“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” Charles Dickens in “A Christmas Carol“
Merry Christmas 2012 Read More »
What follows is a sequence of E-mails with an entrepreneur bootstrapping an EdTech startup around the challenges of doing customer interviews that have been recast as a conversation, with the original content edited for length and clarity. Entrepreneur (E): I am working with a couple of friends–we all have day jobs–on an idea for helping
A Conversation With A Bootstrapping EdTech Startup On Customer Interviews Read More »
Technical founders are tempted to look for a channel partner or hire an experienced sales person to close early sales. This post explains why this is often a mistake.
Founders Must Engage in Customer Discovery Conversations To Close Early Sales Read More »
“Having worked on ad-supported online businesses on and off since 1996, I think 90% of the people who talk about their startups as ad-supported are just fooling themselves. This turns up a lot at the Lean Startup Machine events. Many people avoid thinking about business models, and one way to do that is to say,
Five Tests For Your “We’ll Run Ads” Business Model Read More »
There are 20 mentors listed on the Lean Startup 2012 Speakers-Mentors list. This is a companion post to my roundup of slides, videos, and related articles and blog posts from the Lean Startup 2012 Conference. My intent is to round out the map of the players in the Lean Startup ecosystem. Cindy Alvarez / blog
Mentors at Lean Startup 2012 Conference Read More »
This post curates content and commentary related to the 2012 Lean Startup Conference: videos, blog posts, slides, articles, etc.. Lean Startup Conference Main Program Mon-Dec-3-2012 Opening Remarks by Eric Ries Presenter: Eric Ries / blog / @ericries / W: Eric Ries / The Lean Startup Book: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Video: pending Articles/Blogs/Commentary Lean Startup Not Just
Lean Startup Conference 2012 Roundup 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–November 2012 Read More »
If entrepreneurs never daydreamed or planned ahead they would be uncreative and ineffective. But hurry inhibits awareness.
Eric Berne: Hurry Neglects The Present Moment and Environment Read More »
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.
Eric Berne: A Little Boy Sees And Hears Birds With Delight Read More »
Thanksgiving 2012 is a chance to reflect on all that I am grateful for: health, family, friends, and the opportunities I have been given.
Join us Friday 9am for a Bootstrapper Breakfast in Mountain View at Red Rock Coffee. A Bootstrapper Breakfast allows you to Take part in a serious roundtable conversation among bootstrapping entrepreneurs Compare notes and exchange ideas Learn from others’ mistakes Find potential business partners and co-founders With three work weeks left in 2012 it’s time to assess: lessons learned
Start Black Friday 2012 at Red Rock Coffee With a Bootstrapper Breakfast Read More »
If you manage a firm that provides creative, design, or professional services you have to balance making a profit with investing in your team. If you are struggling to increase project profitability you may be interested in preliminary results from an ongoing research effort that has identified key questions that can help you manage and deliver
Preliminary Results From Research On Managing Creative Projects Read More »
Most successful products start in a niche and expand via a sequence of larger adjacent niches. Impatience for success works against learning.
Impatience For Success Works Against Learning Read More »
You have to be able to weather rejection when you are introducing a new product. It’s hard. What can be harder is being unprepared the first time a prospect says “This sounds great! How do we get started?” I can remember working with a team that had gone to many prospecting meetings that had ended
Prepare Your “Getting Started” Plan Before A Prospect Asks For It Read More »
Fluxicon, an innovative software startup offering tools for business process mining, today announced Sean Murphy has joined their advisory board. Mr. Murphy is CEO of SKMurphy, Inc. a strategic advisory firm based in Silicon Valley that specializes in market creation and new technology product introduction. Fluxicon plans to leverage Murphy’s expertise for business and customer
Sean Murphy Joins Fluxicon Advisory Board 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–October 2012 Read More »
Evelyn Rodriguez envisions a Silicon Valley renaissance that blends a love of art, culture, place, and the divine spark alive and innate within us. Evelyn Rodriguez Envisions a Silicon Valley Renaissance of Art & Culture Among my other pursuits, I envision a Silicon Valley renaissance that brings a love of art, culture, place, and the
Evelyn Rodriguez Envisions a Silicon Valley Renaissance of Art & Culture Read More »
Often you have to choose from alternatives that all have problems or to triage and identify where you efforts will have the most impact in a bad situation. Reconciling yourself to the “best bad plan” is a key skill for entrepreneurs. I was reminded of this by the following exchange in the movie ARGO: Tony Mendez:
Managing complexity and uncertainty was the focus of Dr Atul Gawande’s commencement address at Williams College on Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 (Reprinted in New Yorker as “Failure and Rescue“). The entire talk is worth reading and offers a medical case history as a compelling context for his points. “…the critical skills of the best surgeons
Dr. Atul Gawande on Managing Complexity and Uncertainty Read More »
“Subsidizing the markers of status doesn’t produce the character traits that result in that status; it undermines them.” Reynold’s Law In the same way that free range animals are healthier than those that are caged, people learn how to become effective entrepreneurs when the have the freedom to experiment and they are focused on pleasing
Subsidizing Startups Does Not Produce Entrepreneurs Read More »
