Quotes On The Limitations of Cleverness
A couple of quotes for entrepreneurs on the limitations of cleverness. Don’t just be clever, be kind and make things of beauty with care.
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Annie Dillard on the Appreciation of Grace and Beauty
There seems to be such a thing as beauty, a grace wholly gratuitous. About five years ago I saw a mockingbird make a straight vertical descent from a roof gutter of a four-story building. It was an act as careless and spontaneous as the curl of a stem or the kindling of a star. The
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The Venture Lifestyle Business
“Some buildings need air conditioning because they have air conditioning. Because they were designed to be air conditioned, they have no natural ventilation and would be miserable to inhabit without air conditioning.” John Cook in “Maybe You Only Need It Because You Have It“ I wonder if the same thing happens to some fraction of
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Keeping the Ball Rolling With Prospects
Keeping the ball rolling with prospects requires a mix of empathy for their situation and a project management mindset.
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Narrowcast Early Product Announcements
My bias is to “narrowcast” in the beginning. Choose websites, forums, newsgroups that are tightly focused on your target market. You attract less competition, your message cost is normally cheaper per prospect, and you often learn faster by taking part in the conversations in a focused community. It’s not so much about being stealthy as
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Quick Thoughts on Selling For Software Engineers
Some quick thoughts on selling for software engineers. Sell results, not method. Land and Expand. Get clarity on the customer’s view of the problem. Listen.
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Fun Getting More Customers Workshop Today
We have a very fun group of entrepreneurs today in the workshop. Every time we give our workshops, I learn so much from our attendees. Today, I learned about a couple of new tools I am planning to check out: Small business CRM http://batchblue.com/ Demandbase http://www.demandbase.com/ I also was given the idea to use twitter
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Deformation Professionelle Of The Software Entrepreneur
Deformation professionelle is a French phrase that encapsulates the perspective that your view of reality is shaped by your profession.
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Orienting, Observing, Doing Homework, and Paying Dues
Paying dues–putting the time in not only to understand but master a problem or situation–is a critical element of success in many circumstances.
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Building and Managing a Learning Process
If you accept the premise that we are living in an age of accelerating change, then you have to build and manage a learning process for your startup.
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Seven Quotes on Learning and Measurement From Marty Neumeier
In July I posted “Ten Design Thinking Quotes From Marty Neumeier. Mr. Neumeier has continued his drip irrigation of brilliant insights on twitter at @MARTYneumeier so here are seven of his recent ones related to learning and measurement.
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Bootstrapper Breakfasts in December 2010
We have added two Holiday Bootstrapper Breakfasts in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, continuing a tradition started two years ago of running two breakfasts that week at 9am. Any of these December breakfasts are a great opportunity to take some time to not only recap 2010 but also look forward for 2011.
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What Are You Doing to Obsolete Your Product?
A story from my interview process at Cisco. I asked “what are you doing to obsolete your product?”
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Find Early Customers In Forums
“Communities already exist..think about how one may help a community to do what they want to do.” Mark Zuckerberg As a rule of thumb if you cannot find a forum (broadly defined) that has already collected a chunk of your prospects–a target rich environment–then one of three things is true: You are in a nascent
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Get More Customers in 2011, Workshop Wed-Dec-8-2010
We are offering our “Getting More Customers” next Wednesday, December 8, at FortisGC in Redwood Shores. This will cover a variety of proven marketing techniques for growing your business in 2011: you will select one or two that fit your strengths and interests and leave with a 90 day implementation plan developed and critiqued in
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Great Demo! Workshop on April 12, 2011
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations “Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo! When: Tuesday, April 12, 2010 8 am – 5 pm Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129 Cost: $590 Before March 28: $566 This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan geared especially
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Quotes For Entrepreneurs–November 2010
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when they are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
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Keeping Your Customers’ Trust
Earning and keeping your customers’ trust is essential to your success as a startup. Gerald Weinberg’s “Secrets of Consulting” offers “11 Laws of Trust” as a guideline for establishing and maintaining successful business relationships.
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Advising Entrepreneurs
I spend a fair amount of time advising entrepreneurs, both informally when solicited and formally when I have been retained–and sometimes even when I have not been asked for advice. Here are some key principles I follow.
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My Interview With Peggy Aycinena
My Interview With Peggy Aycinena I was interviewed by Peggy Aycinena about six months ago and she subsequently published it in July on the GabeOnEDA site as “Business 101: Art & Magic of EDA Marketing.” Peggy has always appreciated that the technology is nothing without the team and it’s the people you need to focus
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