qualify if you have $5k+ MRR.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. In contrast, sales and marketing activities before first customer ship are adhoc, fuzzy, and don’t have measurable, concrete objectives. Freemium models have their own scorekeeping.)

Customer Development 229

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 229

OnlyOnce

MARCH 14, 2011

In Part Two, I’ll talk about some of the practices we’re using in our product management and development teams. It was stressful, but productively stressful and fun. Second is the ability to capitalize on a well-known brand—the result of many years of marketing, PR, and thought leadership within the industry.

Software Review 67

Software Review Development Team Review Later Stage Technical Review 67

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. This post describes such a model.

Customer Development 256

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 256

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn't check out the sales podcast, where host Will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. If we're looking at their concept, their investor deck, we're saying, where is that demand?

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 14, 2015

Lately, I’ve been hearing from a lot of entrepreneurs experiencing pushback to the concept of minimum viable product. Their teams may disagree about what a product should look like, who the customer is, and which distributors to work with, but one thing they can all agree upon is: “We build high-quality products in this company.

Stealth 60

Stealth Engineer Leadership Design 60

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Markets with Customer/Market Risk are those where the unknown is whether customers will adopt the product. is whether there is a customer and market for the product as spec’d. These are markets where it may take 5 or even 10 years to get a product out of the lab and into production. The real risk in markets like Web 2.0

Vertical 167

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 167

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

As the (very junior) product marketing manager I got a call from our local salesman that someone at Apple wanted more technical information than just the spec sheets about our new (not yet shipping) chip. I vividly remember the sales guy saying, “It’s only some kid in field service. What happened?

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 146

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

AUGUST 12, 2021

A Fractional CINO addresses these missing skill sets: The MisFortune 10,000 Tend to Lack These Innovation Skills: Process and Innovation Project Management Skills — including: team building, culture leadership, innovation project roadmapping, and more. New ideas need to integrate product development with marketing and sales as well.

Framework 71

Framework Agile Product Development Hiring 71