Girls In Tech

Day two of The Geeks on a Plane tour had us at the offices of KDDI Web Communications for a full day of presentations on topics ranging from the state of venture capital in Asia and the US, to an overview of the Japanese online games and virtual goods market, to US platforms and social networking. Eric Ries closed out the day with a dynamic presentation about how to run a Lean Startup.

Eric has led two startups — the first startup failed fabulously, and the second startup, IMVU, is profitable and making millions in revenue. The difference? Startup #1 spent $40 million and employed 200 people before there was a launched product. Startup #2 launched a beta product quickly, and continuously released newer and better versions while engaging with customers early and often.

Take Away: The biggest source of waste in any startup is building something nobody wants.

Do yourself a huge favor and see Eric Ries present live if you get the chance.   In the meantime, you can view his presentation here.

Tina Tran, Mark Hendrickson, Eric Ries, Larry Chiang, Joyce Kim

Tags: Eric Ries, Lean Startup, Startonomics, Tina Tran, Tokyo
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Yesterday’s blog entry on “The Best of Web 2.0: The Cheap Seats Report” covered the keynotes, and today’s blog entry covers the Web 2.0 sessions that received the most buzz and praise from fellow attendees. You can tell it’s a good session when the audience is furiously taking notes instead of twittering or facebooking.

#1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Eric Ries has led two startups — the first startup failed fabulously, and the second startup is profitable and making millions in revenue. The difference? Startup #1 spent $40 million and employed 200 people before there was a launched product. Startup #2 launched a beta product quickly, and continuously released newer and better versions while engaging with customers early and often.

Take Away: The #1 reason that startups fail is they are too busy marching to their own beat, with no idea of what customers really want.

#2. Optimize Your Organic Search Results by Leveraging Social Media by Heather Lutze
Internet marketing speaker Heather Lutze loves the start of this sentence because it is helping to drive up her search capital by employing a key learning from her session: Use a consistent phrase to position yourself or your company throughout social media outlets to remarkably and organically improve your search ranking.

Take Away: Your search ranking should not be an accident, think strategically about how to consistently position yourself across the internet to earn the top search spot for free.

Example: See how Heather uses consistent phrases on LinkedIn to drive up her search ranking as an Internet Marketing Speaker.

Thanks to Eric and Heather for sharing their valuable lessons with us!

Tags: Eric Ries, girls in tech, Heather Lutze, internet marketing speaker, Optimize your Organic searh results, session, The Lean Startup, Tina Tran, Tina Tran blog, web 2.0 expo
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