Startup Fantasy Camp
Startup Fantasy Camp: throw a group of strangers together for 48-72 hours and have them pretend to be a startup.
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Startup Stages
Len Sklar: Be Clear About Payment Terms And Consequences
Len Sklar, author “The Check is NOT in the Mail” has spoken several times at Bootstrapper Breakfasts. Here is a recent talk he gave where he stresses the importance of putting payment terms and the consequences on non-payment in writing, communicating them in advance, and ensuring that they are understood. It all seems so obvious
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Erecting Barriers to Competition That Are Difficult to Duplicate
Here are some barriers to competition that you can erect that are often difficult to duplicate, or at least duplicate rapidly.
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Tangible Costs, Time, and Pricing to Value
Amazon’s S3 and AWS platforms, and similar on demand storage and computing services, are becoming increasing popular as core infrastructure for software startups. There is a tendency, because the costs are well defined, to base your price on adding a margin to these services. There are three problems with that.
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Why We Like Trade Shows
Why We Like Trade Shows If your prospects are accustomed to attending industry trade shows and conferences it’s normally worth exhibiting. Trade shows are one of the few venues where you can sell directly and explicitly and it’s accepted by prospects. If they walk up to your trade show booth they expect a sales pitch.
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Narrative Rationality: Be Mindful Of Your Self-Description
Pay attention to self-description: the story you tell yourself and about yourself. Cultivate productive habits that don’t require conscious decisions. “It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise
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It’s Not Bootstrapped vs. VC
It’s Not Bootstrapped vs. VC From Hillel Cooperman‘s “Bootstrapped vs. VC Funded–Who is Likely to Make the Most Money?” I bet that founders of bootstraps end up earning more money over the long haul out of their businesses than founders of venture-backed firms. The rare IPO may spike the numbers in the other direction, but
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A Nicely Furnished Room In A House That’s Burning Down
Silicon Valley is a nicely furnished room in a house that’s burning down, the state of California.
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How Long is a Piece of String
When I started out at Cisco in 1990 it was a part of the culture that a request for help or question that was too vague or poorly specified would be answered with “How long is a piece of string?”
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When Do I Need a Model? I am Bootstrapping
I have condensed this from a recent series of conversation with bootstrapping entrepreneur. I thought it captured many of the key questions that you need to be consider once you are “open for business.” Bootstrapping Entrepreneur: I am just getting started on a new project. I have several advisors and one has suggested that I
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How Not To Manage Early Adopters
How Not To Manage Early Adopters Sometimes a bad example can be useful. I got the following E-Mail from a startup whose tool I had tried to use about a year ago but gave up because it embodied too idiosyncratic view of a particular productivity problem. I had probably spent an hour trying to work
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Buying a Map vs. Learning to Explore
Learning to explore is a key skill for entrepreneurs. Ask questions you don’t know the answer to–where the answer would have an impact on your ability to assess the risk in your venture or would help you to define a key aspect of your business.
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Start Where You Are
People ask me where to get started. Lately I have been telling them: start where you are and sell what you have. Meet people, help them connect, and explore possibilities. Knit your network now before you need it.
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Why Your Startup Matters Has Little to Do With Funding
Successful entrepreneurs answer “Why your startup matters?” by pointing to problems solved for customers and jobs created. Profit is a means to creating future value and funding is a means to creating profit.
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B.V. Jagadeesh on “Startup Leadership Lessons Learned”
Summary of a very insightful talk on leadership lessons learned by Mr. B.V. Jagadeesh entitled “Lessons Learned Starting, Leading, and Succeeding at Multiple Startups.”
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How To Determine Your Competition During Customer Discovery
Want a simple way to determine your competition during customer discovery: consider what your prospects would have to give up to buy and use your product or service. The time and money you want prospects to spend on your offering have to come from somewhere: prospects will normally choose to take it from what they
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George Grellas on Leadership
George Grellas left a great short essay on leadership in a comment on Hacker News. Writing in response to “Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will” This is reposted with his permission (re-formatted from a single block of text).
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Price, Value, and Your Prospect’s Perception of Risk
Here are a couple of rules of thumb you may find helpful in thinking about price, value, and your prospect’s perception of risk.
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Early Markets Offer Fluid Opportunities
Startups see fluid opportunities in dynamic environments, but no certainties before opportunities pass or the “situation changes.”
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Tristan Kromer on Businesses Models
Tristan Kromer suggests that there are many viable models for a business, all have advantages and drawbacks. Services are easy to start but hard to scale. Despite surface appearance, a software business still inventory of people, key assets in the form of ideas, and a manufacturing process in the form of software release.
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