Quick Take: Scaling Up a Small Team
Scaling up a small team in a bootstrapped startup can present some unanticipated challenges. Here are some things to watch out for.
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4 Finding your Niche
Challenging the ‘Growth at all Costs’ Startup Model
You don’t hear it as much in 2024 but “growth at all costs” was common advice for entrepreneurs in as you did 2013-2022 (and 1996 to 2001). Here are our reasons by we don’t recommend it for bootstrappers.
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Starting Small Can Lead to A Big Success
In a world where bigger often seems better, there’s a compelling argument to be made for the power of starting small.
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The Science of Targeting: How Startups Select the Perfect Niche
Sean Murphy and Etienne Garbugli offer tips on selecting the perfect niche for your startups and take questions from a live audience.
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Building Better Startups with TPS and Lean Principles
TPS and Lean Principles align production with customer demand to minimize inventory, improve cash flow, and foster true efficiency.
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Key Takeaways From Two Survival to Thrival Books
The two “Survival to Thrival” books “Building the Enterprise Startup” and “Change or Be Changed” offers insights for bootstrappers navigating the path from founding to scaling.
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Six Activities for Learning New Skills and Tools
Real life often presents entrepreneurs with a new problem or opportunity, so they find themselves learning new skills and tools on the fly.
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“The Ship that Never Was” from “Skunk Works” by Ben R. Rich
“Skunk Works” by Ben R. Rich is a worthy sequel to Kelly Johnson’s “Kelly: More Than My Share of It All.” It brings the story of the Lockheed Skunkworks, founded by Johnson, up to 1995. There are a number of lessons for technology entrepreneurs.
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What to Do When You Are Asking Yourself, “Is My Product Meh?”
Entrepreneurs often ask themselves “Is my product meh?” out of a fear of making a fool of themselves. Here are some objectives questions to ask yourself to get a more balanced perspective on your situation.
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Be Open Kimono With Partners
Work with trusted partners open kimono: disclose relevant financials, plans, and internal processes to increase synergy. Play a long game.
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A Practical Introduction to Social Capital for Entrepreneurs
This is a practical overview of social capital, an essential concept for entrepreneurs despite being hard to measure. I offer suggestions for growing your business network, and enhancing your reputation, explaining why increasing social capital creates value for your startup.
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Interview with Patricia Watkins on Managing Sales In a Downturn
This is a ten minute interview (audio and edited transcript) I did with Patricia Watkins on July 24-2020. Patrica is an experienced salesperson and sales executive who’s been helping companies drive sales for more than two decades. We discuss some of the challenges you need to manage during a major economic disruption. We look back
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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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Benefits of SKMurphy Mastermind for Entrepreneurs
An SKMurphy Mastermind Group is an ongoing series of facilitated conversations among serious entrepreneurs. It enables collaboration on problems and opportunities and fosters joint accountability around effective ongoing action.
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Serge Toarca Offers Three Reasons To Bootstrap In a Small Market
Serge Toarca offers three good reasons to consider starting in a smaller market in “Why the hell am I building a product with a tiny market?” I offer another ten.
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Innovation is the first reduction to practice of an idea in a culture
Entrepreneurs need to focus on innovation or the first reduction to practice of an idea in a culture because this is the critical precursor to customer value.
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Hiten Shah: Four Lessons I Learned Squandering My Opportunity at KISSMetrics
In “My Billion Dollar Mistake” Hiten Shah shares four lessons he learned from the early successes and ultimate eclipse of KISSMetrics.
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Do You Ever Get the Feeling That Everything You Know is Wrong?
My longer answer to “Do you ever get the feeling that everything you know is wrong?” The short answer is “yes, every few years.”
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Professional Services Innovation: Customer Insight, Expertise, and Technology
Professional services innovation requires deepening your understanding of customer needs and emerging problem areas, deepening expertise, and incorporating technology and specialized tools into service delivery.
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Qualitative Research: Problem Exploration for Lean Startups
Key points from Mary Sorber’s presentation on “Qualitative Research: Problem Exploration for Lean Startups” at Lean Culture July-31-2018.
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