Lean Startup

Beth has incredible experience working with customers in the developing world. She’ll offer very practical advice for connecting with customers who aren’t anywhere near you and/or with whom you have little in common.

Few companies have been as bold as Meetup in integrating Lean Startup practices throughout their product development cycle. Andres has been a leader in that process, bringing customer contact and experimentation to all levels of the organization, and he’ll examine how the company balances big-picture vision with everyday validation.

Akash will look at key challenges faced by non-profit organizations, including unclear or overabundant metrics, long feedback loops and limited resources. Then he’ll show how Kiva has tackled those problems in ways that other organizations can apply, too.

Nicole and Khalid run Lessoncast, which builds software for educators. They’ve taken creative steps with their concierge MVP and will talk about concrete things small startups can do to learn from the concierge process and reach product-market fit with B2B customers.

Risk and uncertainty define startups–they’re the very qualities that make new initiatives different from established projects. But few of us have productive ways of discussing risk, and in fact, bringing it up can cause fear and undermine morale. How can we make coworkers comfortable addressing risk? Adam Josephs, Principal Consultant of Celerity Consulting, shares advice for discussing it early, often and constructively.

Higher education has legendarily long decision-making cycles, which create a real tension for teachers and administrators who want to test curriculum ideas in new digital markets. Allison Dulin, Special Projects for the President at Davidson College, explains how the 177-year-old college has shifted its decision-making processes and used experimentation to face down the uncertainty that’s rocking education markets.

When established companies experiment, you have to figure out how to test ideas without harming your existing brand. Andrew Homeyer, Engineer and Intrapreneur at Rally Software, explains how his team launched a new product under a fresh brand and reached an entirely new customer segment.

As a well-known startup veteran, investor and author, Ben Horowitz brings unusually deep insight to the hard questions that entrepreneurs face. Eric Ries interviews him and gives you a chance to ask questions, too.

Brand-new startups begin with almost zero customer data–a risky position from which to build a new product. But when you have very little money, how can you acquire critical information quickly? Anita Newton advisor, investor, and marketer at Mighty Handle, reveals how her bootstrapped, non-technical startup did clever customer development online, and rapidly tested its way into the customer insights it needed to sell its consumer packaged goods to the largest retailer in the world.

Fostering an active local community is easier said than done. It’s hard to gain momentum, and people often say that they want something but then do the exact opposite. Anthony Fraiser, founder of The Phat Startup, teaches the experimentation process and metrics he used to build a vibrant entrepreneurship community in Newark, NJ, from scratch.