Vicky Hora on Awesome Coaching and Mentoring
Four excerpts from a fantastic briefing at the Lean Culture Meetup by Vicky Hora on coaching and mentoring.
Rules of Thumb
Zoom In for Traction, Then Slowly Zoom Out for Impact
Founder: Sean Murphy’s advice to “zoom in for traction” encouraged me to shift my focus from a region to a single city. This allowed me to generate references that encouraged other prospects to sign up.”
Rob Fitzpatrick: Five Mistakes Bootstrappers Should Avoid in 2021
Rob Fitzpatrick, author of the Mom Test, offers some evergreen advice on mistakes bootstrappers should avoid in 2021 (especially if they have not made already and won’t see them coming.)
Be Open Kimono With Partners
Work with trusted partners open kimono: disclose relevant financials, plans, and internal processes to increase synergy. Play a long game.
A Practical Introduction to Social Capital for Bootstrappers
This is a practical overview of social capital, an essential concept for bootstrappers despite being hard to measure. I offer suggestions for growing your business network, and enhancing your reputation, explaining why increasing social capital creates value for your startup.
Use the Cult of Done Manifesto to Avoid Procrastination and Perfectionism
The Cult of Done Manifesto offers thirteen principles for getting things done. I found them useful to avoiding procrastination and perfectionism. Here are the principles along with my commentary and suggestions for entrepreneurs.
Making Business Decisions in Uncertain Times
Business leaders today are faced with business challenges and a level of uncertainty that is unprecedented in recent memory. Established approaches and well-tried options no longer work, forcing us to make business decisions in uncertain times. This article collects some useful tips for making better business decisions that I have learned over the last 40 …
Rules of a Scientist’s Life, Applied to Entrepreneurs
Alan Marnett published eleven “Rules for a Scientist’s Life” in 2013. It’s a good list that can be applied to entrepreneurs as well.
Getting Work Done: Leveraging Calendars, Task Lists, and Project Plans
A collection of practical suggestions for getting work done curated from a roundtable conversation among entrepreneurs at an Oct-25-2019 Bootstrappers Breakfast.
David Jeske: Google’s Perspective on Agile
David Jeske divides the agile principles into high level, individual empowerment, and contract development. He embraces the first two, rejects the third.
Paul Tyma on “The Old Man’s Business Model”
Paul Tyma defines the Old Man’s Business Model as taking the sure way, even though it may be longer than shortcuts that may not work. Tyma calls a “trade-off of investment up-front versus brute-force hope.” The “old man” makes an investment up front instead of hoping a quick and dirty approach may work.
Increase Your Luck Surface Area To Get More Customers
Jason Roberts 2010 “Luck Surface Area” model explains the need for entrepreneurs to combine time spent doing and developing expertise with time spent communicating with others. It’s a very useful and actionable insight. Unfortunately, the diagram he chose to illustrate the model assumes that entrepreneurs have an unlimited amount of time to do both. I …
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Naval Ravikant On Avoiding Bad Luck
A selection of quotes from Naval Ravikant’s tweetstream on “How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky)” inverted as advice on how to avoid bad luck.
Do You Ever Get the Feeling That Everything You Know is Wrong?
My longer answer to “Do you ever get the feeling that everything you know is wrong?” The short answer is “yes, every few years.”
Thomas Schelling on Strategic Surprise
It’s been 17 years since the Sep-11-2001 attack and almost 77 years since the Dec-7-1941 Pearl Harbor attack that started World War 2. Both attacks achieved strategic surprise and had substantial long-term effects. What follows are some excerpts from the forward by Thomas Schelling Roberta Wohlstetter’s book “Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision.”
Newborns vs. a Startup’s First Product
Two folks in different Mastermind groups added newborns to their households in the last few months experiencing all of the joys and anxieties and frustrations and insights they bring. I thought it would be fun to compare a startup’s first product with a couple’s first child.
Qualitative Research: Problem Exploration for Lean Startups
Key points from Mary Sorber’s presentation on “Qualitative Research: Problem Exploration for Lean Startups” at Lean Culture July-31-2018.
Suhail Doshi: Avoid These Seven Temptations as a First Time Founder
Suhail Doshi, founder of Mixpanel, shared a candid assessment of mistakes he made in the first 18 months of the six startups he has founded in “The first 18 months of starting a company: it’s life or death.” Here are 7 key pieces of advice that highlight mistakes first founders typically make.
Six More from Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design
David L. Akin is the Director, SpaceSystems Laboratory at the University of Maryland. He is also the author of “Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design.” He lists more than 40 laws: I selected ten when I blogged about “Applying Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design To Startups” here are six more that I thought were directly applicable …
The Shape of Firms to Come: Key Values and Architectural Philosophy
This blog post is an overview of a series of blog posts on “The Shape of Firms to Come.” It’s an attempt to outline what I believe are key values that businesses will embrace to endure over the next 25 years.