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. […]
Q: Is a Focus on Inefficiencies a Good Way to Find an Underserved Market?
A focus on inefficiencies is a good method to find a underserved market where you can bootstrap you way to viability. Here is a list of several others. […]
Q: Should I Be an Entrepreneur?
How do you answer someone who asks “Should I be an entrepreneur?” […]
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. […]
No Safety in Numbers
This post applies the moral of James Thurber’s “The Fairly Intelligent Fly”–that there is “no safety in numbers, or in anything else”–to entrepreneurship. […]
Cyberspace Everts Into The Real World as IoT
When Cyberspace everts into the real world enabling communication and connection for non-computing related applications we call it IoT (the Internet of Things). […]
Entrepreneurs Need To See With Newcomer’s Eyes And Ask Stupid Questions
Fundamental questions allow you to explore new perspectives that can unlock new opportunities. Entrepreneurs can be unwilling to ask them–even of themselves–because a label that is commonly applied: stupid questions. […]
Dorothea Brande’s “Becoming a Writer:” 6 Tips for Entrepreneurs
Dorothea Brande wrote “Becoming a Writer” in 1934. The book remains in print today, offering valuable tips for both writers and entrepreneurs. […]