Steve is a hands-on product development executive, with a passionate focus on startups and creating products that make a measurable difference. For most of his career, he has worked in early stage startups, with a strong emphasis on Lean Startup and Customer Development for the last six years. Currently he is the Resident Lean Startup Expert at Rackspace, where he is focused on applying Lean Startup and Customer Development into larger environments with high degrees of uncertainty.

Prior to Rackspace, he was the VP of Product Development for Food on the Table, an early-stage venture funded consumer internet startup (acquired by Scripps Networks Interactive / The Food Network). Prior to Food on the Table, he was the Acting CEO & VP of Development and Technology for FiveRuns, an early-stage venture funded business-to-business startup targeting the software development markets (acquired by Workstreamer). Prior experience includes CTO of an early-stage eLearning startup targeting publishers (acquired by Macmillan Publishers, Ltd.), and leading the technology efforts for community at https://excite.com

His background spans web and mobile application development, large enterprise systems, user interface development, distributed / fault tolerant computing (with three patents) and technology development in early versions of the UNIX kernel. More recently, he has been pushing the limits of applicability for Lean Startup and Customer Development and mentoring on those results.

Steve resides in Austin with his wife and two sons.

CONNECT WITH STEVE:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevesanderson/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevesanderson

Website: https://stevesanderson.com/

ABOUT THE HOST:

AJ Davis is currently the Founder and CEO of https://experimentzone.com, which provides strategic conversion rate optimization services for online businesses. She also serves as a startup advisor to several companies and focuses on user experience research, data, and fostering growth.

AJ regularly appears on podcasts to discuss user experience, entrepreneurship, remote work, and conversion rate optimization.

CONNECT WITH AJ:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajdavisatx/

ABOUT THE SHOW:

Startup Insights is a podcast for entrepreneurs interested in building businesses that solve real problems.

We tell stories about early stage startups and how they've used user research to shape their product and strategy. We interview entrepreneurs and researchers who have come to understand their customers through interviews, surveys, and other techniques. Our guests highlight specific examples of how their businesses conduct research - and what they've learned along the way.

WHO SHOULD LISTEN:

-Early stage startups wanting to build impactful businesses

-Funded startups managing their customer research strategy

-VCs wanting to invest in data-based businesses

-You can also find us on Apple, Spotify and your favorite podcast platforms!

How Customer Research Fosters Sustainable Startups Featuring Steve Sanderson