Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Happy blogiversary (my present: a brand new URL)

It's official: Startup Lessons Learned has passed the one-year mark. 130 posts (and dozens more that mercifully never saw the light of day), tons of comments, and, of course - you, the awesomest subscribers on the internet. Thank you.

When I first started writing this blog, I made a promise to myself that I would spend more time on the content of the essays than on layout and fancy widgets. I've managed to go a whole year in keeping that promise, even though I get the the occasional teasing about my lame default Blogger theme. Still, it's probably time to start growing up. Today I'm taking the first step, and finally setting the blog up on its own real domain: StartupLessonsLearned.com. I know, it's not a new layout full of Web 2.0 goodness, but it's a start, right?

Back to the content, passing an anniversary is a great time to look back. Luckily, blogs come with an archive, which means you can take your own trip down memory lane. Want to see my very first post? It's a pretty weak homage to Paul Graham. Or how about the first of about a zillion times I used the term lean startup? Read the very first comment (thanks tfitz!) or relive my very first subscriber survey - when there were a grand total of five. Or, for something more substantive, how about the top five-most-read posts:
  1. Why PHP won
  2. Don't launch
  3. Five Whys
  4. Work in small batches
  5. The engineering manager's lament
But wait, there's more! First OODA reference: Ideas. Code. Data. Implement. Measure. Learn. You can also witness the start of my speaking marathon in Built to learn, or leave a comment on my (still-draft) A new version of the Joel Test (draft).

If all that archive-browsing leaves you hungry for more, you will soon be able to get Startup Lessons Learned in book form. I've been experimenting with a simple compilation format. I've given copies to attendees at some recent workshops. The response has been positive, and I'm getting ready for a more general release. If you'd like more info, or want to order one of the beta-test copies, I'd love your feedback. Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment.

Most of all, thank you so much for your continuing support. It's been a real blast getting to know so many of you - in person, comments, and at events. Please keep the feedback coming. And, if you're feeling really generous, tell a friend to subscribe. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Oh, and one last thought. It's true, not every comment has been so supportive or constructive. That's the internet for you. So, for the trolls: I've heard you loud and clear. Let me summarize. Actually, I'll let MC Frontalot take it...



Thanks for stopping by!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for all the great posts Eric! I think a book of all your most read posts would be amazing (much like Guy Kawasaki). Again, thanks so much. Your site has been a great resource.

    Dave

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  2. Start-up Idea: After searching like you are for a super simple to use blog template.... I found that none exist. I use posterous now, but still have have some friends that own businesses that would love a blog type set-up but they want it to be their own... not one from blogger posterous, wordpress etc. Their own domain that is not forwarded somewhere else. But try and find one.... impossible, w/o having to get an FTP server, change DNS and MX records etc. I can't believe that in the web 2.0 world one company hasn't come up with this...

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  3. Hey Eric.

    Cheers, mate. As I told you at your first Lean Startup workshop: You've tapped a nerve in such a sincere way. Congrats,

    Since you're looking back here's PostRank's view of you last year base don reader engagement metrics:

    http://www.postrank.com/feed/3ff63b14d39f4857aa9c942c7bf1a1c5

    Hover over each of the scores to get the social metric counts.

    As for top posts we have:

    * 10.0 Don't launch
    * 8.9 Embrace technical debt
    * 8.5 Why Continuous Deployment?
    * 8.2 The Steve Jobs method
    * 8.1 Validated learning about customers
    * 8.0 How to conduct a Five Whys root cause analysis
    * 7.7 10 years of entrepreneurship
    * 7.6 Throwing away working code
    * 7.6 Built to learn
    * 7.5 Minimum Viable Product: a guide

    You can see and even install the Top Posts widget yourself if you like (simple install for blogger blogs):

    http://www.postrank.com/publishers/


    Not bad, dude.

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  4. >> ... I would spend more time on the content
    >> of the essays than on layout and fancy widgets

    Content is all that matters. And this blog's content has been great. Thanks for all your great posts Eric.

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  5. Awesome, looking forward to the book.

    I'd love to be able to hand people your insights pulled together in a coherent whole -- in fact, I'd probably re-read it all in order to synthesize it. Reading the posts over the last year has been great but to have it laid out all in one fell swoop (with, perhaps some new content tie it together and flesh it out) would be phenomenal.

    We need more of this type of thinking out there.

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  6. I didn't know about your blog until TechStars posted a note about your Boulder dinner/speech. I read a lot of it that day and went to the dinner too. Awesome stuff. Please keep on keeping on. Oh and move to Boulder. ;)

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