Coworking in Silicon Valley: Innovation Hub for Entrepreneurs
Here are some of our favorite coworking spaces.
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Favorites
Chalk Talk: Sarasvathy’s Effectuation Model for Startups
This chalk talk on Saras Sarasvathy’s effectuation model for startups outlines an approach that successful entrepreneurs use to establish and grow their startups. This approach is the most effective one that I have seen.
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Guide to Silicon Valley Startup Events
Many digital nomads and travelers to Silicon Valley are looking for good networking events to meet and compare notes with other founders. This guide gives an overview of networking and startup events in Silicon Valley.
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Chalk Talk 1-2-4-1
We use a four phase project planning model we call 1-2-4-1 which allocates time to planning, prototyping key challenges, finishing the bulk of the work, and polishing.
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Chalk Talk: How Buildings Learn
A chalk talk on Stewart Brand’s model for how six layers in a building change at different rates from his book “How Buildings Learn.”
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Reflections on Serendipity
For startups, regardless of the niche or product being sold, visibility is arguably one of the single most critical challenges faced. You can have the coolest solutions in the world, but if nobody knows it exists, it’s essentially worthless. And this is why visibility is so important. In this video we share our reflections on
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Joe Rogan: Be the Hero of Your Own Movie
Some thoughts on heroes using Joe Rogan’s admonition to “Be the hero of your own movie. If your life was a movie and it started now, what would the hero do right now?” as a point of departure.
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40 Tips for B2B Customer Development Interviews
This post on B2B customer development interviews builds on one of my most popular. If you would like help preparing for customer development interviews or reviewing results from recent interviews, contact us. Here are my lessons learned from taking part in interviews where the startup planned to offer a product or service to a business.
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Increase Your Luck Surface Area To Get More Customers
Jason Roberts 2010 “Luck Surface Area” model explains the need for entrepreneurs to combine time spent doing and developing expertise with time spent communicating with others. It’s a very useful and actionable insight. Unfortunately, the diagram he chose to illustrate the model assumes that entrepreneurs have an unlimited amount of time to do both. I
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Revisiting Neuromancer After Three Decades
Neuromancer, William Gibson’s first novel, was published in 1984. It helped to establish the cyberpunk genre of science fiction: a dark future where computing, communication, and artificial intelligence technologies were dominant, complemented by significant medical advances, large inhabited satellites in Earth orbit, and considerable drug use. I recently re-read it and was struck by how things
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Most Popular SKMurphy Blog Posts Oct-2006 Through Sep-2017
Here is a list of the most popular SKMurphy blog posts Oct-2006 through Sep-2017 based on page view counts from Google analytics data. I have broken out the Lean Startup Conference roundups for clarity.
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Veterans Day 2016
A thank you on Veterans Day 2016 to all of the men and women in our armed forces who made the United States possible, in particular this Silicon Valley oasis of invention and innovation I get to call home. Some quotes to meditate on follow.
Jerry Weinberg interview
An interview with Jerry Weinberg where we explore the applicability of his Fieldstone Method for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, the implications of Stewart Brand’s “How Buildings Learn” for Weinberg’s dry stone fence metaphor for creation, and managing a crisis as marker for an end of an illusion.
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Team Building: Rapid Ramp
Recently, we worked with a startup on team building as they wrangled with the rapid growth of their business. They needed to bring on new team members and wanted them to be productive and effective as quickly as possible. Working with the leadership team we reviewed Bruce Tuckman’s four stages of team development.
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3D Printing Tradeoffs and Optimization
Optimizing the manufacture of an object requires an understanding of design options, mechanical and physical principles, and 3D printing tradeoffs.
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3D Printing Evolution Functional Block Diagram
This 3D Printing Evolution Functional Block Diagram shows the process flow of 3D printing in the X direction and the evolution of the functional blocks in the Y direction.
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Serious Problems With Business Model Canvas For Startups
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
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Difference Between a Hypothesis and an Assumption
The difference between a hypothesis and an assumption is that the first is typically explicit and the second implicit. A hypothesis is what you are testing explicitly in an experiment. An assumption is tested implicitly. By making your assumptions and hypotheses explicit, you increase the clarity of your approach and the chance for learning.
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Three Great Books on Generating Innovative Business Ideas
Three Great Books on Generating Innovative Business Ideas These three books contain a wealth of useful suggestions for generating innovative business ideas from observing, questioning, and networking with customers and others: Innovator’s DNA “The Innovator’s DNA” by Christensen, Dyer, and Gregerson outlines a set of five skills that innovator’s use to develop entrepreneurial ideas: Associating:
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A Beta Customer Is Not A Tester Or A User But An Early Customer
“Beta customer” blurs beta tester, beta user, and early customer. If you sell to business, beta customers are early customers, not beta testers.
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