A special hat tip to William Mougayar, who launched StartupManagement.org this year to aggregate insights and advice from entrepreneurs and investors. In addition to the SUM website -- through which I found many posts listed below -- William publishes a terrific email newsletter that curates the week's best posts.
Apologies to authors whose work I've omitted. Please use comments below to suggest additional posts.
Happy New Year!
2013 featured an unusually large number of insightful posts about management challenges with different tech startup business models, so I've divided those posts by model type, starting with marketplaces:
- a16z GP/former OpenTable CEO Jeff Jordan discusses challenges confronting tech companies with a local focus and how successful "local heroes" manage to scale rapidly
- Kleiner Perkins EiR and former senior Google and eBay exec Stephanie Tilenius looks at key factors for success with curated consumer marketplaces such as Uber and RelayRides
- Author Sangeet Choudary also analyzes network mobilization challenges for services marketplaces, with focus on professional services.
- MuckerLab's William Hsu looks at how marketplaces create and capture value
- Julia Hanna explains my colleague Andrei Hagiu's research on the difference between multi-sided platforms and traditional retailers.
Models That Leverage Dominant Platforms
- Sangeet Choudary discusses how to manage startup growth strategies that piggyback upon an existing dominant platform, used by AirBnB, PayPal, etc.
- Jason Calacanis gives the opposite side of the argument, advising entrepreneurs to NOT try to build businesses within dominant ecosystems
- Entrepreneur/investor Sim Simeonov expands upon the risk of platform dependency
SaaS Models
- Matrix GP David Skok provides an overview of key SaaS metrics, discusses the link between customer service/satisfaction and churn in SaaS businesses, and presents results of Pacific Crest's annual SaaS survey
- Dave Kellogg of Host Analytics provides an in-depth discussion of how to estimate and interpret Customer Acquisition Cost in a SaaS business
- Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software, probes methods for estimating attrition rates when calculating SaaS lifetime customer value and analyzes factors that can reduce profitability in SaaS businesses
- Lars Lofgren of KISSmetrics offers a primer on SaaS metrics
- Redpoint VC Tomasz Tunguz analyzes expense categories in publicly-traded SaaS companies and also examines sales efficiency
- Serial entrepreneur Ben Sesser analyzes the odds of building a successful SaaS startup
- Jason Lemkin of Storm Ventures asks what SaaS price point is too low to support an inside sales team?
- KISSmetrics published analysis of SaaS operating metrics from OpenView Venture Partners
Enterprise Software Models
- David Barrett, founder/CEO of Expensify, examines new approaches that are disrupting sales and marketing in enterprise software
- Upfront Ventures GP Mark Suster looks at the upside of pursuing early professional services revenue for an enterprise software company, then examines some of the risks of rely on such revenue
- Jeff Jordan asks, "So, You Want to Compete Against Amazon?"
