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 it a “trade-off of investment up-front versus brute-force hope.” The “old man” invests up front instead of hoping a quick and dirty approach may work.
Paul Tyma on “The Old Man’s Business Model” Read More »
Humans like to give and to receive without cheating or being cheated: we want to be part of networks of reciprocal gift-exchange. If you want to become a member in good standing of community you will need to “give to get.”
Reciprocal Gift-Exchange and Charity Knit Networks into Communities Read More »
Doing business with friends presents a number of challenges for entrepreneurs, as does setting limits on asking for “free advice” to know when to pay.
Q: Free Advice and Doing Business With Friends Read More »
The American declaration of independence and rebellion against the British was an incredibly risky proposition. George Washington often advised his soldiers that they would either “conquer or die.”
Independence Day 2019: “Conquer or Die” Read More »
Entrepreneurs are often quick to characterize prospects who don’t see the benefits of their new shiny technology as laggards. Sometimes that’s the case, but often the product presentation does not present benefits that are either relevant or compelling. Laggards get a lot of bad press in the startup community, but their reasons not to change
Q: Help! I Can Only Find Laggards in My Target Customer Segment Read More »
My June 2019 collection of quotes for entrepreneurs has a focus on learning and exploration, triggered by Lord Kelvin’s observation, “When you call a thing mysterious, all that it means is that you don’t understand it.” I think this also applies to things we call chaotic, random, or unpredictable.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs Collected in June 2019 Read More »
Finding the right customers is not just a matter of kissing frogs until one turns into a prince, but a methodical search guided by an experimentation perspective where your selection criteria are continually refined and re-evaluated.
Some personal reflections on my father and a stroke he suffered in June 1994 when I was launching a new company and expecting my first son in a few weeks.
Father’s Day 2019: a Story of My Father Read More »
A Q&A with Lee Carter where we explore the value of direct observation of customer environments to complement customer interviews. Lee shares details of a project he worked on where direct observation provided a valuable complement to a basic product specification.
Lee Carter on the Value of Direct Observation Read More »
A loose theme for the May 2019 collection of quotes for entrepreneurs is taken from a one sentence summary of Walter Lippmann’s 1922 book “Public Opinion” by Guido Hermann Stempel III and in Jacqueline Nash Gifford: “we don’t believe what we see; we see what we believe.”
Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in May 2019 Read More »
If you have “failed fast” it’s still possible to recover as long as your team has shared trust and a sense of common purpose. Failed Fast, Now What? Q: We started out with a mission that we found compelling and executed pretty well against it but now we are out of money and cannot figure
Failed Fast, Now What? Read More »
In “My Billion Dollar Mistake” Hiten Shah shares four lessons he learned from the early successes and ultimate eclipse of KISSMetrics.
Hiten Shah: Four Lessons I Learned Squandering My Opportunity at KISSMetrics Read More »
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
Increase Your Luck Surface Area To Get More Customers Read More »
I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a longer passage from the same
Quotes for Entrepreneurs March 2019 Read More »
My February 2019 collection of quotes for entrepreneurs focus on time, progress, and evolution.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs Collected in February 2019 Read More »
I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a longer passage from the same
Quotes For Entrepreneurs Collected in January 2019 Read More »
I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a longer passage from the same
Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in December 2018 Read More »
A personal note on why I enjoy working with teams of bootstrapping entrepreneurs and the kinds of problems we help them solve.
Why I Enjoy Working With Teams of Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs Read More »
For Thanksgiving 2018 I wanted to recap how the events of the first Thanksgiving feast: here are excerpts from “Mourt’s Relation” and “Of Plymouth Plantation.”
Thanksgiving 2018: a Look Back at Founders Who Persevered Read More »
My longer answer to “Do you ever get the feeling that everything you know is wrong?” The short answer is “yes, every few years.”
Do You Ever Get the Feeling That Everything You Know is Wrong? Read More »
