Highlighting Matt Maroon’s “Why Not To Do A Startup”
Some key takeaways from a blog post by Matt Maroon on “Why Not To Do A Startup”
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Getting More Customers Next Friday Morning at Redwood Shores
We are changing things up next week and offering our “Getting More Customers” on a Friday instead of a Saturday at a location that’s farther north than we’ve ever gone: Redwood Shores. The FortisGC folks have graciously allowed us to use their main conference room. The Getting More Customers workshop will give you focused time
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Quotes for Founders
Inspired by Dharmesh Shah I have also started to post these quotes for founders irregularly to my Twitter account. But to save you from having to add one more time sucking application that would take you away from your E-mail I will also be posting them in batches (at the end of the month after
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Feedback From Today’s SaaS Roundtable
We hosted a roundtable on SaaS sales issues today at Plug and Play in Sunnyvale over lunch. Here are some quotes I pulled off of our feedback cards: Good Discussion, interesting models discussed. Further info separating metrics from models would be helpful in fueling discussion. Great Roundtable. Lengthen the time. Well moderated, very on point.
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Recession Requires A Focus on Revenue
It’s starting to become clear that beyond just storm clouds, we are in for a recession in Silicon Valley. Which I suppose means that the next bubble will be delayed a few more years. We started our business in mid-2003, helping several small consulting and software firms who were struggling to recover from Silicon Valley’s
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Founder Story: Debra Willrett on Inventing MacProject
I first met Debra Willrett, founder of Expert Software Consulting, at the IEEE Consultants Network for Silicon Valley (CNSV) when she gave a great talk on the new CNSV website in February of 2006. When Francis and I learned that she was the inventor of the Macintosh application MacProject, an application that has defined a
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Bernard Golden: Some Industry Analysts Offer Anecdote Dressed Up as Science
I got Bernard Golden‘s April Navica Open Source Newsletter today, provocatively titled “Everything I Said Last Month was Wrong, and I’m a Lousy Prophet, Too” which contains some good advice for startups as they work with industry analysts (emphasis added): I had my eyes opened about analyst firms this month. Even though I had a
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“Now What? Your Post Launch Growth Plan” Podcast and Transcript
Adapted from a presentation on “Now What? Your Post Launch Growth Plan” at the KASE Entrepreneur Seminar on October 16, 2007.
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Under the Radar: The Business of Web Apps Recap
Spent the day at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus attending Dealmaker Media‘s Under the Radar Conference on “The Business of Web Apps: Where the Web Goes to Work.” A company that would seem to have a lot to lose from the success of web-based applications with an Office 2.0 focus has taken Michael Corleone’s advice to
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HP Way: Seven Objectives For Your Startup
David Packard suggested 7 objectives for HP managers at the “Sonoma Meeting” in his book, “The HP Way” that also apply to startups.
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Quotes on Courage
Here is a short collection of quotes on courage that I think are especially useful for entrepreneurs, who need the “courage to continue” to succeed.
We’ll be at SDWest Booth 318
Looks like we will be in good company. Whether you are considering leaving you day job for a startup, you are consulting while you develop a product, you are open for business and looking for early customers, looking for smarter customers, or you’ve found your niche and you are looking to scale up, drop by.
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Jotspot Emerges From The Bowels of Google
Rob Hof notes–hat tip to Ross Mayfield–tonight in “Jotspot Returns as Google Sites: Wiki Style Collaboration” (emphasis added): Ever since Google bought the wiki-based online application startup Jotspot in late 2006, people have been wondering if it had disappeared forever inside the bowels of the search giant. Tonight, Google’s launching Google Sites, using Jotspot’s technology
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Express ROI In Terms Your Prospect Will Understand
Peter Cohan makes the following points in his Great Demo! Seminar C level execs think in terms of dollars (budget) Managers think in terms of people and full time equivalents (FTE). Individual contributors think in terms of time spent vs. time saved So it pays to express the benefits of your application accordingly. There may
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Don Reinertsen: Priorities Are The Last Refuge of the Innumerate
Don Reinertsen, co-author (with Preston Smith) of “Developing Products in Half the Time” and “Managing the Design Factory: The Product Developers Toolkit” has a great article about managing products “Priorities: Last Refuge of the Innumerate” Priorities: Last Refuge of the Innumerate What is our highest product development priority, cycle time or unit manufacturing cost? To even
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While We Pursue Our Dreams, They Can Pursue Us
As entrepreneurs we pursue our dreams of improving the world. Sometimes I think our dreams can pursue us, that a vision of a better world can have the same effect as what the Scots call a geas. An obligation to use our talents in certain ways that unlocks their power if obeyed and punishes if
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Mission College Business Department Advisory Committee
I was invited to take part in the Mission College Business Department Advisory Committee for 2008 last Tuesday; it was a very interesting experience. There was a cross section of folks from education and business, both large and small. I was impressed by the diversity of perspectives and everyone’s commitment to assisting the college. Community
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Burn Your Boats But Not Your Bridges
Burn your boats but not your bridges: commit to your startup but don’t do anything that damages relationships or would not allow you to build on prior shared successes with others.
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Paul Graham’s Six Principles for Making New Things
This article compares Paul Graham’s “Six Principles for Making New Things” with Bob Bemer’s “Do Something Small But Useful Now”, Gary Hamel’s Innovation Hacker, and Peter Drucker’s list of seven places to search systematically for opportunities.
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Some Days You’re The Potter, Some Days You’re The Clay
Successful entrepreneurship is an ongoing self-improvement project. Some days you are the potter, some days you are the clay.
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