Startups & Boston
We are very proud to announce that we have teamed up with Microsoft N.E.R.D. to provide a new set of badges for you Boston startup and tech people! By pinning articles from the Boston Start-up topic, you will earn badges for varying levels attendance to the cool startup events Microsoft NERD hosts for Boston innovators every week.
I mean, who wouldn’t want an excuse to be 11 stories high, right on the Charles, looking at the best view of the Boston skyline? Not to mention N.E.R.D.’s technical evangelist Gus Weber knows how to host these events – cash bar, foosball and pingpong tables, a sideroom for Rockband, and the Microsoft Surface (and of course a different focus at each event) help draw a fresh crowd every time.
Check out a little preview below of the badges and then jump in and start Pinning to get yours! Who knows, maybe you even have what it takes to be a “Maven” of Boston Start-ups on Pinyadda… Um, holler.
(more…)
Tags: Badges
Posted in Product, Startups & Boston | View Comments
OK. The BeIn Initiative badges are admittedly our favorite campaign of all right now – we just had way too many laughs poking fun at Pinyadda’s early stage experiences designing it. Here’s the deal: by Pinning and sharing articles from the leading Boston tech and innovation blogs that cover area startups, you unlock different levels of startup stage badges – from Alpha to IPO – and you get all the hilarious startuper lifestyle jokes that come along with each. (You know, like after a year of hard work, your Mom finally signs up…)
By Pinning articles from Mass High Tech, BostInnovation, and Scott Kirsner’s Innovation Economy in the Boston Globe you not only support and learn about Boston’s startup ecosystem, you get to boast some slick badges that let everyone know you’re part of the BeIn Initiative. Have fun with this one, and do your part to BeIn the Boston startup renaissance by sharing news to your social networks about all the incredible companies that are killing it here.
(more…)
Tags: Badges
Posted in Product, Startups & Boston | View Comments
Last week Cheryl and I did a quick case study about Pinyadda’s application of the lean startup mentality as part of the lean startup Boston meetup group. There’s a link to the video of the full presentation at the bottom of this post, but I thought I’d run through a couple of the key points I tried to stress in talking about our experience that I think is worth saying again. But let me also be clear that these are my opinions and not necessarily part of the formal (or informal, for that matter) lean approach.
– Being lean is about doing things that make sense and about being efficient, not necessarily about following every step of the ‘methodology’ to a T.
(more…)
Tags: customer development, Design, Lean Startup, Product, product/market fit, Startups
Posted in Product, Startups & Boston | View Comments
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the Boston entrepreneurial scene and creative economy since commenting on Chase’s blog post in which he discussed the need for “weak ties” in Boston. In a nutshell, I was sharing my experience of getting a degree at Babson College (I’ve also written about how Babson’s curriculum and community work to “breed” entrepreneurs), but not having any idea what was going on at MIT or Harvard or BU or Northeastern for entrepreneurship and startups. I’ve heard the same from students and alumni at these schools about Babson and Olin College of Engineering, which sits right next to Babson. Students want to connect more, and recognize the power in diversity of minds.
(more…)
Tags: Babson, Boston, entrepreneurship, Startups
Posted in Startups & Boston | View Comments
Every time I read about or return to Babson College I am more impressed by the caliber of students, faculty, administration, and staff. Yesterday I wrote about a handful of programs Babson has designed that work to “breed” entrepreneurs. Today I am spotlighting how Babson also breeds a network of adopters and supporters of startups at their early and, arguably, most critical stage.
(more…)
Tags: Babson, customer, customer development, entrepreneurship
Posted in Startups & Boston | View Comments
This weekend I coached students as part of Babson College’s Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Program. The program is designed to help first and third year students hone their oral communication, listening, teamwork, leadership, ethics, and decision-making skills. It’s one of the many distinctive programs Babson offers in addition to it’s truly unique, cross-disciplined business education. I’ve recently more keenly appreciated how Babson’s education fosters entrepreneurialism — regardless of if you decide to take specific classes in the entrepreneurship academic division or not.
(more…)
Tags: Babson, entrepreneurship, Pinyadda, Startups
Posted in Startups & Boston | View Comments
Like most other startups using the lean startup methodology, we’ve become pretty obsessed with tracking data. We track all kinds of stuff, from internal product metrics to external referrals to conversions via the various funnels we’ve set up. We rely on these numbers to help us make key product decisions, to tell us where we should focus our marketing efforts, and generally to find out what’s working and what’s not. For a company still wiggling our way into product/market fit, these numbers are our currency, and it’s important that we get them right.
(more…)
Tags: KISSmetrics, Lean Startup, Pintelligence, Pinyadda, Product
Posted in Product, Startups & Boston | View Comments
After a couple weeks of learning lean startup methodologies, I’m left wondering about the value of comparing user first impressions to developed use (and doing so across customer archetypes) in order to discover and validate our customer base.
The business opportunity Pinyadda has recognized is the need for an information system that leverages an individual’s unique social graph to filter the firehose of news articles and blog posts published each day and deliver only the ones that would be most valuable. The Pinyadda team has built a base product that addresses this opportunity and which we believe solves several problems.
(more…)
Tags: customer, Pinyadda, product/market fit
Posted in Product, Startups & Boston | View Comments
Last February, The New York Times announced they’d be opening up their archives via an API. I was pumped. It was a really cool development that didn’t quite get the attention it deserved, and it made me believe that the Times “gets it,” something I often say about that institution when the newspaper industry comes up in conversation (if that doesn’t happen to you, well, just pretend – the point is that I stick up for the Times).
(more…)
Tags: media, Pintelligence, Publishers, real time, social media, social web, strategy
Posted in Publishers, Social, Startups & Boston | View Comments
Dear Dominos,
Thanks for reiterating the critical feedback you received from customers in a $75mm ad campaign and subsequently not making the necessary changes to satisfy your customers taste buds. It’s a great example of how not to go about finding product market fit.
When I first saw Domino’s video ad (no, not the one from a few months ago where employees blew snot rockets on some very unlucky customers’ food) I gave immediate props for taking on their “harshest critics” and was interested (and hungry) enough to place an order for delivery. Result 1: Domino’s counts a $16 incremental sale, directly attributable to the campaign. The delivery smell quickly brought me back to my late-night, freshman fifteen and I was as excited as ever to try the new recipe. A few bites later, and the verdict: slightly spicier sauce, maybe less-greasy cheese and the same tasteless, cardboard crust. Domino’s ad campaign had tricked me into believing they had actually made a good pizza, but upon taste instead lived up to being a “sad excuse for real pizza.” Just about everyone I’ve asked has voiced similar sentiments. Result 2: Let down customer.
(more…)
Tags: customer, Startups
Posted in Product, Social, Startups & Boston | View Comments
