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 »
To grow the business founders must assess the task relevant maturity of each employee’s experience with a particular task to manage them effectively.
The Business is Everyone’s Business (Part 2) Read More »
Startups face time pressure and resource scarcity, they need to cultivate effective collaboration among everyone on the team to compensate. They need to act as if the business is everyone’s business. Jack Stack’s “The Great Game of Business” offers some useful models for fostering a shared understanding of the current challenges to enable effective joint
The Business is Everyone’s Business 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 »
Recurring Problems Have Both Technical and Psychological Roots I got an e-mailed question from someone who had watched my “The Limits of I’ll Know It When I See It” video. Q: In your talk you say “Most recurring problems are a combination of an unsolved technical problem and an unresolved emotional component to that problem.”
Recurring Problems Have Both Technical and Psychological Roots Read More »
I met Matt Perez in 2003 just as I was starting SKMurphy. It was the tail end of nuclear winter in Silicon Valley and folks were trying to figure out what was next. We kept running into one another at various networking events and as we got to know one another realized that we both
Matt Perez on How Nearsoft Leverages Yammer Read More »
Given Milpitas’ strong commitment to entrepreneurship and new business development, the Bootstrappers Breakfast promise of serious early morning discussions among bootstrappers will have many local entrepreneurs feeling right at home. The focus of the monthly meeting is on technology businesses whose next stage of growth is based on internal cash flow and organic profits. Entrepreneurs
Bootstrappers Breakfast® Invites Milpitas Entrepreneurs to “Eat Problems for Breakfast” Read More »
A lot of bootstrappers start out by selling their product or services to friends or people they know and/or have worked with in the past. One of the early thresholds a team crosses is making the transition to “selling to strangers” (see the “Startup Maturity Checklist” for some relevant questions) and they can get tripped
Early Proposals: Avoiding Consulting for Free Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when they are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
Quotes for Entrepreneurs – February 2010 Read More »
Wikis dissolve voice and authorship. Use them where there are rewards and incentives at a team level, where a team is being held accountable for a result. Blogs and forums preserve voice and authorship. Use them where knowing who said what is important. Start with frequently updated information that is also frequently accessed: Meeting agendas
Use Wikis for Team Projects Read More »
I covered the EDAC CEO Panel last Thursday for EETimes, what follows is a copy of the article I wrote for them “EDA Chiefs Hazard No Guesses on 2010 Market (02/19/2010 7:12 PM EST)” It differs from the version on-line at EET only in that I have added some links for context. SAN JOSE, Calif.—With
EDA Chiefs Hazard No Guesses on 2010 Market Read More »
An actual dream I had of a tiger prowling a maze where some walls are iron bars, others are plexiglass, and strips of masking tape seem to bar some paths. I later realized it was a metaphor for three kinds of barriers that entrepreneurs need to navigate as they get a new business established.
Iron Bars, Plexiglass, and Masking Tape Read More »
I think that there are better, impossible, and unthinkable products. Better products are “15 minutes ahead.” Impossible products relax one or two design key constraints. Unthinkable products restructure the design pattern or paradigm to achieve an unprecedented result.
Better, Impossible, and Unthinkable Products Read More »
Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, February 16, in Sunnyvale where George Grellas will present a short legal guide for entrepreneurs. George is a veteran Silicon Valley startup business lawyer who heads a boutique firm that specializes in early-stage technology startups. Since 1984, as a founders’ lawyer, George has worked with thousands of entrepreneurs in helping them
George Grellas Answers Questions at Feb-16 Bootstrapper Breakfast in Sunnyvale 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 »
Companies names have sure changed in the last year or so. I was noticing today how many signs outside of office buildings seem to be branch offices for these firms: Move In Now First Month Free Your Name Here Available for Lease Space for Rent Here are two directories that list available office space for
New Firms in Silicon Valley 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 »
I was pleased to see that Verdafero, a firm we have been advising for about a year, was selected last Friday by the San Jose Business Journal for their “The Pitch” column. The article, “Palo Alto’s Verdafero Offers Sustainability Planning Over the Web,” ran in the February 5th print edition: THE BUSINESS: Verdafero has developed
Verdafero Profiled by SJ BizJournal “Sustainability Planning Over the Web” 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 »
This is a start articulating a set of resources for entrepreneurs that are for the most part not yet widely appreciated as applicable to entrepreneurship but that have had a significant impact on my perspective. I welcome any suggestions or lists from readers for what has influenced you, and opened you to new perspectives on your
Articles, Ideas, and Books That Made Me a Better Entrepreneur Read More »
