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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skmurphy
Improving The Techdirt Insight Community
Improving The Techdirt Insight Community I originally wrote this on Wednesday November 28, 2007 in response to a set of questions posed by Mike Masnick to the Techdirt Insight Community. I had applied and been accepted into the community after it was announced at the 2006 Office 2.0 conference (I blogged about in “Born With
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Leveraging Your Social Network to Find Early Customers Monday Feb 11 at SDForum
I will be speaking next Monday at the SDForum Marketing SIG on “Leveraging Your Social Network to Find Early Customers.” Social navigation is networking with a goal. Entrepreneurs will spend social capital navigating their way to getting trusted feedback and early sales. Like Google and web assisted selling tools, social network tools can improve the
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Three Features For A Webinar Or Conference Call
Three features for a webinar or conference call: let someone raise their hand and speak; break a larger group into small groups and then reconvene; automatically manage the “queue for the microphone” during the Q&A segment.
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Advanced Topics Session Added To The March 8 Great Demo! Workshop
In response to requests from prior workshop attendees we’ve added an afternoon session to the March 8 Great Demo! workshop that will address advanced topics. You are welcome to attend if you have attended an earlier Great Demo! workshop, or you can register for both the morning and afternoon sessions on March 8. Lunch is
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Focus On Your Prospect’s Pain Not The Brilliance of Your Product Idea
Many entrepreneurs find themselves in the grip of an idea, captivated by its seeming brilliance. But success comes from understanding a prospect’s pain.
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Three Tips for Minimizing Misunderstandings Among Co-Founders
Here are three tips for minimizing misunderstandings among co-founders: get clarity on the problem before arguing over solutions, maintain full transparency about spending, and work from a one-page operating plan.
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HP’s Early Customers Came From Fred Terman’s Social Network
HP produced its first brochure and sent it to a list of about 25 potential customers provided by Fred Terman. Orders soon came in from early customers.
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Lunch & Learn: Using Wikis for Projects
Pierre Khawand of People-OnTheGo and I were on a panel at GABA in October of last year on “Communication Today: Blogs, E-mail and More” and we had a great conversation on blogs and wikis. He has invited me to speak on “Wiki Use Case: Managing Team Meetings: Agendas, Minutes and Tasks” at today’s Lunch &
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Steve Blank on Customer Development Process for Startups
I was an early fan of Steve Blank’s customer development model. This post was written when “Four Steps to the Epiphany” was only available on Cafe Press and documents the early set of principles he espoused.
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Idea to Revenue Workshop on Jan-19-08 is Sold Out
The Idea to Revenue Workshop scheduled for January 19 is now sold out and no walk-ins will be accepted. We had added this in December in response to the overflow demand for the December 6 one and are now considering adding a third. Please contact us and let us know if you are interested or
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We Sign NDA’s
We get asked “Will you sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement?” fairly often, to the point that we are proactive, suggesting that a prospect take a look at our Mutual NDA [PDF] and sign it if it would increase their comfort level. A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) allows us to have a deeper and more useful discussion. We
Hello 2008
Let’s hope the New Year finds us all healthy, surrounded by loved ones, and living up to our potential. A quartet of quotes from Mignon McLaughlin to help kick off 2008 The time to begin most things was ten years ago. Courage can’t see around corners, but goes around them anyway. Every day of our
CINA Holiday Mixer
The CINA Holiday Mixer had a nice turnout: it was networking followed by a traditional twelve course Chinese lunch. All in all a relaxing couple of hours, and I enjoyed playing emcee. There were a number of folks who were new to Silicon Valley who got to make new friends and connections, as well as
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Seeing The Elephant: The Entrepreneur’s Challenge of Integrating Advice
To “see the elephant” entrepreneurs must work toward a holistic perspective by integrating advice and conflicting views from a variety of sources.
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Entrepreneurs, Luck, and Silicon Valley
2003 reflections on the dotcom crash–the year I started SKMurphy, Inc., and 4 rules of thumb from Richard Wiseman on making you own luck.
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How To Ask An Expert For Help
Entrepreneurs often have to ask an expert for help. Here is some common mistakes to avoid and suggestions for how to make a positive response more likely.
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CINA Holiday Mixer Sat-Dec-15
I have been invited to emcee this year’s CINA Holiday mixer, it will be held at Fenwick on Saturday December 15, from 10am to 1pm (with lunch included). It should be a lot of fun. The CINACon 2007 Showcase participants in attendance will be asked to answer three questions: “What is it you do again?”
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One Name or Two for Product and Company
Athol Foden was a guest speaker at today’s Bootstrapper Breakfast and he brought his passion for naming and deep knowledge of the issues that around it. One question that came up this morning–and comes up with a lot of very early stage teams–is whether or not to name the company the same as the product
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Legal Issues: Q&A with Pete Tormey of Action Patents
Today I was able to sit down with Pete Tormey, founder of Action Patents. Pete is a registered patent agent who specializes in providing patents for Software, Electronics, Life Science Instrumentation and Business Methods. Legal Issues: Q&A with Pete Tormey of Action Patents From blogs to entrepreneurial events, patents are always a controversial topic. This
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