My Interview With Peggy Aycinena I was interviewed by Peggy Aycinena about six months ago and she subsequently published it in July on the GabeOnEDA site as “Business 101: Art & Magic of EDA Marketing.” Peggy has always appreciated that the technology is nothing without the team and it’s the people you need to focus […]
My Interview With Peggy Aycinena Read More »
There is a strong temptation for founders to prioritize their efforts on the basis of “What is the simplest thing we could do here to prove this hypothesis about our product or our business?” It’s often more fruitful to consider what evidence would disprove your hypotheses and what is the simplest thing you could do to
Spend Some Time On How To Disprove Your Hypotheses Read More »
Ash Maurya (@AshMaurya) has released the first two chapters of his new book “Running Lean” and here are my first impressions.
Ash Maurya on “Running Lean” Read More »
I meet teams trying to cold call for their first business customer and I just haven’t seen it work; the trust issues cripple them. Here is a relevant excerpt from Gabriel Weinberg’s interview with me for his traction book.
Cold Calling Won’t Find Your First Business Customer Read More »
A hunger for certainty will not help an entrepreneur make timely decisions or manage the level of ambiguity and uncertainty they need to navigate through.
We Cannot Sate Your Hunger For Certainty But We Can Increase Your Odds of Success Read More »
I mentioned in “3 Equations 3 Unknowns: Customers, Features, and Message” that we spend a lot of time on the early customer stage. It requires very different sales style than you’ll see later on. It’s a conversational sales style. It’s much more about understanding the problem. You’re trying to solve three equations, three unknowns: Are
3 Equations & 3 Unkowns: Target Customer is Key Initial Value Read More »
Gabriel Weinberg is a serial entrepreneur (latest startup: DuckDuckGo), a Hacker Angel, insightful blogger, and frequent contributor to Hacker News. He is writing a book on how startups get traction and interviewing folks like Patrick McKenzie, Jimmy Wales, and Paul English to collect lessons learned from a variety of perspectives. I was delighted when he
Gabriel Weinberg Interviews Me For His Traction Book Read More »
A Chalk Talk on “Managing Risk In Technology Adoption” that covers some of key challenges technology providers have with getting companies to use their products.
Chalk Talk on Technology Adoption Read More »
We posted the interview I did with Floyd Tucker of DreamSimplicity about a month ago but in the last two days I have had two people comment to me directly and one tweet about my “three equations and three unknowns” answer: customers, features, message.
3 Equations & 3 Unknowns: Customers, Features, Message Read More »
Product-Market fit is a measure of the relative fitness of a product solving a problem for a particular customer set at a point in time.
Product-Market Fit is a Fraction Not a Bit Read More »
Don’t ask prospects, “If we killed our product would you miss it?” It’s product management malpractice.
If We Killed Our Product Would You Miss It? Read More »
Here is the transcript–edited for clarity and hyperlinked for context–for my recent interview with Floyd Tucker of DreamSimplicity Marketplace. The focus was on our startup stages model: formation, open for business, early customers, finding a niche, and scaling up.
DreamSimplicity Interview Transcript Read More »
Distinguish between experiments and commitments with customers. Share prototypes and ask for feedback but keep your promises. The easiest way to keep a promise is not to make one, so take great care in what you sign up for.
Experiments Vs. Commitments Read More »
Key take-aways from customer discovery interviews: prospect’s description of their situation, needs, vision for a solution, plan to measure solution impact.
Six Elements to Extract From Customer Discovery Interviews Read More »
It’s hard to test customer development theories: you cannot step into the same river twice and you cannot step into the same market twice.
Customer Development and Its Discontents Read More »
Steve Blank gave a thought provoking talk at the Startup Lessons Learned Conference on “Customer Development 2.0: Why Accountants Don’t Run Startups” (slides here and related blog post “Why Accountants Don’t Run Startups” which is part of a category of blog posts on “Durant vs. Sloan“). He also referenced Robert Shedd‘s list of startup accelerators
Steve Blank Plans to Crowdsource E-Schools Read More »
Vivek Wadhwa wrote a great post recently called “Ditch the Biz Plan and Buy a Lottery Ticket” which oddly enough contains a number of good pointers for bootstrappers. His opening paragraph explains the title (emphasis added) Hardly a day goes by when I don’t have a rookie entrepreneur ask for advice on raising money from
Vivek Wadhwa’s Pointers for Bootstrappers Read More »
Update July 24, 2012: you may also be interested in Startup Lessons Learned Conference 2011 Coverage Roundup Entrepreneurs Need a Community of Practice, Not a Movement Overview The Startup Lessons Learned Conference (#sllconf) was Friday April 23rd, 2010. This post is an effort to capture press coverage and blog commentary on the conference that will
Startup Lessons Learned Conference Coverage Roundup Read More »
I blogged about the “Startup Lessons Learned Conference on April 23” about three weeks ago and now the conference is tomorrow (April 23rd) in San Francisco. Whether you are planning to attend in person or at a remote streaming session (more than 60 locations are available see http://www.sllconf.com/streaming ) I think the best way to
Tips For Getting the Most out of SLLConf (Live or Streaming) Read More »
I had an e-mail exchange with William Pietri (@williampietri) back in October that I am reproducing here with his permission. I believe that it highlights a set of issues around “being in the grip of a vision” in a useful way. William Pietri: I’m wondering how Lean Startup founders handle attacks of vision. Do you
Moving From Vision to Engagement With Prospects Read More »
