D. H. Lawrence’s “Escape” Offers a Vision of the Entrepreneur’s Journey
D. H. Lawrence’s “Escape” Offers a Vision of the Entrepreneur’s Journey
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Startup Stages
Advice on Crowdfunding from Matt Oscamou, Mark Palaima, and Noah Dentzel
Some advice from a couple of founders that ran successful crowdfunding campaigns: Matt Oscamou, CEO of Frontier Bites, Mark Palaima, Distinguished Engineer at Avagent, and Noah Dentzel, CEO of Nomad Goods.
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Q: How Much Attention Should I Pay To Potential Competition?
Instead of looking left and right for potential competition, I would walk around the table and look at the situation from your prospect’s perspective.
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Q: Can We Launch First and Ask Customer Discovery Questions Later?
Don’t do a big launch before you have get answers to your customer discovery questions or you are running a very expensive test of your key customer and market hypotheses.
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Building a Business Requires Building Trust
One of the hallmarks for success in a business-to-business market is the ability to form personal relationships as well as professional business relationships. Both require building trust. I am always dismayed when I read advice that advocates bait and switch or other forms of con games that erode trust and make it difficult for any
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Without A Revenue Hypothesis Your Business Model Is a List of User Activities
Without a revenue hypothesis your business model is just a list of activities users are engaging in. You need to map customer actions to revenue and costs.
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Q: Should I Persevere With My Product Or Get A Job?
One question entrepreneurs ask themselves is whether to persevere or get a job. What follows is an email exchange that has been edited into a Q&A.
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Feeling Lucky Is Not a Strategy
Some startups just “go for it” and pursue their vision without any real strategy. In the same way that the losers are never interviewed after the lottery numbers are announced, press and pundits draw startup lessons by restricting their focus to the winners. It’s bullshit.
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Video from Lean Innovation 101 Talk at SF Bay ACM Nov-20-2013
Lean innovation models provide a scientific approach for creating and testing a product and developing a new business around it.
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IEEE-CNSV Panel Explores Engineering in Japan vs Silicon Valley Mon-Mar-3
IEEE-CNSV Panel Explores Engineering in Japan vs Silicon Valley Mon-Mar-3 I am helping to moderate a panel 7pm Mon-Mar-3 at IEEE-CNSV on “Innovation: Work and Life of the Engineer in Japan and Silicon Valley” The event takes place at Agilent Technologies, Inc. in the Aristotle Room, Bldg. 5 located at 5301 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa
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Five Serious Financial Mistakes Bootstrappers Can Avoid
Five financial mistakes bootstrappers can avoid include financing with credit cards or high interest loans and taking on long term financial commitments like a lease or an employee too early.
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Q: Resources For A Lean Approach to Sales, In Particular New Product Introduction
Q: We have started selling and are looking for resources for a lean approach to sales, in particular for new product introduction. Lean Approach To Sales at Lean Startup Conference 2012 Scott Sambucci and I presented a workshop at Lean Startup 2012 on “Engineering Your Sales Process.” The deck is posted at http://www.slideshare.net/SalesQualia/engineering-your-sales-process About 70%
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Legal Advice: Start With a Plain English Agreement That Covers Key Deal Points
My best business advice for managing a negotiation: start with a plain English agreement that covers the key deal points.
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Getting More Customers Workshop on March 25, 2014
Getting More Customers Workshop (March 25, 2014) Let’s face it, finding customers can be quite a challenge. In this interactive workshop, we will cover a variety of proven marketing techniques for growing your business: attendees will select one or two that fit their style and develop a plan to implement them in their business in
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Real Prospects, the Simplest Functionality They Will Pay For, and Team Members Who Can Help
Progress is discovering real prospects, understanding the simplest functionality they will pay for, and finding team members who can help.
Getting Unstuck Revisited
A friend I had not seen in a while felt “stuck” in a startup. It’s a feeling I am familiar with: I made 3 suggestions for getting unstuck.
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Difference Between a Hypothesis and an Assumption
The difference between a hypothesis and an assumption is that the first is typically explicit and the second implicit. A hypothesis is what you are testing explicitly in an experiment. An assumption is tested implicitly. By making your assumptions and hypotheses explicit, you increase the clarity of your approach and the chance for learning.
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Q: How To Pull The Trigger On A Pricing Model
It can be difficult to put a price on a new product service, much less to develop a pricing model you can use to offer pricing to many different prospects. Here are some tips.
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Recap Semifore MVP Clinic: Selling To A Team of Diverse Experts
This MVP clinic explores some of the challenges Semifore must navigate selling a solution to a team of diverse experts.
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The Likely Consequences of Entrepreneurship Require Perseverance
Justin Kan (@JustinKan) wrote “Startups Don’t Die, They Commit Suicide” in 2011″ (mirrored on his blog here) reflecting on what he had observed and learned as a serial entrepreneur. It was reposted on the Philly Startup Leaders list earlier this week which led me to write the following comments mixed with excerpts from Kan’s post.
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