Founder Story: Eric Deal, Cyclic Design
This originally appeared in EETimes on-line as “Eric Deal bounces back from a startup shutdown to establish Cyclic Design” on Dec-20-2010.
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Dave Stubenvoll Guest for “Origin & Evolution of New Business” Oct-26-2011
Dave Stubenvoll joins the panel for our Book Club for Business Impact to discuss “Origin & Evolution of New Business” by Amar Bhide
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Founder Story: Ghislain Kaiser, Docea Power
This interview with Ghislain Kaiser originally ran Nov-4-2010 as “Docea Power Successfully Bootstraps As a New EDA Player
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Founder Story: Paul van Besouw, Oasys Design Systems
An interview with Paul van Besouw, the founder and CEO of Oasys Design System, explores lessons learned from his entrepreneurial efforts at Ambit and Oasys.
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Business Model Representations
A quick overview of business model representations in active use in 2011. More of a time capsule now.
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What Happens When The “Come As You Are Party” is Over
A bootstrapped startup is a “come as you are” party. The Founders rely on passion and their savings to build product and find customers.
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Expiration Dates: Deadlines and Commitments
Bootstrappers need to make commitments and meet deadlines to achieve their cash flow objectives. Deadlines and commitments are inextricably linked. Be explicit up front about how long offer is good or how long a customer needs to wait for delivery. Get them to be explicit on payment terms.
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Tips for B2B Customer Development Interviews
This post on customer development interviews is one of my most popular. If you would like help preparing for customer development interviews or reviewing results from recent interviews please sign up for a no cost no obligation office hours session and I will be happy to help you rehearse or de-brief. Here are my lessons learned from taking
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Purpose, Patience, Politeness, and Prudent Risk Taking
A bootstrapper needs four attributes to succeed: purpose, patience, politeness, and prudent risk taking. These are markers for strength not weakness.
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Malcolm Gladwell Suggests Appreciative Inquiry Into Inner-City Schools
Malcom Gladwell suggests appreciative inquiry into inner-city schools. We can apply lessons from effective sports programs to the classroom.
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Appreciative Inquiry Mindset Essential to Customer Discovery
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a mindset that is essential in customer discovery. It encourages you to look for what’s working in an potential customer’s organization and “work with the grain of the wood.” It enables you to build on demonstrated strengths and accomplishments in framing your solution to a critical business problem.
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Customer Development Conversations With Busy Prospects
Always assume you are targeting busy prospects for you customer development conversations.
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Learning From Netflix: Lenny Greenberg’s Response
Lenny Greenberg, Founder and CTO of Assistyx, e-mailed me a long and thoughtful response to my “Learning from Netflix” post.
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It’s the Picture on the Box that Sells the LEGO Set
It’s the Picture on the Box that Sells the LEGO Set: provide specific examples of how your product can be used to solve problems.
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Selling to a Business Requires Conversations that Build Trust
Selling to a businesses requires conversations that build trust. Trust is built over time from predictability and meeting commitments.
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Learning From Netflix’s 2011 Pricing Strategy Mistakes
Netflix made several pricing strategy mistakes in 2011: an arbitrary price increase of 60%, poor communication from the top, and a demonstrated lack of concern for customer experience.
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Cutting Your Teeth in Sales
If you are an entrepreneur then sales is always a part of your responsibility. Here are some tips for cutting your teeth in sales.
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Gauging Customer Commitment
There are many useful ways to measure customer commitment to your product. Here is a rubric to help you assess each of your customers.
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Slides from “Working For Equity” Panel at SVCC 2011
Here are the slides from today’s “Working for Equity” panel at Silicon Valley Code Camp. It was a standing room only crowd of over 70 that made for a very interactive session with the panel.
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Twelve Things to Remember by Marshall Field
Marshal Field’s “Twelve Things to Remember” is a good list of qualities bootstrappers should cultivate within themselves.
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