The Bootstrappers Breakfast® website has been re-designed so that it’s wider, brighter and now has a banner full of coffee beans across the top–tea drinkers still welcome! Please let us know what you think… …and drop by a breakfast when it’s convenient, there are meetups in Champaign, IL Chicago, IL Minneapolis, MN Mountain View, CA […]
Bootstrappers Breakfast® Website Upgraded Read More »
Building the wrong product is not a waste of time you learn about the market and technical feasibility. Right and wrong are both gray, not black or white. Customer development and technical development typically require a sequence of prototypes that are “less wrong” over time under they become good enough.
Q: Is Building The Wrong Product A Waste Of Time? Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get these hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when these quotes for entrepreneurs are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–June 2012 Read More »
S. John Ross wrote a great short essay on “Five Elements of Commercial Appeal in RPG Design” (that I first read in “Things We Think About Games” by Will Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball) that suggested these elements were critical for creating a commercially successful RPG. I think they are also a good way to think
Cliche, Combat, Fellowship, Anarchy, Enigma Read More »
I picked up “Education of a Wandering Man” by Louis L’Amour book without expectations. Someone had recommended it as a good autobiography of a writer. His life was fascinating. He offered a number of useful insights. What follows are some excerpts with additional commentary.
Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour Read More »
Entrepreneurs need a community of practice to improve their skills, not a movement they can join as a fad. I don’t consider myself a disciple or part of a movement. I consider myself a practitioner. I am a huge fan of Saras Sarasvathy, Clayton Christensen, Peter Drucker, Gary Klein, and Gerald Weinberg.
Entrepreneurs Need a Community of Practice Not a Movement Read More »
The following are excerpts from Dan Shipper’s “Why I’m Doing It All Wrong,” a blog post about the need for solid fundamentals in building a sustainable business that I found very inspiring.
Dan Shipper: Every Sustainable Business Follows From Solid Fundamentals Read More »
Ryan Waggoner wonders if the popularized approach to startups is wrong. Instead of putting health and relationships at risk, try patience and humility.
Ryan Waggoner: Maybe Startups Are So Hard Because We’re Doing Them Wrong Read More »
Recommended reading for new fathers on Father’s Day 2012: “The Measure of a Man” by Jerrold Lee Shapiro. A great Father’s Day book.
Marcelo Rinesi writes on the implications of the “expertise light speed barrier” of ten years of focused practice to become an expert. He observes that if “we manage to defeat the ‘expertise light speed barrier’ and find ways to teach and learn much more effective than anything before, it would have an astounding impact on
Marcelo Rinesi: The Expertise Light Speed Barrier Read More »
Answering Questions About Your Product In An On-Line Forum requires you to focus on helping the members of the forum.
Answering Questions About Your Product In An On-Line Forum Read More »
While we stress the value of serious conversations with prospects and customers there are other sources of market insights on emerging opportunities for your current product or next offering. I have placed them on a spectrum that runs from a macroscopic view based on objective measurements and numbers to a microscopic view that is more
Verify Your Market Insights Against A Variety of Information Sources Read More »
Shelly Gordon, from G2 Communications Inc., has come to a couple of Bootstrapper Breakfasts® in the last year and offered very practical suggestions on how to tell the story of your startup and where to look for coverage. We have asked her to share her insights on the “How to turn my problem solving idea into
Shelly Gordon of G2 Communications at Sunnyvale BB Tue-June-19 Read More »
It’s important to remember that VCs are rewarded for creating a return for their investors, not building enduring companies.
Exits vs. Enduring Companies Read More »
Today many change initiatives (and new software sales almost always involve the key elements of a change initiative) rely on interviews and replicating the results from an existing “manual system.” Process mining tools and techniques will play an important role here.
Enterprise Change Agents Need to Add Process Mining to Their Bag of Tricks Read More »
Entrepreneurship is sustained by what’s in your heart and a childlike curiosity toward how the world works and new undiscovered possibilities.
The Heart That Holds On Read More »
One key technique for determining whether you have a workable plan of action is to conduct a premortem, a review of possible sources of failure in advance with a goal to avoid them, or at least reduce their impact and likelihood of occurring.
How to Tell When Your Team Has a Workable Plan of Action Read More »
Entrepreneurs must learn that managing rejection is a requirement from the moment they commit to getting started. I could argue that you have not started until you have been rejected.
Getting Started and Managing Rejection Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get these hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when these quotes for entrepreneurs are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–May 2012 Read More »
Review of key elements of Cognitive Task Analysis–Knowledge Elicitation, Analysis, and Knowledge Representation–with applications to market exploration. Are You Using Cognitive Task Analysis for New Market Exploration? I am interested in talking with anyone who is using Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) or Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) methods and paradigms to inform their customer interviews. I
Are You Using Cognitive Task Analysis for New Market Exploration? Read More »
