Suggestions From The Marketing Lab Monday July 14 at SDForum

Add comment July 14th, 2008

I have netted out a couple of key suggestions I made to the three presenting companies at Monday’s SDForum Marketing SIG “Marketing Lab” so that they are more generally applicable. I was impressed: all three start-ups were well prepared, they managed their presentations to the time limits and were serious about their businesses.

• Two key questions start-ups need to answer:
1. Who Are You? Don’t be Anonymous, Sign Your Work.
2. Who Are Your Customers - What Results Have They Achieved.
• Use Website Grader to get a quick assessment of your website (we blogged about it in January of 2007).
• Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank is a great book on the customer development process for start-ups.
• Georgi Dagnall looked for it in the local libraries and couldn’t find it.
• It’s $10 cheaper on CafePress, so if you are thinking of buying a copy, compare the Amazon link above with Four Steps to the Epiphany on CafePress.

It was a good format: my only change, given how well everyone managed their time, would be to allow 5 minutes of audience questions after each pitch as well. It was a very enjoyable event.

Debra Willrett at Tomorrow’s Boostrappers Breakfast

1 comment July 14th, 2008

I first met Debra Willrett, founder of Expert Software Consulting, at an IEEE Consultants Network for Silicon Valley (CNSV) when she gave a  great talk on the new CNSV website in February of 2006. Later I learned that she was the  inventor of the Macintosh application MacProject, an application that has defined a paradigm for interactive graphical project management tools for the last 25 years, and we asked her for an interview for our Founder Story series that we posted in April of this year.

She is coming to tomorrow’s Bootstrappers Breakfast, please RSVP as we have limited space.  She has prepared a couple of remarks and then, like all Bootstrapper Breakfasts, it will be a serious discussion on growing a business based on internal cashflow. I hope to see you tomorrow at 7:30AM in the back room at Coco’s in Sunnyvale on the corner of Lawrence and Oakmead in Sunnyvale (1206 Oakmead Parkway, Sunnyvale, CA 94086).