Sustaining Is More Important Than Starting
Bootstrappers are well served to focus on recurring revenue and charging early: sustaining is more important than starting.
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Startup Stages
Do Customer Development in Parallel with Product Development
It’s a good idea to do customer development in parallel with product development: talk to prospects, surveys are not enough.
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Early Bird for Jan-2010 “Idea to Revenue” Ends Next Week
Just a quick reminder, the early bird rate ends next week for our Jan 12, 2010 Idea to Revenue workshop in Redwood Shores, CA. If you are in formation or the early days of your startup this is a good opportunity to spend four hours on your business with your team members. We help you
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George Grellas on Insightful vs. “Window Dressing” Advisory Boards
George Grellas offered some great advice on the difference between insightful and “window dressing” advisory boards on Hacker News I have reprinted here with his permission
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4 Steps to Prepare for a Startup While You are Still Employed
Someone with the label selfemploy posted the following question (note the fact that he is in Bangalore appears later in the thread, I have included it in the body of the question) on Hacker News earlier this month. As the recession continues to affect not only in Silicon Valley but many engineers around the world
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8 Tips for Evaluating Funding Alternatives
Many entrepreneurs planning their first software startup get stuck on funding and ownership issues. Here are some simple rules of thumb that may help you reframe an issue: Revenue, especially break even revenue, is never dilutive of your ownership. The right co-founders, while dilutive, substantially increase your chances of success: they give you a smaller
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Time is the Limiting Resource for Bootstrappers, Not Money
I think a bootstrapper’s true scarce resource is time. Determining how to be most effective with how you spend your time is more important than spending too many cycles on trying to save nickels. As a side effect of cutting out ineffective activities you will tend to cut unnecessary expenses. “Lost wealth may be replaced
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Eleven Work Weeks–Or Less–Left in 2009
Eleven Work Weeks–Or Less–Left in 2009 I blogged about end of year issues last November in “6 Work Weeks or Less in 2008” and I thought I would issue the “Warning Dates in Calendar are Closer Than They Appear” a little earlier this year because a lot of new businesses need to take action in
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Nanette Collins: Startup Culture is Critical
I am happy to be able to offer another guest blog by Nanette Collins, her first was on “Volunteering, Lessons Learned from the Trenches.” Nanette is an entrepreneur in her own right, she is the principal at Nanette V. Collins Marketing and PR with offices in Boston and San Francisco and one the web at
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Do Not Pay to Pitch Investors
Jason Calacanis has gone a little bit off the dial on “why startups shouldn’t have to pay to pitch angel investors” but he is nonetheless correct that you should not pay large fees to potential investors for consideration or the right to present. Our focus is helping bootstrapping technology startups but we do get startups
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Three Good Books for Consultants
Here are three good books for consultants that I routinely recommend: “Trusted Advisor”, “Secrets of Consulting”, and “Rainmaking.”
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“Startup Maturity Checklist” Slides From Today’s SVCC Session
I very much enjoyed the opportunity to present our startup stages model and the “Software Startup Maturity Checklist” at Silicon Valley Code Camp today. I have posted the slides here.
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Good Marketing is Good Content
Good content is the basis for good marketing: your messaging must explain your knowledge of customer problems and how you can help.
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Bouncing Back
Bouncing back from a setback is a challenge that entrepreneurs need to navigate repeatedly. Bouncing Back On Hacker News about 18 months ago someone posted a question on “Dealing with Post Startup Depression” that read I recently shut down my first startup ever. I am having a really tough time getting over it and starting
Sign-up for Software Startup Checklist Seminar at Silicon Valley Code Camp
With Athol Foden‘s encouragement I have submitted the following session (links added) for this year’s Silicon Valley Code Camp: Software Startup Maturity Checklist This session is for both aspiring and active entrepreneurs. We will walk through a 36 point checklist that covers Product Development, Customer Development, and Business Operations. You will leave with a better
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The Limits of “I Will Know It When I See It”
Both engineering and entrepreneurship alternate exploration and verification cycles to develop a solution that satisfies a customer’s need. Both of these rely on the scientific method of “observation, hypothesis formation, prediction, and experimentation” to develop and validate testable theories, engineering solutions, and profitable products. Both require that a new configuration or an opportunity be recognized
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Founders vs. Employees
An exploration of the tensions in roles of founders vs.employees and their different motives, incentives, and compensation.
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Michael Schrage on Innovation, Collaboration, Tools, and Incentives
Michael Schrage offers some useful insights on innovation: he stresses the need for collaboration both within the startup (or new product team) and between the startup and its early customers.
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Why Partners Are Critical
We invest a lot of effort in finding partners and maintaining partner relationships. We do this for a variety of reasons. One of the advantages to working in a large firm is that there are normally resources and expertise you can call on when confronted with a challenge. There are typically other specialists who have
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Hadoop Summit 2009 – Quick Impressions
A quick overview of the Hadoop Summit 2009: we are looking at project CPU budgets measured not in CPU years but CPU millennia.
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