- Atlas GP Fred Destin looks at key success factors in ecommerce
- a16z GP and serial entrepreneur Chris Dixon discusses challenges/opportunities with tech hardware startups
- Fred Destin asks when early monetization is important to a tech startup, using Snapchat as an example; Greylock's Josh Elman on the same issue
- Ben Thompson (Stratechery blog), using Apple as an case study, concludes that Clay Christensen's theory of low-end disruption does not apply in consumer markets
- Entreprenuer/investor/advisor Brian Balfour on how the emergence of new distribution channels opens ecosystem niches for new ventures
- In "The Anatomy of an Online Ad," Sim Simeonov describes, step by step, the role of different service providers in the delivery and tracking of online ads
- Steve Blank's "Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything" was the cover story of the May 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review
- Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits published an overview of customer development and lean startup methods in their book, The Lean Entrepreneur
- Laura Klein published a book, UX for Lean Startups, that provides an overview of user-centered design research techniques for validating demand in early-stage tech startups
- Eric Ries and his colleagues have released video from Lean Startup Conference 2013 on a YouTube channel
- Steve Blank emphasizes that "An MVP Is Not a Cheaper Product, It's About Smart Learning"
- Justin Wilcox on interviewing potential customers to understand their needs
- Entrepreneur Jason Evanish outlines ways to recruit customer development interviewees
- Brian Balfour on indicators of product-market fit; William Mougayar on why achieving product-market fit should be viewed as a gradual process, not a single event
- Michael Herman, co-founder of Real Python, describes ways to use Kickstarter to validate demand for a new venture
- Vin Vacanti on how Yipit used a manual MVP to validate demand (i.e., by substituting humans for as-yet-unbuilt algorithms)
- Ellie Cachette's case study of hypothesis testing that led ConsumerBell to product-market fit
- Max Wessell and James Allworth of the HBS Forum for Growth and Innovation consider the applicability of lean startup methods in big companies
- Informly founder Dan Norris offers a skeptical view of demand validation techniques and argues that reliable MVPs are difficult to execute; Dharmesh Shah on why early evidence is often too early and not really evidence
- John Zeratsky of Google Ventures presents a compilation of resources useful for user-centered design research
- Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz published Lean Analytics, a book which reviews key performance metrics for various tech startup business models
- Qualaroo CEO Sean Ellis helped launch GrowthHackers.com this year, a community for exchanging articles and insights about accelerating tech startup customer acquisition. The site published several detailed case studies of demand generation efforts, including Ellis's analysis of Belly Card; Full Stack Marketing co-founder Morgan Brown's studies of Upworthy, Hubspot, Evernote, and Uber; and analyses of Square and Snapchat by Qualaroo's Everette Taylor. These posts are terrific -- you could build an entire MBA class on startup marketing around them. To the team at GrowthHackers.com, on behalf of e'ship educators everywhere: thank you!
- The concept of "growth hacking" is examined by Bronson Taylor and in an ebook by GrowthHacker.tv's Taylor and Neil Patel
- Posts on A/B testing and conversion rate optimization -- mostly from the Unbounce blog (HT: William Mouyagar!) -- by Dustin Sparks; Eric Sloan; Jason Davis; Greg Digneo; Samuel Hulick; Michael Zipursky; Pratik Dholakiya; Peep Laja; Stavros Korokithakis; Eric Sloan again; Gregory Ciotti; Zach Bulygo and Sean Work; Siddharth Deswal; and Robin Johnson
- KISSmetrics' Zach Bulygo presents 100 case studies of conversion rate optimization; Qualaroo offers a 12-chapter beginners' guide to conversion rate optimization
- Posts on inbound/content marketing by entrepreneur Ross Simmonds; Henneke Duistermaat
- Bustle.com founder/CEO Bryan Goldberg lists the 20 most viral startups of the decade and tracks their long-term performance
- Simon Schmid on elements of effective marketing campaigns
- Rival IQ's Danielle Prager on how to analyze rivals' social media tactics
- Onboardly's Shanelle Mullin offers a beginner's guide to startup marketing analytics
- Brian Balfour on how to build customer acquisition skills
