Quotes For Entrepreneurs – October 2008
In April of this year I started to post quotes for entrepreneurs on @skmurphy. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
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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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Customer Development for a Consulting Practice in a Downturn
What follows are some real questions I have answered either face to face or in e-mail over the last 90 days in response to the current downturn in Silicon Valley. Customer Development for a Consultants in a Downturn Q: I just completed my first two years of consulting–which were spectacular–after 20+ years of full time
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Norm Brodsky’s Guidelines For Entrepreneurs
The October 2008 issue of Inc. magazine made it to the top of my reading pile today and I was delighted to read another great “Street Smarts” column by Norm Brodsky “Secrets of the $110 Million Dollar Man” which offers ten guidelines for starting a successful business.
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Comments From Today’s “Idea to Revenue” Class at CINA
We had a great set of entrepreneurs at our “Idea to Revenue” this afternoon. The class was sponsored by CINA,the Chinese Information and Networking Association and held at Fenwick & West in Mountain View. Here are some of the comments from the feedback form: “Great overview of the early stage entrepreneurial process. I liked the
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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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Signed Up For Convergence08
Signed Up For Convergence08 John Smart, the prime mover behind the old Accelerating Change conferences, sent an e-mail reminder about Convergence08 unconference November 15-16 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. It has a broad focus on some emerging technology areas that I hope will make for an eclectic and thought-provoking mix: synthetic biology
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Two Professional Groups for Consultants
Many mid-career professionals may take advantage of this latest Silicon Valley downturn to launch a consulting practice. Some of them find their way to the Bootstrappers Breakfast, where they are welcome. If they want to establish a consulting practice I encourage them to join organizations like PATCA and WIC as well. In yesterday’s Wall Street
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EDA Bloggers’ BoF at ICCAD 2008
Ed Lee and I have been pulling together another EDA Bloggers’ Birds of a Feather, this one at the 2008 ICCAD Conference. It will be on Wednesday November 12, 4-6pm in the Fir Ballroom. It’s listed in the ICCAD program as an additional meeting: EDA Bloggers’ Birds-of-a-Feather sponsored by IEEE CEDA and organized by Juan-Antonio
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3 Tips for Developing User Community Sites
After blogging about how “User Communities are Critical for Complex Products” two days ago I thought I would offer some quick tips on how to get started: Be clear on the benefits to the members. So many social networking groups are very clear on how members bring benefit to a user site, but not very
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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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Steve Blank on Customer Development at TiE Wed-Sep-17-2008
I had the pleasure of attending Steve Blank’s talk on “Customer Development for Startups” on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at TiE and I wanted to offer some pointers both to content he referenced and some related information on Customer Development.
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Ten Key Books for Busy High-Tech Execs @IEEE-SCV-TMC Nov-6-2008
Sean is speaking Thursday November 6 at the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the IEEE Technological Management Council on “Ten Business Books in One Hour for the Busy High-Tech Executive.” Location: Ramada Inn, 1217 Wildwood Ave, Sunnyvale CA 94089 (See Meeting Map) Time & Date: 6-9pm (Dinner included) on Thursday November 6, 2008 Cost &
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Sam Schillace at Tomorrow’s Bootstrapper Breakfast
I first met Sam Schillace at an Under The Radar event on “The Business of Web Apps: Where the Web Goes to Work” in March of this year. Sam co-founded Upstartle, the firm that developed Writely, with Steve Newman and Claudia Carpenter. I had been a user of Writely before it morphed into Google Docs
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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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Quotes for Entrepreneurs–September 2008
Continuing my twitter experiment I have selected a quote every couple of days that I believe is applicable to the challenges of entrepreneurship. At the end of the month I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs into a blog post. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
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Lesser Sons of Greater Fathers
An exploration of 9/11 and Bill Whittle’s “The Undefended City” which uses this quote “the fear that we may be lesser sons of greater fathers, and that we may no longer have the courage or the will to defend the City entrusted to our care” as a point of departure.
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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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