SKMurphy’s Startup Stages: Idea, Open for Business, Early Customers, Finding Your Niche, and Scaling Up also map to Survive, Explore, Focus, Refine, and Grow.
Startup Stages: Survive, Explore, Focus, Refine, Grow Read More »
Matt Wensing On Making the Transition to Growth Stormpulse has gone from an idea bootstrapped on founder savings and credit cards, to a project funded by friends and family rounds, to a small business strengthened by angel money, to a company that’s raised “meaningful” capital (our last round was just over $2 million). Here’s what
Matt Wensing On Making the Transition to Growth Read More »
Manage interruptions by writing down enough context to continue later: organized notes must detail status and next steps. Brad Pierce: Preserve Context in Writing to Manage Interruptions On longer time scales, when you must drop something for a while, it’s important, before doing so, to leave behind enough context for yourself to swap it back
Brad Pierce: Preserve Context in Writing to Manage Interruptions Read More »
A collection of humorous tools that generate buzzword compliant business models.
Tools for Buzzword Compliant Business Models Read More »
If you have demonstrated domain knowledge and expertise, a plan for having a significant impact on a customer problem, and are in the process of exploring the early market for your offering or trying to build on a handful of early customers, we can help find leads and close deals. The majority of our clients
We Help Teams of Experts Find Leads and Close Deals Read More »
Three interesting answers from Tristan Kromer’s interview with the folks at Startup Commons Startup Commons: What’s the best way to get started? Tristan Kromer: Find someone you really want to help. Someone in pain. That’s your vision. Helping someone and solving a real problem. Find team members with complementary skill sets who are able to challenge
Tristan Kromer: You Can Tell a Good Advisor by Their Questions Read More »
I have started to reserve Sundays to write on spirituality, charity, and a higher moral purpose to our life as entrepreneurs. I was struck by the quote that Stephenson puts in Juanita’s mouth in Snow Crash and have concluded that he is performing a similar ministry in his science fiction writing. There is a sense
Neal Stephenson on Christianity, Grace, Sincerity, and Seeing Things as They Are Read More »
Product-market fit is not a ratchet: competitive response, new entrants, changes in technology and customer preference require ongoing customer development. You will need to continue to do customer development–and customer discovery for that matter–even after you have a first prototype, an MVP, early customers, and an established niche. Markets and competitors don’t stand still, no
Q: We Already Have a Prototype, Can We Still Do Customer Development? Read More »
John Gardner outlines how leaders detect and act on weak signals of the future by looking beyond the horizon and planning for renewal.
John Gardner: Leaders Detect and Act on the Weak Signals of the Future Read More »
Tony Schwartz wrote a great post on “Turning 60: The Twelve Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned So Far.” Here are my top four from his list (original numbering preserved).
Tony Schwartz: Notice the Good, Cultivate Good Habits, Slow Down, and Do the Right Thing Read More »
Q: I am starting a service business that will help clients with advertising and search engine marketing but I am not sure how to price my services. Do you have any suggestions for how to look at pricing professional services?
Q: Pricing Professional Services Read More »
I believe that Patrick Steyaert’s Discovery Kanban offers a critical perspective on how large organizations can cultivate lean innovation methods for product delivery beyond isolated spike efforts or innovation colonies.
Discovery Kanban Allows Firms to Balance Delivery and Discovery Read More »
Excerpts from Kurt Vonnegut’s commencement speech at Agnes Scott College, May 5, 1999. He suggests we replace the Code of Hammurabi with forgiveness.
Kurt Vonnegut: Replace the Code of Hammurabi with the Sermon on the Mount Read More »
We work with several teams who have launched or are launching an application that makes a team or group more productive. Here are a couple of suggestions for things to consider. Be compatible with the status quo if at all possible Collaboration or workflow applications that require at least two people to adopt in order
A Simple Checklist for Introducing a Collaboration Application Read More »
If you want to be a succeed as a bootstrapper, start with what you’ve got: you have an insight into an opportunity, a marketing edge, a particular problem where you’re going to bring distinctive value.
Successful Bootstrappers Are Trustworthy Salespeople Committed to Customer Satisfaction Read More »
Early trials allow you to tune your message, adjust your view and selection criteria for a target customer, and refine your feature set.
Q: How To Speed Up Early Trials, Adoption, and Sales Read More »
Managing key commitments to customers is essential to closing deals and preventing churn. Getting a customer the correct answer to a question is a critical sales and support skill: the first step is to write down the question when you don’t know the answer.
Write Down Key Commitments And Questions That Need Answers Read More »
Dan Scheinman (@dscheinm) graduated from Duke Law School in 1988 and went to work as an associate at DLA Piper before joining the Cisco legal department. Once inside he worked his way up to General Counsel, then ran corporate development which included managing minority investments and acquisitions, and finally was general manager for Cisco’s Media Solutions
Dan Scheinman’s Blue Ocean Venture Strategy: Target Entrepreneurs Over 35 Read More »
Jerome K. Jerome’s “On The Disadvantage Of Not Getting What One Wants” offers a somewhat grim view the wish for replaying your life. On The Disadvantage Of Not Getting What One Wants “Ah, me!” said the good old gentleman, “if only I could live my life again in the light of experience.” Now as he
Jerome K. Jerome’s View on Groundhog Day (Replaying Your Life) Read More »
Don’t waste time painting Tom Sawyer’s fence: proving someone wrong is actually a poor source of motivation. It’s OK to ignore conventional wisdom, but don’t get trapped into doing someone else’s work (or building their platform) just to prove them wrong. Build something instead of trying to win an argument.
Don’t Waste Time Painting Tom Sawyer’s Fence: Proving Someone Wrong Is A Poor Motivator Read More »
