Q: Should I Tap My 401K To Bootstrap?
Q: Should I tap my 401K to bootstrap my startup? A: No, and read Barry Moltz’s “You Have to Be a Little Crazy” on the risks of money from friends and family.
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Startup Stages
Good and Bad Reasons to Pivot
Much has been written about a startup making a pivot in direction after Eric Ries first coined the term in a 2009 blog post “Pivot don’t Jump to a New Vision.” The word pivot has attracted almost as much wordplay as the word lean. What follows is a short list of good and bad reasons to
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Larry Smith: Fail Fast, Fail Often, and Die
Larry Smith is an Economics Professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo who writes and lectures on Entrepreneurship, innovation, and Technology markets. What follows is part of a conversation he had with Alan Quarry in the AQ’s Blog & Grill series of interviews with entrepreneurs. His key point, that he makes in a somewhat cranky fashion, is that technology
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Resources for Student Entrepreneur Organizations
With the 2016 school year getting ready to start in the next six to eight weeks at most colleges and universities I have had several conversations with student entrepreneur organizations about how I might be able to help them. I have developed content and given talks and webinars over the last five years that may provide
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Webinar Replay: You Need to Be a Little Crazy
This is a webinar replay that was recorded on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 with Massimo Paolini, Miles Kehoe, Dorai Thodla, and Sean Murphy discussing Barry Moltz‘s “You Need to Be a Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business.” They share how they personally found the courage to start their businesses and their
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Jonathan Bendor: Use Rubrics To Guide Innovation
An interesting interview from May 1, 2015 with Jonathan Bendor, a Stanford professor, who suggests that firms use rubrics to guide innovation so that criticism becomes less personal and more consistent and constructive. What follows is an edited transcript with some additional commentary.
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A Serious Conversation Can Change Your Life
Theodore Zeldin gave a series of six lectures on conversation that were collected in slim book called “Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives.” I found it offered a number of insights on what is needed for a serious conversation. And since serious conversation is one of the primary tools for early market exploration and
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Nature, Technology and Magic
What seems natural, artificial, or supernatural is a function of familiarity. Nature is the background or context for innovation. The challenge is that we live in a world and culture formed by millennia of innovation so that some incredibly advanced technologies seem natural. The difference between technology and magic is not that one works more
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Your First Dozen Enterprise Customers
My interview with Gabriel Weinberg was originally published Sep-8-2010. He was doing research for what became his fantastic book Traction. We talked for the better part of an hour and a half and I can remember he kept returning in different ways to what was needed to close your first dozen enterprise customers. He recently
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Jen Berkley Jackson on Win Loss Interviews
I have known Jennifer Berkley Jackson of The Insight Advantage for the better part of a decade. I met her at a Breakfast for Management Consultants and have stayed in touch ever since. She wrote a great blog post last year on “Win/Loss Analysis, Your Secret Weapon for Success” and we recently sat down to
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Q: How To Evaluate Acquiring a Small Software Firm
We recently helped a client frame the exploration of an opportunity for acquiring a small software firm. Here are some questions to consider if you are contemplating the sale or acquisition of small software company.
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Q: How To Find Help Selling Professional Services
Q: My software consultancy has reached the point of needing to hire someone to help manage the sales pipeline. I’ve hired all kinds of technical related folks, but never for sales.
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Assessing Prospect Intent
While asking for a letter of intent may seem like a useful shortcut to assessing prospect intent, it normally causes many more problems than it solves.
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3D Printing: The Next Best Thing But Not Yet
3D printing is overhyped and its implications are not well understood. It will be twenty plus years before there is a 3D printer in most homes due to limitations of the cost of the machine, material, obtaining software and learning how to use the software. Other fundamentally problem that prevent 3D printers being adapted by the
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See What’s Missing: Careful Observation Key To Success
Many a successful has been started based on careful observation, in particular seeing what’s missing. This post uses excerpts from The Verger by W. Somerset Maugham to highlight some practical truths of entrepreneurship.
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Q: Is Veterinary Marketing A Viable Approach To Market Exploration?
Entrepreneurs who limit themselves to what they could learn if their prospects lacked the power of speech adopt what I call a veterinary marketing model. It’s not a viable approach to market exploration.
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Innovation: the Trick is Managing the Pain
Any innovation effort is a painful struggle punctuated by false starts and dead ends. Your efforts are met with lack of interest even when a basic invention is working and active resistance when it starts to replace the tried and true. Like any childbirth the trick is managing the pain long enough to deliver.
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A Clear Eyed View Of The Way Forward
It’s often hard to see your way forward. When there are many courses of action open to you whose possible outcomes are hard to predict you can remain paralyzed by analysis. I often find myself dithering past the point where picking any reasonable option and proceeding is far better than continuing to analyze my choices.
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Step Back To See Yourself In The Problem
Normally if you are not getting traction, if you are not able to reliably set and hit goals, then it’s a good idea to narrow your focus and take smaller steps. Zoom in for traction. This is a good rule of but you may need to take a step back and look at yourself as
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When Exploring, Keep a Log
In new situations, keep a journal of your experiences. This helps you organize your thoughts and remember observations clearly. When exploring, keep a log. This strategy is useful if you are starting a new job, a new project, forming a startup or launching a new product in an unfamiliar market.
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