Independence Day 2019: “Conquer or Die”
The American declaration of independence and rebellion against the British was an incredibly risky proposition. George Washington often advised his army that they would either “conquer or die.” […]
Q: Help! I Can Only Find Laggards in My Target Customer Segment
Entrepreneurs are often quick to characterize prospects who don’t see the benefits of their new shiny technology as laggards. Sometimes that’s the case, but often the product presentation does not present benefits that are either relevant or compelling. Laggards get a lot of bad press in the startup community, but [...]
Quotes For Entrepreneurs Collected in June 2019
My June 2019 collection of quotes for entrepreneurs has a focus on learning and exploration, triggered by Lord Kelvin’s observation, “When you call a thing mysterious, all that it means is that you don’t understand it.” I think this also applies to things we call chaotic, random, or unpredictable. [...]
Q: Kissing Frogs
Finding the right customers is not just a matter of kissing frogs until one turns into a prince, but a methodical search guided by an experimentation perspective where your selection criteria are continually refined and re-evaluated. […]
Father’s Day 2019: a Story of My Father
Some personal reflections on my father and a stroke he suffered in June 1994 when I was launching a new company and expecting my first son in a few weeks. […]
Lee Carter on the Value of Direct Observation
A Q&A with Lee Carter where we explore the value of direct observation of customer environments to complement customer interviews. Lee shares details of a project he worked on where direct observation provided a valuable complement to a basic product specification. […]
Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in May 2019
A loose theme for the May 2019 collection of quotes for entrepreneurs is taken from a one sentence summary of Walter Lippmann’s 1922 book “Public Opinion” by Guido Hermann Stempel III and in Jacqueline Nash Gifford: “we don’t believe what we see; we see what we believe.” […]
Failed Fast, Now What?
If you have "failed fast" it's still possible to recover as long as your team has shared trust and a sense of common purpose. Failed Fast, Now What? Q: We started out with a mission that we found compelling and executed pretty well against it but now we are out [...]
Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in April 2019
My April 2019 collection of quotes for entrepreneurs focus on perseverance, endurance, and tenacity. Successful entrepreneurs persist through setbacks and defend important business relationships when competitors seek to displace them. […]
Hiten Shah: Four Lessons I Learned Squandering My Opportunity at KISSMetrics
In “My Billion Dollar Mistake” Hiten Shah shares four lessons he learned from the early successes and ultimate eclipse of KISSMetrics. […]
Scott Swaaley, Founder & CEO of MAKESafe Tools on SKMurphy’s Mastermind Group
Scott Swaaley: “The SKMurphy mastermind group has been my most consistently useful source of feedback and advice. Everyone knows my history, they have a broad swath of experience, and they help to keep me focused, productive, and moving in the right direction.” […]
Increase Your Luck Surface Area To Get More Customers
Jason Roberts 2010 “Luck Surface Area” model explains the need for entrepreneurs to combine time spent doing and developing expertise with time spent communicating with others. It’s a very useful and actionable insight. Unfortunately, the diagram he chose to illustrate the model assumes that entrepreneurs have an unlimited amount of [...]
Quotes for Entrepreneurs March 2019
I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a [...]
Bridging the Chasm between Entrepreneurial Engineers and Attorneys
How entrepreneurial engineers can make effective use of lawyers and the legal perspective they offer on the challenges their startup faces. […]
Quotes For Entrepreneurs Collected in February 2019
I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a [...]
Quotes For Entrepreneurs Collected in January 2019
I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a [...]
Learning from John Perry Barlow’s Principles of Adult Behavior
When John Perry Barlow turned 30 in 1977 he wrote a set of 25 “Principles of Adult Behavior” that he asked his friends to hold him accountable to. Here are a few I want to incorporate into my life. […]
Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in December 2018
I collect these quotes for entrepreneurs from a variety of sources and tweet them on @skmurphy about once a day where you can get them hot off the mojo wire. At the end of each month I curate them in a blog post that adds commentary and may contain a [...]
Naval Ravikant On Avoiding Bad Luck
A selection of quotes from Naval Ravikant's tweetstream on "How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky)" inverted as advice on how to avoid bad luck. Naval Ravikant On Avoiding Bad Luck Earlier this year Naval Ravikant posted a tweet stream of tweets on the theme of "How to Get Rich [...]
Why I Enjoy Working With Teams of Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs
A personal note on why I enjoy working with teams of bootstrapping entrepreneurs and the kinds of problems we help them solve. […]