Eric Ries launches his new book, ‘The Startup Way’ this month.

“My research has focused on what causes established companies to maintain success, and The Startup Way provides practical guidance on how to do just that.” Clay Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

You should probably get yourself a copy. In  it he shows how to apply the ideas that have become so well established in startups to make larger organizations more agile and innovative. Looking through our copy, we were struck by how many of the speakers at Business of Software over the years have had an influence on his thinking.

Here’s a few recordings of Business of Software talks (transcripts too) from some of the people who Eric cites as driving his thinking…

Last time we saw Eric Ries in London was at the launch of the Lean Startup book in 2012.

As we prepare for our upcoming evening with Eric Ries to celebrate the launch of The Startup Way, 15th November, Central London, we took a look back at the last time he was in town…

Notes & Pictures from Business of Software Conference USA 2017

Collaborative notes from attendees, blog posts, pictures and other good stuff from the 11th Business of Software Conference USA.

Read on for the definitive guide.

Thanks to all of the hard note taking elves at Business of Software Conference USA.

Zack Urlocker, COO, Duo Security

Zack Urlocker is an executive, advisor and board member with over twenty years of experience in the software industry.

He has helped scale revenues in startups from under $6 million to over $100 million and has had multiple billion dollar exits. He has held executive positions at Zendesk (COO), MySQL (EVP Product), Active Software (VP Marketing) and Borland (VP Marketing) and is currently COO at Duo Security. In his spare time he writes rock operas.

Ninety percent of all startups self-destruct —mostly because they scale too quickly. So how do you go about scaling from a small company to a large one without blowing up? In this presentation, Zack Urlocker, Chief Operating Officer of Duo Security, walks you through some of the lessons he has learned in helping software companies like Zendesk and MySQL scale to billion dollar valuations. In particular he highlights what it takes to use a disruptive strategy and how to build a high-velocity business.

Slides, Video & Transcript below

Feedback from #BoS2017

Here at Business of Software HQ we’ve landed without too much turbulence (metaphorical or aeronautical) back into a week of sitting at desks and sending emails – a far cry from being in Boston last week for the 11th annual Business of Software USA Conference.

Having said that…

We’ve had the biggest grins on our faces reading the feedback from this year’s attendees.

It’s fantastic to hear from both familiar and new names that BoS continues to provide opportunities and content that genuinely help the growth of their businesses. Even some of the negative comments have made us laugh…

“The pen is horrible.”

Consider it noted (with one of those horrible pens).

Here are a few of our highlights from your comments:

Sketchnotes from Business of Software Conference USA 2017

Lianna Patch at Punchline Copy not only did a Lightning Talk at Business of Software Conference USA last week, she took some pretty cool sketchnotes of the talks when she wasn’t preparing to give her own.

We will add these sketchnotes to the collaborative notes and publish a summary of all the notes we are aware of. Please drop us a note if you have notes/pictures that you would like to include in our write up. Thanks for these Lianna.

The rubber chicken brightened our day.

Azeem Azhar, Product Manager, Schibsted Media Group

It is early days but change is coming. Faster than you think. You should worry, but are you concerned about the right things? Should you concern yourself with terrible tales of, ‘The Singularity’, or about how AI and Machine Learning will change the way that your business runs?

Slides, Video, & Notes below

Jana Eggers, CEO, NaraLogics

We expect AI and Machine Learning to have a significant impact on the jobs we do – Forrester estimate 16% of current US jobs will be done by AI by the end of the decade (while creating 13.6 million jobs, this still reduces the workforce by 7%). AI represents a significant opportunity for software businesses to embrace innovation within the industry that will destroy some businesses and provide a competitive advantage to others. Jana considers where AI is now, the problems that it can solve and what companies need to know to start claiming the benefits. What do you need to get started with machine learning and AI in your own organization?

Slides, Video & Transcript below

It’s always entertaining to see how people respond to this question. This appears on attendee badges and is usually an entertaining way to get conversations going. Not everyone realizes we’re serious.

We are. This can have consequences…

We’re still giggling about this @Grinblo #BoS2017 https://t.co/zGCkJjJnvm

— Mark Littlewood (@MarkLittlewood) June 19, 2017

Here’s the output of this year’s BoS USA ‘Talk to Me About’. There’s some interesting conversation starters!

Dave Collins, Founder, SoftwarePromotions

The web is being filled with pointless content that barrages our senses, overwhelms and distracts us and reinforces the new norms of sub-mediocrity. And this contentless content is amplified and regurgitated through social media, email marketing, streamed webinars and sometimes even conferences. It’s time to take a stand against the banal and pointless pollution and Dave shares with us how in this great talk from Business of Software Conference USA 2016.

