Memorial Day 2009
A personal memory of a cousin who died in Vietnam for Memorial Day 2009 commemorate those who died in the service of our country.
skmurphy
Interview with John Sanguinetti
An interview with John Sanguinetti, co-founder and CTO of Forte Design Systems, who shares his experiences of turning ideas into a businesses.
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John Sanguinetti on an EDA Startup’s First Product
Extracts from a panel at the 1998 Design Automation Conference on an EDA startup’s first product. Highlights remarks by John Sanguinetti.
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Briefing on Cloud Computing Paradigms at IEEE-CNSV May 19
I had the good fortune to meet Chris Wensel last year at a Hadoop User Group meeting at Yahoo and I was immediately impressed by his ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts in cloud computing. His explanations were not “dumbed down” but flowed from a deep understanding he had gained using the technology to
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Athol Foden at Friday May 8 Bootstrapper Breakfast in Milpitas
Athol Foden of Brighter Naming is our guest speaker Friday May 8 for the Bootstrapper Breakfast™ at 7:30am at the Omega Restaurant in Milpitas. Athol has over 16 years of experience helping clients name companies, products, services, and taglines. Athol’s opening remarks will be followed by a question and answer session on developing the right
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Quotes for Entrepreneurs – April 2009
It’s been a year since I started using Twitter to post quotes for entrepreneurs. I realize now that using Twitter, while encouraging me to collect more new quotes, forces me to focus on ones that will fit into a 140 character limit. I am thinking of re-titling this “Pithy Quotes For Entrepreneurs” where pithy means
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Bootstrapper Breakfast This Friday
I ran into an entrepreneur last night after the IEEE-CNSV “Service Economy” event who had been to a Bootstrapper Breakfast but had had to shut down his business. He asked me “I don’t have much to say right now but I get a lot out of the breakfasts, can I still come?”I said “Certainly. Not
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Conway’s Law: the Co-Evolution of Business Organization and Product Design
One formulation of Conway’s Law is that communication problems in an organization will manifest in their finished products: communication channels matter.
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Customer Development is a Sequence of Prototypes
Key takeaways from “Eight Rules for Prototyping” by John Hanks and Todd Dobberstein. A prototype is used both to assess technical feasibility and to provide a demonstration to a customer to get feedback. Customer development is a sequence of prototypes.
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Five Output Formats to Support
Some output formats to consider your application, they each have different properties and affordances and are not easily substituted for each other : Screen E-Mail Projector Print Fax Screen Most common way that users will interact in everyday use. This is how many prospects will view the product. E-mail output options Simple hypertext (e.g. URLs
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What To Do After the Layoff Fairy Taps You on the Shoulder
Building on yesterday’s “A Too Common Conversation of Late” here are some additional suggestions and advice for the newly unemployed. The loss of structure can be crippling. Get active and stay active. Unplug your television and visit the library. Make a list and read 5-10 books a month. Reconnect with old friends at least once
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A Too Common Conversation of Late
Layoffs are triggering a too common conversation: “what do to do now? How do I navigate the Great Recession?”
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Uncertain Times
We live in uncertain times, both in terms of the economic and technology transitions that are underway. I offer two rules that I use to navigate by.
Joshua Schacter: URL Shorteners Considered Harmful
Joshua Schacter’s “On URL Shorteners” is a great examination of the likely outcomes from the proliferation and use of URL shorteners. There are three other parties in the ecosystem of a link: the publisher (the site the link points to), the transit (places where that shortened link is used, such as Twitter or TypePad), and
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Comments from Mar-31 Getting More Customers
We had a great “Getting More Customers” workshop yesterday. It was our first time using the Pacific Business Centers location in Palo Alto and it worked out well. We used their boardroom and it made for a comfortable setting. This was the first time we’ve used a large flat screen TV monitor instead of an
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Quotes for Entrepreneurs – March 2009
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when they are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
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One Seat Left for Tue-Mar-31 Getting More Customers
Update Mon-Mar-30: Sold Out. Sorry No Walk-ins (Register to be notified of upcoming events) Theresa blogged about this in more detail in February “Getting More Customers – A 90-day Plan” Tuesday, March 31, 2008 8:15 AM – 1:00 PM (Lunch Included) Pacific Business Center 2225 East Bayshore Road Palo Alto CA 94303 650-320-7600 Click here
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If Revenue is Drying Up
You are not alone. We talk to firms every day that are challenged by the current economic environment. Let me suggest a couple of things you can do: Come to a Bootstrappers Breakfast™ and compare notes with other bootstrapping entrepreneurs for the price of your breakfast. We host four a month, the next one is
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Startups Need Sisu and Creative Improvisation To Survive Recession
We are clearly in a recession that will test many startups in Silicon Valley and the rest of the United States. Those with determination and a willingness to embrace creative improvisation are more likely to survive.
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Steve Blank on Leaving the BatCave to Learn from Customers
Steve Blank’s “Four Steps to the Epiphany” was a source inspiration in founding SKMurphy, and I was delighted to see that Steve has started blogging and it seems clear to me that he is using his blog to develop a companion volume. This one is more personal and uses specific experiences from his life to
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