- Google digital marketing evangelist Avinash Kaushik presents a comprehensive marketing analytics framework
- Orbit Media's Andy Crestodina on how to build trust in an online business
- Post on marketing mobile apps by Matt Palmer
- William Mougayar covers the what/why/how of positioning statements
PR Strategy
- Posts on effective PR tactics and trends in PR by Jennifer Jacobson; Vanessa Camones; Jess Champion; Aimee Gindin; Conrad Egusa; and Katie Burke
- Brooke Hammerling of Brew Media Relations interviewed by First Round Review
- Mark Suster on why startups should not launch at major tech events like SXSW
Sales and Sales Management
- Ben Horowitz on hiring salespeople
- Flybridge GP (and my HBS colleague) Jeff Bussgang on the challenge of scaling different types of sales models
- Entrepreneur/investor James Altucher offers advice on personal selling
- Mark Suster on how to shorten sales cycles; how to deal with large accounts' demands for product customization; how to find a champion to refine your product and sales process; and the importance of a Unique Selling Proposition
- HubSpot co-founder/CEO Brian Halligan on how to manage inbound sales
- Google Ventures' Joe Kraus on how to match different types of salespeople to requirements at different stages of a startup's evolution
- Jason Lemkin on how to quickly assess a new Sales VP's performance and whether your VP Sales should start as a "player/coach"
- ElasticSales co-founder Steli Efti on how the basics of creating a sales process at a startup
- Aaron Ross of Predictable Revenue offers a primer on sales pipeline management
- Entrepreneur Mark Birch examines conversion rates for different sources of sales leads
- Bob Marsh, founder/CEO of LevelEleven, on the changing role of the sales manager
- USC's Steve Martin on the growing importance of inside sales
Product Design
- Cliff Kuang of Fast Company presents a list of 30 essential books for product designers; Artsy's Robert Lenne has curated a list of required readings for product designers
- VentureBeat's J. O'Dell does a roundup of the 10 best design trends of 2013
- Google Venture's Jake Knapp on how to run an effective design critique
- Userium's usability checklist (HT: Tristan Kromer)
Product Management
- Facebook's Julie Zhuo has written a trio of posts on how to work with product managers, designers, and engineers -- in each case, from the perspective of one of the other disciplines (Julie has worked in all three); Jonathan Barronville describes what it's like to be a "junior" developer; Brian de Haaff advises product managers on how to avoid annoying/alienating engineers
- Josh Elman explains the product manager role
- David Auerbach explains why CEOs should adopt the product manager's mindset, using Marissa Mayer as an example
- SVPG's Marty Cagan calls for replacing product requirements with a focus on: 1) met vs. unrealized customer needs; and 2) customer- vs. technology-inspired solutions; Jared Spool seconds the call, saying requirements gathering should be replaced with hypothesis testing
- Henrik Kniberg of Spotify explains how the company builds products
- Aaron Schildkrout, co-founder/co-CEO of HowAboutWe presents a seven-part series on product development philosophy and process
- Steven Sinofsky, a former senior Microsoft executive, has written a series of posts on product development processes
- Dan Milstein, co-founder of Hut 8 Labs, comments on how to survive a ground-up rewrite
- Niniane Wang of Minted offers perspective on how to build great products
- Gojko Adzic presents a case study of using the Attribute Component Capability Matrix to guide exploratory testing and control the risk of software updates, resulting in a big performance boost
- Lean Startup Conference's Lisa Regan interviews Xanadu's Mariya Yao on how to manage rapid iterative development processes for mobile apps
- Laura Klein recommends designing a gradual onboarding process for new users rather than asking them to explore a product's full feature set from the outset; she discusses when to kill a product/feature
- Legend's Nathan Barry offers tips on wireframing
- First Round Review interviews Pivotal Labs' Edward Hieatt on how to decide when a feature is ready to go live and Yammer's Kris Gale on how features create complexity cost in engineering
- Phil Sharp of UserTesting.com recounts lessons learned from 100,000 usability studies
- Brian de Haaff of Aha! describes factors that can lead to an engineering "death spiral" -- an inability to deliver a great product -- and what to do about them
