Impatience For Success Works Against Learning
Most successful products start in a niche and expand via a sequence of larger adjacent niches. Impatience for success works against learning.
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Startup Stages
Dr. Atul Gawande on Managing Complexity and Uncertainty
Managing complexity and uncertainty was the focus of Dr Atul Gawande’s commencement address at Williams College on Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 (Reprinted in New Yorker as “Failure and Rescue“). The entire talk is worth reading and offers a medical case history as a compelling context for his points. “…the critical skills of the best surgeons
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Changing Management’s View of an Innovation From “Probably Not a Good Idea” to “We’re Late”
The key to changing management’s view of an innovation from “probably not a good idea” is to assess the impact of metrics that they care about. At which point you are often told “We’re late.”
Startups Should Focus on Impact and Innovation Before Growth
Growth is an outcome of impact. Focus on impact and innovation before investing efforts in growth. Once you have identified an opportunity to make an impact you can plan for growth.
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Q: Should I Get A Normal Job Or Work At A Startup?
Entrepreneurship gets a lot of hype but it’s not for everyone: here is a brief discussion of some of practical realities of what it’s like to work at a startup.
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Startup Founders Announced for Working For Equity Panel at SVCC 2012
For the third year in a row I will moderate a panel of startup founders sharing lesson learned bootstrapping a technology startup at Silicon Valley Code Camp. This “Working for Equity” session will be on Sunday Oct 7 at 9:15am. Here is the announcement Many of us in Silicon Valley seek to found or be
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Q: Can a Custom Solution Be The Basis For A Product?
A custom solution that has been adopted by a paying customer can be the basis for a successful product. This is a common way to get started.
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Crafting Deals with Customers and Partners
Bootstrappers prosper by closing deals with customers and partners. Here are twelve tips if you are new to crafting deals.
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Consider What’s Changed And What You Bring To An Opportunity
When you are trying to choose from a range of opportunities, a key step is to consider what’s changed that makes this a compelling opportunity for you.
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Slides and Audio From “Leading A Team of Experts” at PMI-SV Sep-17-12
Slides and Audio From “Forming Leading A Team of Experts” at Project Management Institute of Silicon Valley on Sep-17-2012. Audio includes a lively discussion.
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Three Great Books on Generating Innovative Business Ideas
Three Great Books on Generating Innovative Business Ideas These three books contain a wealth of useful suggestions for generating innovative business ideas from observing, questioning, and networking with customers and others: Innovator’s DNA “The Innovator’s DNA” by Christensen, Dyer, and Gregerson outlines a set of five skills that innovator’s use to develop entrepreneurial ideas: Associating:
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Entrepreneurial Passion and the Science of Startups
Successful entrepreneurs have a passion to see their inventions adopted as innovations not admired as works of art. This is the science of startups.
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George Gilder: Entrepreneurship is the Launching of Surprises
George Gilder address the mental and spiritual elements of entrepreneurship in “Unleash the Mind” defining entrepreneurship as the launching of surprises.
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Serious and Competent People
An exploration of Neal Stephenson’s suggestion that “whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window.”
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Yanis Varoufakis: “Valve is an Enlightened Oligarchy”
An analysis of Yanis Varoufakis “Why Valve? What do we need corporations for and how does Valve’s management structure fit into today’s corporate world?”
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Neal Stephenson on Distinguishing Different Motives for Hypocrisy
You can fail to live up to your espoused beliefs due to hypocrisy or because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The difference is an important distinction and one with implications for the example you set in establishing the culture in a startup. Is there one set of rules that everyone strives
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Neal Stephenson on the Importance of Culture
Two excerpts from Neal Stephenson‘s “The Diamond Age” on the importance of culture of a startup or an economic region. These are from pages 24 and 25 and outlines two real life events as a part of the back story of one of the characters in the novel, hyperlinks have been added to provide context.
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Draper University of Heroes Takes Holistic Approach to Teaching Entrepreneurship
Tim Draper, founder of VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is taking a holistic approach to entrepreneurial education with Draper University in San Mateo.
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You Tried: It’s OK To Make a Change
Nothing new ever works, but repeatedly trying the same thing without variation is insanity (or bureaucracy). Fix your mistakes; make a change in approach.
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Innovative, Robust, Seamless, Disruptive, and Patented
Avoid “vendor speak” where you use words like innovative, seamless, robust, disruptive, or patented. These are not words a customer would use to describe your product.
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