Lane Becker

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• What is your opinion on off shore development? In your past ventures, has it been easy or difficult to integrate the code that was created off shore with the code that was created in house? How did you mitigate any risks if you have done this?

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    My experience with off-shore development is limited, so take my answer with a grain of salt, but what I’ve observed is that coordinating off-shore development is a job in itself, and for it to succeed it requires either a) an individual with deep understanding and existing relationships in the country of choice, or b) a firm commitment from your organization to managing the challenges of offshoring over the long term. Ideally both.

    What I’m saying is that it’s not a quick-fix solution to an immediate problem — it’s a commitment to a way of working. You can’t just throw offshore workers at a problem you don’t want to deal with and then stop thinking about it — you have to do the work to identify the aspects of your product that can be most effectively offshored, make sure your offshore team has the right set of skills to address the piece of the product you’re asking them to build, make sure the communication channels on both ends are consistent and reliable, make sure that the culture fit between the te

• How did you market GetSatisfaction when you first started it?

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    Our marketing rule when we launched Get Satisfaction was simple: Great philosophy, great product, and great parties.

    Though that might sound facetious and self-serving (and, ok, it was a little), it’s not entirely. Back in 2007 we identified the startup community that was growing up all around us as a major source of both initial customers — especially since our product at the time was completely free and focused on initial growth and scale — as well as a major source of potential marketing.

    And the benefit of creating a product that’s about helping other firms interact with their customers is that it’s highly promotable — a company needs to tell its customers it’s available for feedback and community, and in the process points everyone to our product. Want one of your own for your own company? Well, look, there’s a simple 3 minute sign-up right there on the page.

    The “Feedback” tab (you know, the one on the right-hand side of this page) was just an acceleration of that plan that came about a year in

• Whats the best piece of advice you have for a new entrepreneur?

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    There are only two truths in the land of startups:

    1) Startups are hard. Really, really hard.

    2) Nobody actually knows anything (See my other answer about when to take advice for more on this one.)

    Though I could add a third:

    3) VCs will always pay for meals. They have to. So make sure to order something expensive — but not the most expensive thing. That’s just tacky.