- Entrepreneur Elad Gil discusses attributes of good bus dev professionals and how to hire them
- Brian Balfour provides a "how to" guide for consumer startups seeking to identify and negotiate B2B2C partnership opportunities
- Holger Luedorf of foursquare presents Startup Business Development 101, offering advice on how to prioritize and manage partnerships
Scaling
- Michael Skok, GP at Northbridge Venture Partners, on how to think about optimal pace when scaling
- Erin Griffith of pandodaily on management challenges when scaling
- Cowboy Ventures' Aileen Lee generated a flurry of commentary with her post on Unicorn exits (>$1 billion), including posts from CB Insights and Fred Wilson
- Y Combinator's Paul Graham on fundraising, startup investing trends, and investor herd dynamics
- Fred Wilson on tradeoffs between valuation and % equity ownership
- Eric Paley of Founder Collective describes how/why an investor's interest can fade
- Reflections on the future of VC seed funds and advice for entrepreneurs in accelerators from NextView Ventures' Rob Go
- Mark Suster on the importance of proprietary deal flow for early-stage VCs, the risks from setting valuation too high then subsequently suffering a down round, and whether startups should announce their funding rounds
- Jason Calacanis on how seed-stage entrepreneurs should position themselves to survive a Series A crunch; CB Insights analyzes the impact of the crunch on Seed VCs
- Flybridge GP (and my HBS colleague) Jeff Bussgang on how to raise your first round; Yipit co-founder/CEO on lessons learned from raising Series A
- Aaron Hall, founder/CEO of Boatbound, offers a primer for raising funds on AngelList
- BuysideFX co-founder/CEO Ty Danco and HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah give guidance on how to update angel investors
- Bonobos founder/CEO Andy Dunn points out venture capitalists' shortcomings in his "Dear Dumb VC" post
- Steve Blank exhorts entrepreneurs to remember that fundraising is a means to an end, and to carefully consider when it makes sense to take outside capital
- Erin Griffith of pandodaily analyzes the history and future of venture capital; Sarah Lacy expands on the theme
- Griffith explains Steve Blank's thinking about why accelerators should abandon demo days and focus instead on hypothesis testing results
- Charlie O'Donnell examines the future role of angel groups and offers advice for aspiring VCs and describes the job's downsides
- Pitch deck template from Jean de La Rochebrochard; Dashboard also breaks down the startup pitch
- Charlie O'Donnell on why you shouldn't email your pitch deck before a first meeting with a potential investor
- Reid Hoffman on what he wished he knew before pitching LinkedIn to VCs and his annotated LinkedIn pitch deck
- Paul Graham on how to convince investors
- Brad Feld on how to do effective product demos
Founding Process
- FounderDating co-founder/CEO Jessica Alter provides advice to technical founders seeking a non-technical co-founder and describes the three biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when looking for a co-founder
- LaunchBit co-founder/CEO Elizabeth Yin on the challenge of finding a technical co-founder; part II of her post presents case studies of founding teams
Company Culture, Organizational Structure and Other HR Issues
- Dharmesh Shah evaluates, item by item, the extent to which HubSpot lives up to its own culture code
- Advice from Mark Suster on configuring an early-stage startup team
- Andy Rachleff, Wealthfront CEO, gives guidance on how to make equity awards to startup employees; James Smith, attorney at LaBarge Weinstein, on the same topic; Wealthfront also offers a tool for calculating average salary and equity levels by position, company size, and region
- Rob Ousbey, COO at Distilled, describes effective tactics for inbound recruiting
- Advice on startup recruiting from Dharmesh Shah and Sam Altman; unconventional interview questions from Shah; interviewing guidelines from KISSmetrics' Cindy Alvarez;
- Robby Grossman on how to negotiate your startup job offer
- Courtesy of Business Insider, the deck that Greylock VP-Talent Dan Portillo uses to advice portfolio company CEOs on recruiting
- Videos of entrepreneurs/investors discussing startup recruiting: Dropbox's Drew Houston and Sequoia's Bryan Schreier; Union Square Ventures' Albert Wenger
There's lots of great content online about how to recruit developers, so I've given this topic its own category
