Hiten Shah: Four Lessons I Learned Squandering My Opportunity at KISSMetrics
In “My Billion Dollar Mistake” Hiten Shah shares four lessons he learned from the early successes and ultimate eclipse of KISSMetrics. […]
Do You Ever Get the Feeling That Everything You Know is Wrong?
My longer answer to “Do you ever get the feeling that everything you know is wrong?” The short answer is “yes, every few years.” […]
Professional Services Innovation: Customer Insight, Expertise, and Technology
Professional services innovation requires deepening your understanding of customer needs and emerging problem areas, deepening expertise, and incorporating technology and specialized tools into service delivery. […]
Qualitative Research: Problem Exploration for Lean Startups
Key points from Mary Sorber’s presentation on “Qualitative Research: Problem Exploration for Lean Startups” at Lean Culture July-31-2018. […]
Hotels near October 2018 Great Demo! Workshop
The October 2018 Great Demo! Workshop at Embassy Suites by Hilton in Milpitas that past attendees have stayed at and enjoyed. A list of other nearby hotels. […]
What to Expect at a Bootstrappers Breakfast
A Bootstrappers Breakfast is “counter-cultural” to the VC ecosystem focus at many events for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Here are seven ways that we take a very different approach to facilitating events for entrepreneurs compared to most others in Silicon Valley. […]
Suhail Doshi: Avoid These Seven Temptations as a First Time Founder
Suhail Doshi, founder of Mixpanel, shared a candid assessment of mistakes he made in the first 18 months of the six startups he has founded in “The first 18 months of starting a company: it’s life or death.” Here are 7 key pieces of advice that highlight mistakes first founders [...]
Scouting a Promising Market: Sending Spies Into Canaan
The difference between scouting a new market and scouting a promising market is that the former may not exist–or come into existence–while the latter clearly exists because it’s already occupied. […]
Q: How Do I Make Sure I Understand The Customer’s Problem and Present a Vision of a Solution?
Customer development–discovery driven sales–requires that you first understand the customer’s problem then present a vision of a solution. If that is acceptable you can proceed to a demonstration that provides technical proof of value. […]
Combine Clear Goals with Delegation Based on Expertise for High Impact
I re-read “Up the Organization” by Robert Townsend and was struck by how many of his insights were still applicable. The first chapter offers a recipe for breakthrough impact: combine clear goals with delegation based on expertise. […]
So Good They Can’t Ignore You
“So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport offers a very good model for creating a good career or prospering as an entrepreneur. […]
How Do I Move From Being Capable to Offering Expert Consulting?
Offering expert consulting means developing a specialization and focus that enable you to execute with distinction. The phrases “finding the niche for your product” and “product market fit” are essentially equivalent. A key definition of a market is that members reference each other’s buy decisions and therefore building up a [...]
Constructive Pessimism
Constructive Pessimism: to anticipate problems you have to be willing to acknowledge their possibility and look for them. Many entrepreneurs who are naturally optimistic make a serious mistake in discouraging pessimistic thinking instead of putting it to good use. The clever utilization of constructive pessimism is one of the keys [...]
Extracting Competitive Insights From Demos: SCIP Tue-May-24-2016
I am giving a talk on “Extracting Competitive Insights from Software Demos: Crafting and Refining Your Company’s Message Through the Analysis of a Competitor’s Demo” at the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Society for Competitive Intelligence (SCIP) Tue-May-24 at 6PM. […]
Texas Hold’Em as a Model for Technology Startups
Texas Hold’Em offers some useful models for technology startups: pick the right table (competitors) and understand how your cards best combine with common cards (the status quo and adjacent possible) […]
Verdafero Explainer Videos
Here are two explainer videos Verdafero has produced: the first is intended for REIT executives, the second for general managers of hotels. They condense key symptoms for a customer need or problem and the impact of Verdafero on the bottom line. […]
Bill Watterson on the Real World
Excerpts with commentary on Bill Watterson’s 1990 Kenyon College address: “Some Thoughts on the Real World By One Who Glimpsed it and Fled.” […]
Seven Best Insights From StartupLJackson on Startups
StartupLJackson was the alter ego of Parker Thompson (@pt) who tweeted insights for entrepreneurs from 2011-2016. Here are my pick for his seven best with some additional commentary. […]
Getting More Customers Workshop April 23, 2016
We are offering our “Getting More Customers” workshop 9:00am-1:30pm on Sat-Apr-23-16. Spend a morning working on your business with a mix of lecture, discussion with peer entrepreneurs, and reflection and writing. You will leave with a plan for getting the phone to ring and your inbox to fill with inquiries. [...]
Rock Paper Scissors
Technology markets look like a game of rock paper scissors. Startups have to find an effective counter to a competitor’s offering not just a slightly better version. Their pebble cannot beat the incumbent’s rock, they have to use paper (and scissors is a really bad idea). […]