Thursday, December 29, 2011

Managing Startups: Best Posts of 2011


Here's my compilation of 2011's best posts about managing startups. I assembled similar lists at the end of
2010 and 2009. Please use comments to suggest additional posts. Happy New Year!


Lean Startup
  • Eric Ries's book, The Lean Startup, is a must-read for entrepreneurs.
  • Elad Gil outlines the pros and cons of staying in stealth mode.
  • Andrew Chen unpacks the concept of product-market fit.
  • The Startup Genome Project presents research on thousands of startups in a pair of reports. Be sure to read their report on premature scaling, the leading cause of startup failure.
Business Models
Naming a Startup
Customer Discovery and Validation
Metrics
Demand Generation and Optimization
PR Strategy
Viral Marketing
Sales Management
Business Development
  • Chris Dixon on the Goldilocks Principle of business development, that is, how a big company may view partnership opportunities with a startup that is "too hot" vs. "too cold" vs. "just right."
  • Fred Wilson on how an orientation toward users versus brands should drive business development and other priorities at a startup.
  • Curtis Smolar on the legality of content scraping.
Funding Strategy
Pitching
Are We in a Bubble?
Founder Issues
Recruiting and HR Policy Issues
Board Management
Management Advice, Not Elsewhere Classified
Startup Failure
The Startup Mindset and Coping with Emotional Pressures
Career Planning Issues
Tools for Entrepreneurs