Slides, Video & Transcript below

Making a Difference

Ziad Wakim is a long time Business of Software Conference attendee who isn’t able to come this year for good reasons (see below), but he sent a lovely email that captured some of the reasons that Business of Software Conference has made a difference to him.

Ziad is the founder and CEO of Kumbu, where he leads a distributed team helping people to  preserve their digital memories. Check it out.

Shared with permission.

Motivation Matters

Kathy Sierra is a Business of Software Conference favourite for good reason. She talks sense.

These talks, in particular the Badass User ones, are often cited as being some of the most influential talks people have heard about product development – Web 2.0 Business Models – 2009, Building the Minimum Badass User – 2012, Building  the minimum Badass user part 2 – 2013.

Here’s a talk you may have missed from Business of Software Conference Europe 2014. Motivation Matters.

Video & Transcript below

Patrick Campbell, CEO, ProfitWell

Patrick considers why SaaS companies obsessed by User Acquisition and User Acquisition Cost are focusing on the wrong metrics, missing the far more important growth drivers for a SaaS business: monetization and retention.

A data rich talk that shows the importance of developing your product in collaboration with your current users to understand the needs of the people that are paying for your product. While user acquisition is important, a 1% improvement in customer monetization or user retention will have 3-4x impact on bottom line over user acquisition.

Slides, Video & Transcript below

Now here is a reading list. We asked this year’s Business of Software Conference USA speakers…

Please don’t think about it too hard, just reply with the first one that comes to mind:

• What book has had the biggest influence on your business life?

As you know, they are a smart bunch of folks so we thought it would be interesting to hear what things they have read that have had the most influence on their career and thinking. They are well read, many have written books of their own and we wanted some new things to read on the plane out to Boston. (We can’t wait).

Want to know what some of the smartest people in town think are the most influential business books they have read, wait no more!

What can SaaS CEOs who have led businesses for over a Decade Teach You?

Mimecast Founder & CEO Peter Bauer has been named one of the top ten most influential figures in the world of cybersecurity and has run Mimecast for over 14 years. Peter spoke at Business of Software Conference USA in 2012, soon after he moved to the US to build Mimecast’s presence there.

His talk title was, ‘Founding Principles vs Scaling Principles‘ and it’s well worth another watch.

Jason Fried, CEO, Basecamp

Since Basecamp was founded in 1999, it has pioneered a different way of doing things, a different way of working, a different approach to doing business. Started with four people, today Basecamp has about 50 employees across 32 different cities across the world. Everyone at Basecamp is free to live and work wherever they want.

This talk is about dog-fooding. Getting an opportunity to see how a company like Basecamp is run, using Basecamp, (other project management tools are available as Jason freely said), was a great opportunity for attendees to see inside the workings of a company that chooses to do things differently. It is a fascinating insight into the inner workings of a company recognized by Forbes this year as one of America’s 25 best small companies – Small Giants, companies that value greatness over growth.

Laura Roeder, CEO, MeetEdgar

Almost everyone running a consulting, training or agency business, however successful, will admit at some point that they wish they could run a product business. Why don’t they?

Turns out it is quite hard – many of the skills required are complementary but stopping taking on paid clients to allow a team to build a product with no immediate prospect of return requires a brave and bold move. Laura decided to make the move a couple of years ago, while pregnant. Organically funded, the new business reached $100k MRR within a year and continues to grow – at $200k+ MRR when this talk was given. She shares some of her experiences changing her business and some of the things that have propelled the growth of SaaS business, MeetEdgar.

Slides, Video & Transcript below

Rather than tell you how great our talks are, and how many cool people you’ll share space with (as all conferences do, let’s be honest), we’d rather let our attendees speak for us.

“Do yourself a favour, get to the next BoS if you want to learn how to run your business better.” Steve McLeod, Barbary Software

“If anyone is in the tech space or is the CEO of a fast growing tech business or software firm, it’s the right place for them.” Eloise Bloniarz, Future Workshops

One of the things which makes us different from other events is the type of people you’ll meet at BoS.

We are for people who are building long-term sustainable businesses; people who aren’t about short-term hacks and flipping, but who are looking to grow something durable.

57% of BoS USA attendees are C Level, VPs or Founders.

The rest are Product Managers/Leads, Software Engineers, Developers and Marketers who want to know more about how their bits fit into the rest of a successful business. (Fun fact: the Marketers are most likely to have either “Overlord” or “Shepherd” in their job title.)