Startup Lessons Learned Conference

Just got back from the wonderful Startup Lessons Learned conference in San Francisco, put on by Eric Ries.

This was the first major gathering of people interested in the new "lean startup" movement, which basically ties together the ideas of Steve Blank on Customer Development with ideas from the lean software/Agile development community.

Although the educational information presented was great, I had already internalized a great deal of it from my own readings and experience. 

But the case studies were really the heart of the conference.  Presentations from Dropbox, PBWorks, and a variety of other startups in different stages really illustrated the principles much better than any formal theory could.

In particular, most of the folks presenting case studies had to "pivot" their business model when some aspect of their original vision just didn't work.  Some did this more than a few times before getting it right (or close to right). I was struck that almost no one reached critical mass through advertising or PR.  Instead they started with a "minimum viable product" and attracted referrals as they went, sometimes from unexpected sources.

For me, the biggest takeaway was a renewed commitment to connect deeply with customers, better understand the problems and goals they have, and to do the best we can to solve them as simply and effectively as possible.

Oh, and it made me want to blog again :-)