Expert, Editor, Diplomat, Vandal Hunter
Marc Smith proposes four key roles for managing a wiki or other social media platform: domain expert, diplomat, editor, and vandal hunter.
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8 Tips for Evaluating Funding Alternatives
Many entrepreneurs planning their first software startup get stuck on funding and ownership issues. Here are some simple rules of thumb that may help you reframe an issue: Revenue, especially break even revenue, is never dilutive of your ownership. The right co-founders, while dilutive, substantially increase your chances of success: they give you a smaller
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Growing the Pie in EDA, Part 3: Add MATLAB
With Synopsys announcing Synphony, a high-level design compiler that reads in MATLAB M code and generates RTL and some other useful outputs, and Mathworks listed in Gary Smith’s ESL 2009 Wallchart, I wonder if it doesn’t make sense to define MATLAB as an ESL language and Mathworks as an EDA player. Harry Gries provides a
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C. Kent Wright’s “Nectar in a Nutshell” Has Some Great Quotes
I saw a quote by C. Kent Wright “To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak” and decided to purchase one of his quote collections “Nectar in a Nutshell.” It was first published in October of 1944 and my copy is the “fifth impression” from 1945.
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Time is the Limiting Resource for Bootstrappers, Not Money
I think a bootstrapper’s true scarce resource is time. Determining how to be most effective with how you spend your time is more important than spending too many cycles on trying to save nickels. As a side effect of cutting out ineffective activities you will tend to cut unnecessary expenses. “Lost wealth may be replaced
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Last Day for Early Bird Rates for Oct-24 Getting More Customers
Just a quick reminder that today is the last day for early bird rates on our “Getting More Customers – A 90 Day Plan” workshop that is Saturday October 24 8:15 AM – 1:00 PM (Lunch Included) at the Pacific Business Center 1250 Oakmead Pkwy Suite 210 Sunnyvale, CA 94085 (408) 501-8800 Click here to
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Eleven Work Weeks–Or Less–Left in 2009
Eleven Work Weeks–Or Less–Left in 2009 I blogged about end of year issues last November in “6 Work Weeks or Less in 2008” and I thought I would issue the “Warning Dates in Calendar are Closer Than They Appear” a little earlier this year because a lot of new businesses need to take action in
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Lean Startups Panel at SVASE Oct 29 in SF
I will be taking part in an SVASE panel on the lean startup concept entitled “Lean Startups–Do They Really Work” on Thursday October 29 at Cooley Godward in San Francisco.
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Nanette Collins: Startup Culture is Critical
I am happy to be able to offer another guest blog by Nanette Collins, her first was on “Volunteering, Lessons Learned from the Trenches.” Nanette is an entrepreneur in her own right, she is the principal at Nanette V. Collins Marketing and PR with offices in Boston and San Francisco and one the web at
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Do Not Pay to Pitch Investors
Jason Calacanis has gone a little bit off the dial on “why startups shouldn’t have to pay to pitch angel investors” but he is nonetheless correct that you should not pay large fees to potential investors for consideration or the right to present. Our focus is helping bootstrapping technology startups but we do get startups
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Tip For Finding Typos
If you want to find any typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, or sentences with missing words we have found the quickest way is to take a final look at the copy after the hard copy is back from the printers. Errors that eluded your notice (and those of the client, independent proof reader, and the rest
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Growing The Pie in EDA, Part 2: As Revenue Shrinks So Does Analyst Interest
Growing The Pie in EDA, Part 2: As Revenue Shrinks So Does Analyst Interest Ed Lee and I have continued our conversation about the changing media landscape for EDA and addressed some issues that are relevant to getting back to growing the pie in EDA. What follows is an excerpts from Ed’s blog “What’s PR
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Getting Back to “Growing the Pie” in EDA
From the EDAC website “EDA Consortium News” page the last six quarters of EDA Industry Revenue announcements (all numbers in millions): Jul-3-08: Q1/08 declined 1.2% to 1350.7 vs. $1366.8 in Q1/07. Oct-9-08: Q2/08 declined 3.7% to $1357.4 vs. $1408.8 in Q2/07 Jan-12-09: Q3/08 declined 10.9% to $1258.6 vs. $1412.1 in Q3/07. Apr-7-09: Q4/08 declined 17.7%
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Idea to Revenue 1/12/10
Update Jan-3: Sold out. Tues. Jan. 12, 2010 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM Fortis General Counsel One Lagoon Drive, Suite 100 Redwood Shores, CA 94065 650-489-0850 Register Invest four hours now to save months later finding a path to revenue: most startups fail after they have working functionality but before they find their market. You
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Three Good Books for Consultants
Here are three good books for consultants that I routinely recommend: “Trusted Advisor”, “Secrets of Consulting”, and “Rainmaking.”
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Lenny Greenberg of Assistyx at Milpitas Bootstrappers Breakfast Friday
Lenny Greenberg, a serial entrepreneur and frequent Bootstrappers Breakfast® attendee will lead our discussion this Friday about taking a long term view in business. All too often high-tech companies don’t take a long term view of their product. In the initial rush to get something to someone, companies may make tactical product choices that may
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“Startup Maturity Checklist” Slides From Today’s SVCC Session
I very much enjoyed the opportunity to present our startup stages model and the “Software Startup Maturity Checklist” at Silicon Valley Code Camp today. I have posted the slides here.
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Three Advantages of Younger Entrepreneurs in B2B Startups
Younger entrepreneurs bring several advantages to startups: a willingness to innovate, tolerance for failure, and a native facility with new technologies. “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Three Advantages of Older Entrepreneurs in B2B Startups
Lost in an all too frequent age discrimination promoted by many investors are some key advantages older entrepreneurs can offer a B2B startup: connections and social capital that can find early customers, domain knowledge, and patience.
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Good Marketing is Good Content
Good content is the basis for good marketing: your messaging must explain your knowledge of customer problems and how you can help.
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