Scott Swaaley: “The SKMurphy mastermind group has been my most consistently useful source of feedback and advice. Everyone knows my history, they have a broad swath of experience, and they help to keep me focused, productive, and moving in the right direction.”
Scott Swaaley, Founder & CEO of MAKESafe Tools on SKMurphy’s Mastermind Group Read More »
A personal note on why I enjoy working with teams of bootstrapping entrepreneurs and the kinds of problems we help them solve.
Why I Enjoy Working With Teams of Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs Read More »
Some thoughts on the half-fast entrepreneur with half-vast experience. Any resemblance to the author or the reader is purely coincidental.
A Half-Fast Entrepreneur with Half-Vast Experience Read More »
Recently, we worked with a startup on team building as they wrangled with the rapid growth of their business. They needed 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.
Team Building: Rapid Ramp Read More »
StartupLJackson was the alter ego of Parker Thompson (@pt) who tweeted insights for entrepreneurs from 2011-2016. Here are my pick for his seven best with some additional commentary.
Seven Best Insights From StartupLJackson on Startups Read More »
What seems natural, artificial, or supernatural is a function of familiarity. Nature is the background or context for innovation. The challenge is that we live in a world and culture formed by millennia of innovation so that some incredibly advanced technologies seem natural. The difference between technology and magic is not that one works more
Nature, