Vivek Wadhwa wrote a great post recently called “Ditch the Biz Plan and Buy a Lottery Ticket” which oddly enough contains a number of good pointers for bootstrappers. His opening paragraph explains the title (emphasis added) Hardly a day goes by when I don’t have a rookie entrepreneur ask for advice on raising money from […]
Vivek Wadhwa’s Pointers for Bootstrappers Read More »
Update July 24, 2012: you may also be interested in Startup Lessons Learned Conference 2011 Coverage Roundup Entrepreneurs Need a Community of Practice, Not a Movement Overview The Startup Lessons Learned Conference (#sllconf) was Friday April 23rd, 2010. This post is an effort to capture press coverage and blog commentary on the conference that will
Startup Lessons Learned Conference Coverage Roundup Read More »
I blogged about the “Startup Lessons Learned Conference on April 23” about three weeks ago and now the conference is tomorrow (April 23rd) in San Francisco. Whether you are planning to attend in person or at a remote streaming session (more than 60 locations are available see http://www.sllconf.com/streaming ) I think the best way to
Tips For Getting the Most out of SLLConf (Live or Streaming) Read More »
I had an e-mail exchange with William Pietri (@williampietri) back in October that I am reproducing here with his permission. I believe that it highlights a set of issues around “being in the grip of a vision” in a useful way. William Pietri: I’m wondering how Lean Startup founders handle attacks of vision. Do you
Moving From Vision to Engagement With Prospects Read More »
In “Moore’s Law Beats Customer Feedback” Chris Morris highlights a quote by Jensen Huang from an April 8, 2009 talk at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program on “Favoring Moore’s Law Over Customer Feedback” (Mr. Huang has a number of talks available on Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner): “Sometimes you have to ignore your customers and follow Moore’s
Listening to Customers Read More »
Colin Cherry in “The Telephone System: Creator of Mobility and Social Change” makes the point that the full impact of an invention is very difficult to predict. Invention Alters Society In Ways That Were At First Unthinkable Inventions themselves are not revolutions; neither are they the cause of revolutions. Their powers for change lie in
Customer Development Helps Entrepreneurs Assess the Value of an Invention Read More »
It’s Rare That You Are Actually Bringing Fire To The Savages If you think you are so much smarter than your customers that you are “bringing fire to the savages” you will find it hard to learn from them and hard to actually close deals. What follows are three true stories. We Won The Argument,
I Don’t Understand, We Won the Argument, Why Didn’t We Win The Sale? Read More »
Update Feb-24-2011: Since I first wrote this in 2010 the Effectuation.Org site has been considerably upgraded and contains a lot more information on research on entrepreneurship by Saras Sarasvathy. Recapping ideas, papers, and books that had changed my life yesterday reminded me of Saras Sarasvathy’s Effectual Reasoning Model from her 2001 paper “What Makes Entrepreneurs
Saras Sarasvathy’s Effectual Reasoning Model for Expert Entrepreneurs Read More »
I answered a question recently for real examples of teams using customer development approaches to software startups and drafted the following reply for two customer development examples.
Two Customer Development Examples: SixApart & WowzaMedia Read More »
A riff on Yury Tsukerman’s observation about this blog: Sean Murphy– I don’t read him regularly, but I hear that I should.”
Sean Murphy – I Don’t Read Him Regularly, But I Hear That I Should Read More »
Steve Blank had a great post today “Building a Company with Customer Data, Why Metrics Are Not Enough” that highlights the need–even for Web Startups–to get out of the BatCave and talk to strangers who may be potential prospects. Engineers in particular can feel that this is not as productive a use of their time
Customer Development Proceeds in Parallel with Product Development Read More »
Appreciative Inquiry offers a solid approach for early customer interviews.Ask, “What’s working and what problems do you have?”
Early Customer Conversations: Use Appreciative Inquiry, Amplify Positive Deviance Read More »
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.
Lean Startups Panel at SVASE Oct 29 in SF Read More »
Michael Schrage offers some useful insights on innovation: he stresses the need for collaboration both within the startup (or new product team) and between the startup and its early customers.
Michael Schrage on Innovation, Collaboration, Tools, and Incentives Read More »
Brant Cooper and I are doing another conference call for entrepreneurs actively engaged in customer development. We facilitated one on June 3 and have another planned for 1pm Thursday June 18. To participate, you must: be actively engaged in practicing customer development principles; clearly articulate one or two issues that you would like to discuss;
Conference Call on Customer Development for Entrepreneurs Thu-Jun-18 Read More »
One of the challenges with customer development is that it involves not only formulating and testing hypotheses about your customer and their specific needs but also uncovering hidden assumptions that may be holding your team back. If you feel you’ve hit a brick wall in your efforts please sign up for a free teleconference session
Conference Call on Customer Development For Entrepreneurs Wed-Jun-3 Read More »
Most entrepreneurs we talk to these days is asking “how can I bring more customers into my business?” There are no quick or easy answers here. Just some encouragement to try a new technique or two. You will need to develop a multi-pronged approach for your business. Sometime it takes thinking of creative ways to
20 Ways To Generate Leads Read More »
Key take-aways from “Eight Rules for Prototyping” by John Hanks and Todd Dobberstein. A prototype is used both to assess technical feasibility and to provide a demonstration to a customer to get feedback. Customer development is a sequence of prototypes.
Customer Development is a Sequence of Prototypes Read More »
I came across a very thought provoking approach to customer development, or at least offering consulting services for customer development (a subject at least of personal interest to me). Juan Paredes’ “Spanish Method” is outlined in his “First Iteration of a New Minimum Viable Service“: I don’t price by project or by hour. I price
Spanish Method: Pay For Customer Development Per Iteration Read More »
Steve Blank’s “Four Steps to the Epiphany” was a source inspiration in founding SKMurphy, and I was delighted to see that Steve has started blogging and it seems clear to me that he is using his blog to develop a companion volume. This one is more personal and uses specific experiences from his life to
Steve Blank on Leaving the BatCave to Learn from Customers Read More »
