Jeff Bezos on Strategic Planning
Excerpts that I found thought provoking and useful from an interview with Jeff Bezos in the October 2007 Harvard Business Review.
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Startup Stages
Conserving Trust in a Downturn
A lot of is written these days about how to conserve cash in a downturn. In particular the need to cut expenses by cutting headcount and unnecessary fill-in-the-blank spending. But conserving trust is equally important. If you have been bootstrapping and only increasing expenses in response to revenue (versus in anticipation of revenue) then your
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Doing Less with Less
Startups survive because they can live on the scraps of a market (a niche) that larger competitors ignore or would be unable to pursue profitably. This is doing less with less.
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6 Work Weeks (or Less) Until 2009
Nov-17: the last full week before Thanksgiving, if you are trying to close business it can get much harder between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day [Full Week] Nov-24: a half week at best. [Half-Week] Dec-1: normally a good week [Full Week] Dec-8: normally a good week [Full Week] Dec-15: unless you are chasing end of
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Tips For Handling Referrals
Nurturing Referrals Is Critical to Growth Nurturing referrals is a critical activity for every entrepreneur. A referral is an introduction to a prospect with an endorsement. They come from shared success with your customers or colleagues, someone who knows your potential and can vouch for you or your team’s ability to deliver. These individuals are
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Odd Jobs With an Even Temper
I think every startup above a certain size needs someone who can do “odd jobs” with an even temper. Especially in tough times, don’t underestimate the value of small kindnesses, humor, and calmness in a crisis.
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Plan For Customer Reference as Much as Payment
Worry about a good customer reference more than getting paid. A reference will lead to payment, but just because they pay does not mean they’re a reference. Plan for gaining customer references by starting with a request for feedback don the quality of your services and the business results you enabled.
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Negotiate the Level of Reference in Parallel with Price and Others Terms and Conditions
Having a public reference, testimonial, or case study is a significant risk reducing asset for a startup. It’s prudent to negotiate the level of reference in parallel with price.
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Overnight Success
The challenge with overnight success in a startup–like many things–is the time needed to integrate many inputs, your own hopes and fears among them.
In the Beginning…the Founders are the Business
The closing slide in our Idea to Revenue Workshop says In The Beginning…The Founders Are The Business. To Keep The Business Viable, Learn Faster Than the Competition. Successful Entrepreneurship Is a Self-Improvement Project.
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Using the Downturn to Launch Your Consulting Career
The last six weeks or so I have encountered a number of folks who have decided to use the downturn to launch their consulting career. Typically they have been encouraged in this by their former employer who has given them a large check a lot of free time. But some have chafed at cubicle life
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How To Measure Your Lead Generation Effectiveness
Many start-up founders believe that the sales process should be this straightforward: Get the phone to ring (or e-mail inbox or skype or web contact form) Tell your prospect about your offering Take the order Alas it is normally not this simple, especially if you are selling to businesses. We do encounter some startups that
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Getting Your Startup Through the Downturn is a Marathon Not a Sprint
Getting Your Startup Through the Downturn is a Marathon Not a Sprint The third form of happiness, which is meaning, is again knowing what your highest strengths are and deploying those in the service of something you believe is larger than you are. There’s no shortcut to that. That’s what life is about. Martin Seligman
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Why NDA Is Not On the Startup Maturity Checklist
Some startups ask for an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before sharing any details about their product. This is a recipe for disaster.
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Entrepreneurial Focus: Right Layer, Right Problem, Right Time
Entrepreneurial focus means answering three related questions: what are we good at, how can we tell and how do we measure it, who wants it and how do they value it?
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Non-Customers Are Where Important Changes Often Start
There is a risk of complacency for start-ups (and even larger firms) who have achieved a level of security in their first niche. Markets change, consumer needs change, and you need to continue to explore opportunities to sell your offering to new customers–non-customers–even though it’s a much harder sales process than a renewal, upgrade, or
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Please Be Healthy
I sent the following E-Mail after a series of conversations and E-Mail exchanges with a founder struggling with entrepreneurial burnout. I encourage him to “please be healthy.” I thought it was apropos the current angst in Silicon Valley.
User Communities Are Critical For Complex Products
User communities are not just a low cost way to market and support your product, they are essential to complex technology products.
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Herb Reiter Interview on Fostering Static Timing Analysis Adoption
An interview in 2008 with Herb Reiter of EDA 2 ASIC Consulting, Inc. on Static Timing Analysis and how to introduce it into a design flow.
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Financial Modeling for Startups Workshop–Early Bird Ends Tomorrow
Update Tue-Sep-23: Sold Out, No Walk-ins. We will offer it again: you can sign-up to be notified of upcoming workshops We just finished our last rehearsal for next Wednesday’s (Sep-24) “Financial Modeling for Startups” workshop we are doing jointly with Nathan Beckord of Venture Archetypes. I think it will be a good lunch and learn
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