Q: Customer Exit Interview Questions
Six basic customer exit interview questions to ask when a customer decides to stop using your product.
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Rules of Thumb
Q: How To Estimate Prospect Counts and Market Size
Here are some back of the envelope models to estimate prospect counts and market size.
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Preserving Trust And Demonstrating Expertise Unlocks Demanding Niche Markets
Preserving Trust And Demonstrating Expertise Unlocks Demanding Niche Markets Q: We are preparing to enter a B2B market where the potential buyers are high-value but relatively few in number and close-knit. I am concerned that they will have a low tolerance for a minimum viable product (MVP) approach; much less pre-MVP research that misses the
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Seven From Skip Walter’s Laws Of Software Development
Skip Walter designed successful software products for over three decades. Here are 7 laws from his list of 18 laws of software development.
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Lisa Solomon: Effective Meetings Choose One of Reaching Understanding, Generating Options, or Making Decisions
Lisa Solomon says that an effective meeting can do one–and only one–of 3 things: build a common understanding, generate option, or make decisions. In this talk on “Designing Time: Make Meaning” she elaborates on this and challenges the person calling the meeting to work backward from the end of the meeting and define: what has
Use E-Mail Like a Walkie-Talkie, Not A Bullhorn
Firms make a mistake when they treat email like a bullhorn, a tools for broadcast, instead of a walkie-talkie that enables a conversation.
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Mission Often Matters More Than Monetization In An Early Market
In the early market make it your mission to help your early customers. Providing value you can charge for will do more to gain traction than anything else.
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Byron Wien’s Lessons Learned in 80 Years: Seven for Entrepreneurs
7 Tips for Entrepreneurs from “Lessons Learned in 80 Years” by Byron Wien. The best is “Don’t try to be better than your competitors, try to be different.”
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Making Adjustments at the Half for 2013
The four day 4th of July weekend is a good excuse to take a break from the day to day pressures of bootstrapping, reflect on your goals for the year and what you have accomplished and learned so far…and perhaps make some “adjustments at the half.”
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Due Diligence Checklist For Evaluating A Service Business for Acquisition
We recently advised a client on a possible acquisition of a small service business and developed this due diligence checklist.
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They Screwed Up: They Followed Our Specification
A story from my engineering days at Cisco about how a lack of trust led to a default assumption that “they screwed up.”
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Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
A talk I enjoyed by Simon Sinek (@simonsinek) on “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action Some great insights from Apple, Dr. Martin Luther King, and the Wright Brothers: Why -> How -> What Start with Why Why is not “to make a profit” that’s a result.. Why is your purpose, your
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Mark Stiving: Three Pricing Principles I Confirmed In Las Vegas
Mark Stiving is a serial entrepreneur and a pricing expert. In this video he tells the story of being mistaken for a lost lamb by a shepherdess in Las Vegas after being screwed by a cab driver. He uses her business model to illustrate three important pricing principles: Know Your Value Segment Your Market Offer
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Six Tips For Writing An E-Mail To A Prospect or Potential Partner
Here are six tips or writing an E-Mail to a prospect or potential partner: the Hollywood approach, the schoolboy approach, add a middleman, quit typing, begin at the end, and sketch a picture.
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The Lucky And The Wise
Advice from a lucky entrepreneur tends to be very specific and suggest a “copy exactly” model. Better advice will offer principles and several perspectives.
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Eric Berne: A Little Boy Sees And Hears Birds With Delight
When a little boy sees or hears a bird he appreciates it without having to label or identify it. It’s useful for entrepreneurs to engage in direct observation and thoughtful reflection without having to classify or characterize.
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Prepare Your “Getting Started” Plan Before A Prospect Asks For It
Always prepare a slide detailing a getting started plan or next steps for when a prospect says “This sounds great, how do we get started?”
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Your Startup Is Only One of Many Obligations
Your startup is only one of many obligations: don’t wait to reconnect with folks who have made a difference in your life. Your Startup Is Only One of Many Obligations “Fifty years of experience have taught me that admission to an academic hospital is not restful. I have stopped counting the patients who want to
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Subsidizing Startups Does Not Produce Entrepreneurs
While subsidizing entrepreneurs may produce startups, subsidizing startups will not produce entrepreneurs.
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The Benefits of Collaborative Writing, Interviewing, and Improvisation
Our collaborative writing approach has no backstage: clients see our ugly early first drafts, but this “wiki style” collaboration allows rapid iteration.
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