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Wikis dissolve voice and authorship. Use them where there are rewards and incentives at a team level, where a team is being held accountable for a result. Blogs and forums preserve voice and authorship. Use them where knowing who said what is important. Start with frequently updated information that is also frequently accessed: Meeting agendas …
I covered the EDAC CEO Panel last Thursday for EETimes, what follows is a copy of the article I wrote for them “EDA Chiefs Hazard No Guesses on 2010 Market (02/19/2010 7:12 PM EST)” It differs from the version on-line at EET only in that I have added some links for context. SAN JOSE, Calif.—With …
An actual dream I had of a tiger prowling a maze where some walls are iron bars, others are plexiglass, and strips of masking tape seem to bar some paths. I later realized it was a metaphor for three kinds of barriers that entrepreneurs need to navigate as they get a new business established.
I think that there are better, impossible, and unthinkable products. Better products are “15 minutes ahead.” Impossible products relax one or two design key constraints. Unthinkable products restructure the design pattern or paradigm to achieve an unprecedented result.
Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, February 16, in Sunnyvale where George Grellas will present a short legal guide for entrepreneurs. George is a veteran Silicon Valley startup business lawyer who heads a boutique firm that specializes in early-stage technology startups. Since 1984, as a founders’ lawyer, George has worked with thousands of entrepreneurs in helping them …
George Grellas Answers Questions at Feb-16 Bootstrapper Breakfast in Sunnyvale Read More »
Colin Cherry in “The Telephone System: Creator of Mobility and Social Change” makes the point that the full impact of an invention is very difficult to predict. Invention Alters Society In Ways That Were At First Unthinkable Inventions themselves are not revolutions; neither are they the cause of revolutions. Their powers for change lie in …
Customer Development Helps Entrepreneurs Assess the Value of an Invention Read More »
Companies names have sure changed in the last year or so. I was noticing today how many signs outside of office buildings seem to be branch offices for these firms: Move In Now First Month Free Your Name Here Available for Lease Space for Rent Here are two directories that list available office space for …
It’s Rare That You Are Actually Bringing Fire To The Savages If you think you are so much smarter than your customers that you are “bringing fire to the savages” you will find it hard to learn from them and hard to actually close deals. What follows are three true stories. We Won The Argument, …
I Don’t Understand, We Won the Argument, Why Didn’t We Win The Sale? Read More »
I was pleased to see that Verdafero, a firm we have been advising for about a year, was selected last Friday by the San Jose Business Journal for their “The Pitch” column. The article, “Palo Alto’s Verdafero Offers Sustainability Planning Over the Web,” ran in the February 5th print edition: THE BUSINESS: Verdafero has developed …
Verdafero Profiled by SJ BizJournal “Sustainability Planning Over the Web” Read More »
Update Feb-24-2011: Since I first wrote this in 2010 the Effectuation.Org site has been considerably upgraded and contains a lot more information on research on entrepreneurship by Saras Sarasvathy. Recapping ideas, papers, and books that had changed my life yesterday reminded me of Saras Sarasvathy’s Effectual Reasoning Model from her 2001 paper “What Makes Entrepreneurs …
Saras Sarasvathy’s Effectual Reasoning Model for Expert Entrepreneurs Read More »
This is a start articulating a set of resources for entrepreneurs that are for the most part not yet widely appreciated as applicable to entrepreneurship but that have had a significant impact on my perspective. I welcome any suggestions or lists from readers for what has influenced you, and opened you to new perspectives on your …
Articles, Ideas, and Books That Have Changed My Life As an Entrepreneur Read More »
Rescheduled due to illness to April 9, 2010 8:15 – 5:00opm Special Offer for Groups and Organization Members Discounts are available for members of Bootstrappers Breakfast, Business Marketing Association, Women In Consulting, and organizations sending three or more employees: please contact us for discount codes. Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations “Do The Last …
A client was kind enough to invite me to hear Jenny Allen present an abbreviated but very moving version of her one woman stage play “I Got Sick Then I Got Better” at a luncheon held by the Canary Foundation today. Mrs. Allen spoke candidly of her experience surviving cancer. Two different cancers actually. She …
Jenny Allen’s Story “I Got Sick Then I Got Better Read More »
Bootstrappers are well served to focus on recurring revenue and charging early: sustaining is more important than starting.
I answered a question recently for real examples of teams using customer development approaches to software startups and drafted the following reply for two customer development examples.
