A Primer on Business Assets for High Technology Startups
Are you looking to build a business? No matter the stage you’re at, there are three kinds of business assets you will need to be successful in the long run. […]
40 Tips for B2B Customer Development Interviews
This post on B2B customer development interviews builds on one of my most popular. If you would like help preparing for customer development interviews or reviewing results from recent interviews, contact us. Here are my lessons learned from taking part in interviews where the startup planned to offer a product [...]
Building WordPress Websites
Three reasons I like building WordPress websites: they are cost effective, they are scalable, and they easily support search engine optimization. […]
Benefits of SKMurphy Mastermind for Entrepreneurs
An SKMurphy Mastermind Group is an ongoing series of facilitated conversations among serious entrepreneurs. It enables collaboration on problems and opportunities and fosters joint accountability around effective ongoing action. […]
Mastering The Skill of Entrepreneurship
Expertise in a complex skill, like the skill of entrepreneurship, requires mastery of a constellation of techniques and methods. I use an essay by Ursula K. Le Guin “Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?” as a point of departure to explore the “continuous cultivation of a disposition, leading to [...]
Octavia Butler: Cultivate Habits That Enable Persistence and Learning
Octavia Butler rejects inspiration, talent, and imagination as essential to creative pursuits and suggests that habits that enable persistence and learning are the essential element. […]
Scott Berkun: How to Translate Observations and Creative Insight Into a Solution
In “The Dance of the Possible,” Scott Berkun outlines four tests for understanding the real work involved to translate observations and creative insight into a solution. […]
Concierge MVP or Service-First Forces You To Be Your Own Test Pilot
A concierge MVP or service -first approach delivers the benefits that your product offers as a service or consulting first, charging for the result not your time. […]
Napoleon Hill on Principles for Success in Business and Life
Napoleon Hill wrote “The Magic Ladder to Success” in 1930. Despite being a con man and failure for most of his life, Hill was able to accurately summarize a number of common sense rules for success. I have tried to pull out some key insights in this blog post, leaving [...]
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. […]
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 [...]
Q: How to Explore an MVP For Knowledge Worker Productivity
Applications that improve knowledge worker productivity have to satisfy “prepared users” not “casual users” and are especially challenge to do customer discovery and development for. With his permission, I have included William Pietri (LinkedIn williampietri) answer to a real question from an early stage entrepreneur because I found it incredibly [...]
Don’t Explore Thoughtland In Interviews
Whether you are interviewing potential employees or potential customers, don’t explore Thoughtland with a focus on predictions and beliefs. Instead, explore actual behavior and prior experience. […]
In the Beginning was the Doodle: Protecting Startup Secrets
Pete Tormey’s ebook “Startup Guide to Intellectual Property: Early Stage Protection of IP” is a great resource for founders on startup intellectual property. This blog post includes excerpts from the “Protecting IP Early” chapter that focus on protecting startup secrets early in its existence. […]
In the Beginning Was the Doodle: Defining Startup Intellectual Property
Pete Tormey’s ebook “Startup Guide to Intellectual Property: Early Stage Protection of IP” is a great resource for founders on startup intellectual property. This blog post includes excerpts from the “Protecting IP Early” Chapter of Pete’s book. They cover some of the basic concepts of intellectual property and how to [...]
Newsletter August 2017: Entrepreneurial Secrets
There are few–if any–real secrets to entrepreneurial success. Most entrepreneurial secrets are hiding in plain sight, available to anyone who keeps their eyes and ears open and is willing to ask questions. […]
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. […]
Howard Marks: “Dare To Be Great”
Howard Marks wrote “Dare to be Great” in 2006 as a summary of challenges for successful investment: you have to be unconventional but correct. This advice applies to startups as well. […]
Chip Conley: Reconceive Bewilderment As Curiosity
Chip Conley shares how he was able to look at AirBNB’s operation with newcomer’s eye when he chose to reconceive bewilderment as curiosity. […]