- Advice on recruiting engineers from Bryan Schreier, Young Entrepreneur Council's Matt Mickiewicz, developer Tom Blomfield, and former Amazon VP Neil Roseman (interviewed by First Round Review)
- FounderFuel shares General Assembly's flowchart on developer recruiting
- DaedTech's Erik Dietrich on how to create an environment that helps retain great developers
- First Round Review interviews tech recruiters Michael Morell and Ali Behnam on how to hire a VP Engineering
- Derek Andersen of Startup Grind interviews Kleiner Perkins' Mike Abbott about recruiting engineers
- Brad Feld and Mahendra Ramsignhani published their book, Startup Boards; Feld shares thoughts on how to assemble an effective briefing package for a board meeting
- Steve Blank on when/how to grant board seats
- Brant Cooper on how to be a good startup mentor; Michael Skok on the same theme; Entrepreneur/consultant Sramana Mitra on the same theme
- Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures on mentor whiplash; Brad Feld on its benefits and how it manifests itself with early board members
- Phin Barnes on how/when/why to use investors as "rubber ducks" to talk through problems
- Brooklyn Bridge Ventures' Charlie O'Donnell on making the most of accelerator office hours
- First-person startup post-mortems included a series of posts from the anonymous blogger at MyStartupHas30DaysToLive; Teamometer's Sergio Schuler; Makeshift's Nick Marsh; @Sonar's Brett Martin; Flud's Rip Empson; Rakasheets' Joshua Harms; Investopresto's Ashwini Anand; Formspring's Cap Watkins; and Bullhorn's Art Papas
- a16z's Ben Horowitz on the startup failure induced by the "Product CEO Paradox," i.e., an initially product-focused founder disengaging from the product
- Brad Feld argues that sometimes failure is your best option
- Fred Wilson describes two scenarios when things don't work out: slogging it out, and hitting the wall
- Sim Simeonov has been periodically publishing posts on various root causes of startup failure, which he calls "anti-patterns"
- Steve Blank riffs on the Kubler-Ross stages of grief model to describe an entrepreneur's likely emotional reactions to failure
- My post on ego and entrepreneurial failure
- Henry Blodget analyzes Y Combinator data to assess startup failure odds
- Jason Freedman offers tips on how to fail "elegantly," i.e., keeping one's reputation/relationships intact
- Entrepreneur Sumon Sadhu on seven signs of startup dysfunction
Exiting By Selling Your Company
- a16z GP and IronPort founder/CEO Scott Weiss offers a survival guide for entrepreneurs who sell their startup to a big corporation
- Mark Suster on the corrosive aspects of acquihires
- Startup Life, a book by Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor offers advice for coping with the pressures that entrepreneurial career can put on friends/family relationships
- Phin Barnes of First Round Capital on founders' fears and "The Monster Under the Bed"; entrepreneur/investor Semil Shah on similar themes
- Chris Dixon expands on Balaji Srinivasan's concept of the "idea maze" -- a metaphor for the choices a founder must make in the face of uncertainty and incomplete information
- Jessica Bruder of Inc. Magazine on the psychological price of entrepreneurship
- Mark Suster on the importance of realism in startups
- Paul Graham on the benefits in early-stage startups of "doing things that don't scale" -- especially when acquiring a new venture's first customers
- Investor David Tisch on the importance of "not losing sight of why," that is, of an entrepreneur keeping her motivations for launching a business in perspective
- Entrepreneur Gilad Avidan on "Ten Things I Wish I Knew About Being a Founder Two Years Ago"
- Programmer/investor Alex Payne offers advice to a young programmer considering a startup
Books for First-Time Entrepreneurs, Covering the Startup Process End-to-End
- MIT's Bill Aulet published Disciplined Entrepreneurship, a step-by-step guide for 1st-time founders
- Matt Blumberg published Startup CEO, a book which offers advice for 1st-time CEOs of tech startups
- Jeff Bussgang analyzes the prevalence of MBAs in leadership roles at "unicorns" -- $1B+ tech company exits
- Bussgang offers advice for MBAs seeking jobs in tech startups. I expand on this theme and survey HBS MBAs who took Harvard's introductory computer science course on the payoff from learning to code
- Sim Simeonov on reasons to join a startup
- Steve Blank shares advice to entrepreneurs and job seekers on how to connect with busy people; Charlie O'Donnell on how to craft a forwardable request for an introduction