Perfectionism vs. Mastery Mastery’s great accomplishments require time and a willingness to release a sequence of prototypes. Perfectionism means you don’t ship until it’s perfect. Which means you never ship or what you ship has not learned from problems or needs that only visible post deployment. Randall Munroe’s “The General Problem” embeds this observation: “I […]
Perfectionism vs. Mastery Read More »
A few thoughts on customer interviews and why their capacity to surprise us makes them preferable to surveys and landing pages for early market exploration.
Customer Interviews: Allow Yourself to Be Surprised Read More »
I came across an interesting tool this week in the collaboration area. The web page invited me to apply for membership, prompting me to enter my e-mail, twitter handle, blog, and a brief bio. But they were “purposefully vague’ about who they were. It wasn’t exactly stealth mode, more like maintaining deniability if it failed
Stay Tuned! We Are Being Purposefully Vague Right Now Read More »
A bootstrapped startup is a “come as you are” party. The Founders rely on passion and their savings to build product and find customers.
What Happens When The “Come As You Are Party” is Over Read More »
This post on customer development interviews is one of my most popular. If you would like help preparing for customer development interviews or reviewing results from recent interviews please sign up for a no cost no obligation office hours session and I will be happy to help you rehearse or de-brief. Here are my lessons learned from taking
Tips for B2B Customer Development Interviews Read More »
A bootstrapper needs four attributes to succeed: purpose, patience, politeness, and prudent risk taking. These are markers for strength not weakness.
Purpose, Patience, Politeness, and Prudent Risk Taking Read More »
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a mindset that is essential in customer discovery. It encourages you to look for what’s working in an potential customer’s organization and “work with the grain of the wood.” It enables you to build on demonstrated strengths and accomplishments in framing your solution to a critical business problem.
Appreciative Inquiry Mindset Essential to Customer Discovery Read More »
Always assume you are targeting busy prospects for you customer development conversations.
Customer Development Conversations With Busy Prospects Read More »
Lenny Greenberg, Founder and CTO of Assistyx, e-mailed me a long and thoughtful response to my “Learning from Netflix” post.
Learning From Netflix: Lenny Greenberg’s Response Read More »
It’s the Picture on the Box that Sells the LEGO Set: provide specific examples of how your product can be used to solve problems.
It’s the Picture on the Box that Sells the LEGO Set Read More »
Selling to a businesses requires conversations that build trust. Trust is built over time from predictability and meeting commitments.
Selling to a Business Requires Conversations that Build Trust Read More »
If you are an entrepreneur then sales is always a part of your responsibility. Here are some tips for cutting your teeth in sales.
Cutting Your Teeth in Sales Read More »
There are many useful ways to measure customer commitment to your product. Here is a rubric to help you assess each of your customers.
Gauging Customer Commitment Read More »
Three variations on the idea that “successful entrepreneurship is an ongoing self-improvement” project, program, or process.
Successful Entrepreneurship Is Ongoing Self-Improvement Read More »
Refine and curate your thoughts by reworking the first draft of your answers in an email or in response to a question from a customer or an audience member at a talk.
Refine and Curate Your Thoughts as FAQs, Articles, and Talks Read More »
Successful general purpose toolkits evolve from successful simple point tools. Focus, start small, and evolve into a broad platform.
The Risk of General Purpose Toolkits as a First Product Read More »
Startup Fantasy Camp: throw a group of strangers together for 48-72 hours and have them pretend to be a startup.
Startup Fantasy Camp Read More »
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
Len Sklar: Be Clear About Payment Terms And Consequences Read More »
Here are some barriers to competition that you can erect that are often difficult to duplicate, or at least duplicate rapidly.
Erecting Barriers to Competition That Are Difficult to Duplicate Read More »
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.
Tangible Costs, Time, and Pricing to Value Read More »
