David Binetti’s Innovation Accounting Model
David Binetti’s Innovation Accounting Model uses an options model to value the opportunity to test assumptions in the market and learn.
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P. T. Barnum’s Golden Rules For Making Money
P.T. Barnum wrote “The Art of Money Getting: The Golden Rules for Making Money” in 1880 at the age of 70 when he was already an accomplished businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author–after his hugely successful 1855 autobiography “The Life of P.T. Barnum: Written By Himself.”
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Q: How Can I Maximize ROI and Minimize Risk?
You can only capture a share of the value that you create if you want to create a sustainable business. While you need to assess the likely return on investment from your efforts and your probability of success, you also need to look at any deal from the other side of the table. It’s as
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Q: How Do We Get A Business Prospect To Talk To Us?
Each interaction with a business prospect or a customer has to promise an exchange of value: their time or money for at least the strong possibility of benefit. Many of the startup fantasy camp customer development training models neglect this and teach beginning entrepreneurs to rely on the kindness of strangers. This may work in
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When You Are No Longer The Smartest Person In The Room
You may have been the smartest person in the room for a long time, but getting into a room with a customer changes that because a key knowledge domain of interest is the customer’s situation and needs. Here are some suggestions for how to keep learning instead of acting like the smartest person in the
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Q: How To Critique a Competitor?
A recent question from an office hours session on how to handle a prospect asking you to critique a competitor when both of you have new offerings in a new application area.
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Quotes for Entrepreneurs–February 2016
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like to have new blog posts sent to you. Leap Year: What Are You Going To Do
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Anything You Want By Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers promises that his slim book “Anything You Want” is a one hour read that summarizes 10 years of his entrepreneurial experience into 40 lessons for a new kind of entrepreneur. It’s a practical book that’s well organized and easy to read. It took me much longer than an hour to actually absorb the
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The Nitty Gritty of Setting Up Customer Discovery Meetings
David Telleen-Lawton has more than two decades of customer development. This blog post on the nitty gritty of setting up customer discovery meetings is adapted from his presentation at the 2015 Lean Startup Conference.
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Getting More Customers Workshop April 23, 2016
We are offering our “Getting More Customers” workshop 9:00am-1:30pm on Sat-Apr-23-16. Spend a morning working on your business with a mix of lecture, discussion with peer entrepreneurs, and reflection and writing. You will leave with a plan for getting the phone to ring and your inbox to fill with inquiries.
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Bill Davidow on Silicon Valley Values
Concerned about Silicon Valley values, William Davidow wrote “What Happened to Silicon Values” in 2012 and concluded, “Silicon Valley is no longer as concerned about serving the customer, and even sees great opportunity in exploitation.” Here are some excerpts with additional comments.
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Getting Better at Customer Discovery Conversations
Getting better at customer discovery conversations requires preparation, practice, note taking, and follow-up. It can also be tremendously helpful if you can arrange for a partner who can observe, contribute, take notes, and de-brief with you. Even if you are a solo entrepreneur “trade interviews” with another entrepreneur: agree to help them with one of their
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Am I Making A Fool Of Myself?
One of the most common questions I hear in conversations with entrepreneurs at a Bootstrapper Breakfasts, in Office Hours calls, or with clients–and not infrequently from myself when comparing notes with peers–is, “Am I making a fool of myself?” Here are some questions you can use to clarify your situation when you are starting to feel like a
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Delegation Needed For Growth
As entrepreneurs we need to pay attention to the details that matter but to achieve even modest growth or scaling we also need to use delegation. We need to allow other team members to contribute their own strengths, experiences, and insights to the project at hand.
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I love emails like this (Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion)
Here is a recent email I got from Walt Maclay, an SKMurphy, Inc. client since 2008. It includes an email from one of Voler’s partners congratulating him on the February newsletter. As our partner Peter Cohan often says, “Warning: shameless self-promotion.”
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Customer Development: Scouting A New Market
There are no undefended markets. Established markets are characterized by entrenched competitors who have strong brand identify and deep customer relationships. Although Bill Hewlett always strove to “attack the undefended hill,” the reality is that any market worth having is at least lightly defended by the status quo of current alternatives. When scouting a new
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Are you a boss or a leader?
Are you a boss or a leader? Here is a short list outlining the difference.
Are you a boss or a leader? Read More »
Quotes for Entrepreneurs January 2016
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month.
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Recap Customer Development & Pricing For B2B Startups Jan-19-2016
I led a very interactive session on customer development and pricing for startups on Jan-19-2016 with the Montreal Lean Startup Circle. I have included the slides and their text but they comprise only about 1/6 of the session, the bulk of which was having different entrepreneurs in the audience present their challenges with customer development
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The Illusion of Progress
An entrepreneur who succumbs to the illusion of progress does a startup more self-inflicted damage than almost anything else. Working on the wrong things squanders effort and irreplaceable time without gaining the learning needed for the actual efforts required.
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