Q: When to Incorporate and Options for IP protection
Some quick answers to common questions about intellectual property (IP), IP protection, and when to incorporate.
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Startup Stages
Questions to Answer Before You Start Negotiating
Here are some questions to ask yourself before you start negotiating a complex business relationship: for example a software license, SaaS subscription, or a reseller or OEM relationship. Entire books are written on negotiation, I am trying to highlight some questions that can get overlooked.
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Elena Krasnoperova on “Learning Hacks for Bootstrappers” Fri-Dec-2
Elena Krasnoperova has been a regular attendee at the Silicon Valley Bootstrappers Breakfasts® for more than three years and I was delighted when she accepted my invitation to be a featured attendee and talk about her entrepreneurial journey. She plans to share some heuristics for learning faster than your competition and immediately applying your knowledge in
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Cofounder Legal Challenges and Solutions at Hacker Dojo Tue-Nov-29
Sean Murphy will moderate a panel of three experienced startup attorneys on November 29 for a Silicon Valley Cofounder Academy event at Hacker Dojo on “Cofounder Legal Challenges and Solutions.”
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Nine Rules from Monetizing Innovation
I am at the Intrapreneurship Conference in Palo Alto today and “Monetizing Innovation” by Madhavan Ramanujam and George Tacke. The book is a fast read that incorporates a some pricing theory into new product introduction, here are nine rules they offer for a successful innovation.
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Discovery, Invention, Growth, and Renewal
Entrepreneurs need to invent their future: this requires a cycle of discovery, invention, growth, and renewal.
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Q: Helping Customers On Hold
It’s important to understand who your customer is and what their critical business needs are. Helping customers is only possible once you have identified who you are truly serving (who will pay you) and which of their needs or problems you can help them address.
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So Good They Can’t Ignore You
“So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport offers a very good model for creating a good career or prospering as an entrepreneur.
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How Do I Move From Being Capable to Offering Expert Consulting?
Offering expert consulting means developing a specialization and focus that enables you to execute with distinction. The phrases “finding the niche for your product” and “product-market fit” are equivalent. A key definition of a market is that members reference each other’s buy decisions, and therefore, building up a set of references lowers your next prospect’s
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The Customer Determines The Details That Matter
The customer determines the details that matter in assessing the quality of your product. Here is a true story where this was brought home to me.
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Q: What Lessons Should I Draw From A Painful Cofounder Experience?
A painful cofounder experience is unfortunately more common than a happy one. It can be especially painful when the parties don’t know each well to begin with and the business startup fails. Here is a real email exchange that explores some ways to minimize the risks.
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Constructive Pessimism
Constructive Pessimism: to anticipate problems you have to be willing to acknowledge their possibility and look for them. Many entrepreneurs who are naturally optimistic make a serious mistake in discouraging pessimistic thinking instead of putting it to good use. The clever utilization of constructive pessimism is one of the keys to success.
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A Half-Fast Entrepreneur with Half-Vast Experience
Some thoughts on the half-fast entrepreneur with half-vast experience. Any resemblance to the author or the reader is purely coincidental.
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Choosing the Right Targets and Metrics
The targets that founders set for a startup, and the metrics they choose to measure their progress toward these targets, are key decisions in the definition of the business. The wrong targets–in particular selecting only targets that are easily achievable–will not only postpone difficult choices that will bring clarity but may doom a team from
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Five Tips For Activating Your Network of Relationships
A startups social capital, the network of relationships that the founders have with friends, former co-workers and associates, and friends of friends represent a key resource for the team. It’s possible to activate this network to help you solve a variety of problems–e.g. finding a cofounder, finding early employees, finding contractors, finding early customers, finding investors,
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Q: Making Effective Use Of Your Advisory Board
To make effective use of your advisory board you have to provide them written material in advance that offers context on your situation and the questions you want to explore with them.
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Tequity Helps Technology Startups Find Their Best Strategic Buyer
Tequity advises software and technology companies on how to get the best valuation from strategic buyers with a good cultural fit in an acquisition.
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SKMurphy Office Hours For Startups: Set Your Own Agenda
Our Office Hours for Startups program offers a no cost no obligation conversation around challenges bootstrapping founders wrestle with in any of five startup stages: Idea to Formation, Open for Business, Early Customers, Finding Your Niche, and Scaling Up.
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Cofounder Academy Panel “Role of the Cofounder”
A panel of four entrepreneurs will address the practical considerations for evaluating and joining a startup as a co-founder or early employee at a Wednesday, August 17 event at the Silicon Valley Cofounder Academy.
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Fifteen Quotes on Negotiation
Here are fifteen quotes that each communicate a different truth about negotiation. I have added some commentary to suggest how to apply them.
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