Some reflections on my relationship with my father seven years after his death. At least once a week I still get the urge to call him for advice or to update him on my children.
Joseph A Murphy 1925-2007, 7 Years On Read More »
The IEEE Consulting Network of Silicon Valley continues its tradition of inviting world class experts on leading edge technologies to speak at their monthly meetings. On Tue-Nov-4-2014, Giacomo Vacca of Kinetic River will provide an overview on how flow cytometers enable a wide range of “Human Cell Analysis.” “Sean has been a pleasure to work
Giacomo Vacca On Human Cell Analysis at CNSV Nov-4-2014 Read More »
Q: In your blog post “Four Presentation Traps to Avoid” (which drew on Mike Monteiro’s “13 Ways Designers Screw Up a Client Presentation” which I found overall to be very valuable) you highlighted his item 4 “Not setting the stage properly” which ends with “Start the meeting by thanking them for their time.” I feel this puts you
Do I Need To Be A Supplicant In a Sales Call? Read More »
Mike Monteiro offered “13 Ways Designers Screw Up a Client Presentation–And One Weird Trick” in a Sep-13-2014 blog post: many of these are also applicable to entrepreneurs making presentations to prospects. The whole article is worth reading, here are my top four presentation traps to avoid from his list (I have retained Monteiro’s numbering scheme).
Four Presentation Traps to Avoid Read More »
Entrepreneurial passion has to be based on a desire to create value, to be of service to a set of target customers. There may be many things you are interested in learning and room enough in your life for several hobbies, but pursuing a passion without regard to your ability to provide value in a
Entrepreneurial Passion: Good Servant, Poor Master Read More »
I took part in a great roundtable conversation at tonight’s PATCA meeting on “Low Cost Marketing and Advertising for Consultants” Here were a couple of suggestions that I made in response to situations or challenges that other consultants put on the table.
Tips for Low Cost Marketing of Your Services Read More »
David Morse left a detailed comment today on my Sep-26-2014 blog post “Lessons Learned Blogging 1400 Posts in 8 Years” that I thought I would promote to a guest post that offers some practical tips about how to add graphics and video to a blog. Here is his bio on B2BSalesVP: David Morse helps startup
David Morse: Tips To Add Graphics and Video To A Blog Read More »
Excerpts from Paul Grahams’ October 2014 essay “Before the Startup” with commentary interspersed. This essay is in some ways less self-confident than many of his earlier ones. He seems to recognize more explicitly the limits of his ability to offer advice that entrepreneurs in the Y Combinator portfolio–or entrepreneurs applying to Y Combinator–will actually follow.
Entrepreneurs Focus On Customers Not Startup Mechanics Read More »
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 have new blog posts sent to you.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–September 2014 Read More »
Mike Silverman passed away Sep-13-2014 after a 14 month battle with cancer. He was an entrepreneur with tremendous energy and integrity. I will miss him. He founded Ops A La Carte in 2002 and built it up to a training, testing, and consulting organization providing work for dozens of experienced reliability engineers.
Mike Silverman 1964-2014 Read More »
I am a big fan of Jill Konrath and her Selling to Big Companies book. She has good advice on closing the sale: it’s up tot the customer. If you are selling a product that requires consideration or a complex evaluation by one or more employees of your prospect’s organization the following advice is particularly
Closing the Sale: It’s Up To The Customer Read More »
This post is a retrospective look at my inaugural post in 2006 and lessons learned blogging 1400 posts over the 8 years since.
Lessons Learned Blogging: 1400 Posts in 8 years Read More »
Q: I am bootstrapping a e-commerce web startup and working a day job to fund my business until revenue takes off. I am getting ready to launch but am worried how I can provide phone support for customer service issues and to close sales. Any suggestions?
Providing Phone Support When Bootstrapping Read More »
Bill Meade (@BillMeade) is the Director of Data Science at Neal Analytics, a position he describes as, “Catalyst to a herd of genius cats, riding a machine learning cloud, into a business world about to discover analytical dreams can come true … easily. ” Bill has long experience with innovation, IP management, and customer development.
Bill Meade: Customer Development and Schmexperts Read More »
Q: I’m just about to get out of the building to validate hypotheses and start learning, but I have a problem with the business model canvas. I have been advised to develop detailed hypotheses before starting customer discovery. This is my startup and I have no idea how to fill in the business model canvas
Serious Problems With Business Model Canvas For Startups Read More »
Javid Jamae (@JavidJamae) is a Principal Engineer at Tout, where he heads up the experimentation and growth efforts; he leads a team focused on growing the viewership for both local and nationally syndicated content. Javid authored this great guest post on finding early adopters through customer interviews before building a minimum viable product (MVP) and it is
An MVP is Finished Only After You Have Early Adopters Read More »
One of the hallmarks of the entrepreneurial journey is diving in over your head. At some point you have to commit fully to a new venture and at a later point you realize that, despite all of your careful preparation, you are testing the depth of water with both feet–or perhaps even head first. This
Diving In Over Your Head Read More »
I am rescuing a dialog on customer development and channel development I had with Ash Maurya from the comments to his “Lessons Learned in 2010” blog post. I am still at work on the “system of simultaneous equations” model and I think his new thinking on the “Customer Factory” is moving closer to iterating against
Customer Development and Channel Development Read More »
A minimum viable product (MVP) for business must inspire trust. If prospects understand your promise they don’t believe you, they won’t buy.
Q: Is It Waste To Build A B2B MVP That Inspires Trust? Read More »
Q: What is the target allocation for each of these critical tasks in a successful startup? Here is my list of critical tasks in a startup and a percentage allocation: Planning 10% Execution 50% Ideation 20% Talking to Potential Customers 15% Recruiting 5% What Is The Real Decision? Can you clarify : At what stage of company? What time frame
Q: What Are Critical Tasks In A Startup? Read More »
