Your Prospects and Your Customers are Real People I’m hardly the first person to complain about the word “user” to describe people who do stuff with software…People don’t think of themselves as “users” and in all other contexts the word “user” is not generally positive and certainly not evocative of the kind of intimate, day-to-day […]
Your Prospects and Your Customers are Real People Read More »
On Memorial Day 2012 in we commemorate those who died in the service of our country. I offer some excerpts from Lt. Col. Michael Strobl’s account of escorting the remains of a Marine killed in combat in 2004 for you to meditate on.
What follows are excerpts from a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. I thought they were an appropriate antidote to a model for entrepreneurial motivation that aspires to make enough money to do whatever you want. Wallace outlines some of the risks in failing to align
David Foster Wallace: The Only Choice We Get is What to Worship Read More »
Conversations with prospects unfold in real time: you must listen for what’s said and not said, manage your emotions, and understand the implications.
Conversations With Prospects: Practice, Review, Share Notes, Ask for Feedback Read More »
Shared situational awareness means that a team has reached–and maintains–a working consensus on the objective reality they must deal with.
The Wit to See and Understand Objective Reality Read More »
In Reamde, Neal Stephenson captures the value that a company founder can continue to provide after significant growth: change agent.
Founder as Change Agent from Reamde Read More »
The following interview is constructed from e-mails and skype calls from February to April 2012 with Arun Kumar of Kerika. See also this video: https://vimeo.com/24502212 and the Kerika blog for more info on Kerika. Founders Story: Arun Kumar of Kerika Q: Can you talk a little bit about your background I started off as a
Founders Story: Arun Kumar of Kerika Read More »
Sid Faulkner, CFO of Ciranova gave a talk today on “Navigating the Treacherous Path of Mergers and Acquisitions” at an event at Abbot Stringham and Lynch. Mr. Faulkner was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Oak Technology, Inc. where he led the 1995 initial and secondary public stock offerings, established an active program of
Three Tips from Sid Faulkner For Preparing To Sell Your Startup 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–April 2012 Read More »
“Beta customer” blurs beta tester, beta user, and early customer. If you sell to business, beta customers are early customers, not beta testers.
A Beta Customer Is Not A Tester Or A User But An Early Customer 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–March 2012 Read More »
Here is our Startup Stages Overview video, it explains our startup stages model and the risk reducing milestones that separate each stage.
Startup Stages Overview Video Read More »
Structuring Business Relationships with Employees, Contractors, Alliances, Partners and Co-Owners is a core challenge founders must manage.
Early focus on a niche market (a small market) enables a startup to achieve “small wins” faster (and experience “small losses” instead of large ones). Over time these accumulate into larger wins.
Small Wins Enable Larger Wins Read More »
It’s essential to honor customer commitments to build effective business relationships and a solid reputation in an industry.
Honor Customer Commitments To Avoid Poisoning the Well Read More »
The first observation of a new insight is often published in a lab notebook or personal journal or as notes from a meeting that captured an anecdote. Self-publishing often marks the first generation of new knowledge because “new” is often hard to comprehend and not accepted by the status quo or established publication channels. If
Self-Publishing Often Marks The First Generation of New Knowledge Read More »
Linc Jepson is an electrical engineer who founded 74ze, a professional services firm that provides support for engineering design challenges.
Founder Story: Linc Jepson, 74ze Read More »
Last week was a thought provoking one for me with Big Data Camp on Mon February 27, a “Great Demo” workshop on February 29, and a tour of the Strata 2012 exhibit hall on March 1. I encountered either examples or stories of visualizations that required hundreds to thousands of CPU hours to create at
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand CPU Hours Read More »
Alberto Savoia defines pretotyping as determining that you are “building the right product before you invest in building your product right.” His book “Pretotype It” (Second Edition available as a Free PDF or on Kindle for $2.99) lists a set of seven techniques for pretotyping on pages 39-40. This post analyzes and elaborates on the techniques
Pretotyping – Techniques for Building the Right Product Read More »
Some comments on Rich Skrenta’s observation: “I think it’s still a long time before we’ll have building codes for software.”
Building Codes For Software Read More »
