Steve Blank: “Sean Murphy adds tremendous value for startups in setting them up “getting out of the building” and how to make sense of the data they’ve gathered. He’s one consultant I personally know (I’m sure there are others) who doesn’t confuse his role with the founders. I think of his consulting firm as a “force-multiplier” for Customer Development.”
Steve Blank: SKMurphy is a force-multiplier for customer development
“Sean Murphy adds tremendous value for startups in setting them up “getting out of the building” and how to make sense of the data they’ve gathered. He’s one consultant I personally know (I’m sure there are others) who doesn’t confuse his role with the founders. I think of his consulting firm as a “force-multiplier” for Customer Development.”
Steve Blank in a discussion in the comments for “Consultants Don’t Pivot, Founders Do” (2010)
I got the following E-mail from an entrepreneur on Friday
Heard a lot about you and been meaning to connect! Appreciate you taking a look through my blog and your comment was awesome. Is www.skmurphy.com your main thing right now? What else are you working on?
What follows is my answer, in case you had the same question.
We do customer development and new product introduction consulting in B2B markets for expertise driven products. Typically companies or consultants who want to turbocharge their practice with technology –we recently worked with a team that had developed a 1.2 mm thick heat pipe made from nanomaterial that can be used for LED, high performance computing, and electric vehicle applications).
We have a global practice with about 2/3 of clients in Silicon Valley (either HQ, for events, and/or deals in Silicon Valley) and 1/3 in North America, Europe, or Asia. We collaborate with remote teams using a variety of technologies including skype, CentralDesktop, and GoToMeeting.
We help with strategy (typically bringing clarity and a priority to a set of problems and/or opportunities), pricing, negotiation, sales presentation preparation, and early market exploration. We have a strong focus on sales because a paying customer is not a market hypothesis but a fact, offering proof that your product and go to market strategy are viable.
I am not very fond of the word pivot, I think most successful startups actually build on “problem/founder fit” and need to zoom in on where they offer the most value to get established. I have taken an entrepreneurial approach to life (punctuated by education a number jobs in large companies) for more than three decades.
We also do
- Bootstrapper Breakfast in about 7 locations in Silicon Valley, Chicago, and Minneapolis. We started more than five years ago now.
- The Book Club for Business Impact webinar series.
- Workshops both open enrollment and private, including those we deliver in partnership with Peter Cohan’s Great Demo! series.
The common thread is small group discussion as a way of facilitating knowledge sharing and learning. The breakfasts normally have 8 to 16 people around a single table, the book club is a panel discussion between 3-5 people with questions from the audience to keep it lively and engaging, and the workshops we normally cap at between 16 and 22 depending upon the subject matter. Private workshops are with one team and their advisors and typically are 3-6 people