It’s not a mistake to accept venture capital if your business merits and requires it for growth. Don’t get distracted seeking it until then. “The seductive narrative of Silicon Valley stars a genius-hero who goes on a journey, overcomes myriad obstacles, has a flash of insight and is rewarded by wise and benevolent investors with […]
Don’t Get Distracted Raising Venture Capital Read More »
Direct Mail: A Letter With a Stamp Is Not Spam In advertising it pays to be different. Letters and postcards with real stamps get through. With everyone getting some much email SPAM, direct mail can be a way to differentiate yourself. Postcards Work Too We have used postcards to announce events where clients will be
Direct Mail: Letters and Postcards Still Work Read More »
Arun Kumar shares 9 lessons learned from bootstrapping Kerika since 2002. He believes in watching user behavior and getting details right.
Arun Kumar: 9 Lessons Learned Bootstrapping Kerika Read More »
Ilya Semin, founder of Datanyze, joins us at the Palo Alto Bootstrapper Breakfast 7:30am on Fri-Sep-5-2014 at Hobees in Palo Alto. Ilya will share what he learned bootstrapping Datanyze to $1M+ ARR and 9 employees. DataNyze provides competitive intelligence for Web analytics, Widgets, CDN, DNS, and related firms. It can answer questions like “Who are my competitor’s biggest
Ilya Semin on “Bootstrapping DataNyze to $1M/ARR” Sep-5-2014 in Palo Alto Read More »
John Foster McKenna: December 4, 1990 – August 8, 2014 “Man that is born of a woman has but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He comes up, and is cut down, like a flower; he flees as it were a shadow, and never continues in one stay. In the midst
John Foster McKenna 1990-2014 Read More »
Q: My research focused on the assessment of atherosclerosis in coronary arteries using Computed Tomography examinations as the imaging modality. I have looked at various aspects of atherosclerosis such as volume scores, automatic extraction of anatomical structures, plaque detection, dual energy CT and plaque distribution patterns. I am new to the lean innovation methods and am
Q: How to Apply Lean Innovation Methods To Regulated Industries? Read More »
A conversation between Tristan Kromer and Sean Murphy on B2B and B2C customer acquisition methods; includes audio and transcript.
A Conversation With Tristan Kromer on B2B vs. B2C Customer Acquisition Challenges Read More »
I gave a briefing to the San Bruno Rotary on Thought Leadership on Aug-6-2014. Here is the audio for the core of the talk (I have cut the introduction and about ten minutes of Q&A) Or download from http://traffic.libsyn.com/skmurphy/ThoughtLeadership140806c.mp3 Here is my handout from the talk.
Thought Leadership: A Briefing For San Bruno Rotary Read More »
Customer development surveys always sucks for B2B: have a conversation instead.
Customer Development Surveys Always Suck For B2B Read More »
Both for personal or business growth, an entrepreneur has to cultivate patience and consider long term effects, not just a transaction’s immediate benefits.
Planting Trees: Finite and Infinite Entrepreneurship Read More »
Elizabeth Denzig published an interview with Sidney Brenner in February or 2014 in “King’s Review” entitled “How Academia and Publishing are Destroying Scientific Innovation: A Conversation with Sydney Brenner” I think there are a number of lessons–or in several cases cautions–for selling to scientists.
Sidney Brenner: The Trouble with American Science 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–July 2014 Read More »
It’s hard work not passive income that allows you to find your life purpose. I make a distinction between wanting to move beyond running a services business where you bill by the hour to either selling results or selling a product and entrepreneurs attracted to the passive income fantasies of the “Four Hour Work Week.”
Michael Ellsberg: Four Reasons Why Passive Income Is a Destructive Fantasy Read More »
In the last eight years I have moderated several hundred Bootstrappers Breakfasts. After doing a hundred or so and working with many clients who were bootstrapping I came up with a checklist for common mistakes bootstrappers and bootstrapping teams make in their first year or so.
Ten Mistakes Early Stage Bootstrappers Often Make Read More »
Cultivating mindfulness requires you to maintain situational awareness and realize when your reflexes may trigger a reaction that is not as thoughtful as the situation requires.
Cultivating Mindfulness Read More »
Things I have learned from my children: “fall down seven times, stand up eight”, athletic ability flows from practice, and patience.
Things I Have Learned From My Children Read More »
SKMurphy’s Startup Stages: Idea, Open for Business, Early Customers, Finding Your Niche, and Scaling Up also map to Survive, Explore, Focus, Refine, and Grow.
Startup Stages: Survive, Explore, Focus, Refine, Grow Read More »
Matt Wensing On Making the Transition to Growth Stormpulse has gone from an idea bootstrapped on founder savings and credit cards, to a project funded by friends and family rounds, to a small business strengthened by angel money, to a company that’s raised “meaningful” capital (our last round was just over $2 million). Here’s what
Matt Wensing On Making the Transition to Growth Read More »
Manage interruptions by writing down enough context to continue later: organized notes must detail status and next steps. Brad Pierce: Preserve Context in Writing to Manage Interruptions On longer time scales, when you must drop something for a while, it’s important, before doing so, to leave behind enough context for yourself to swap it back
Brad Pierce: Preserve Context in Writing to Manage Interruptions Read More »
A collection of humorous tools that generate buzzword compliant business models. Web Economy Bullshit Generators First there was Dack Ragus‘ (@dack) “Web Economy Bullshit Generator.” He started with sketches (“Kinda like Da Vinci’s sketchbook, except for bullshit”): “I made this massive list of potential bullshit terms while sitting on Miami Beach in January, 2000. Add a
Tools for Buzzword Compliant Business Models Read More »
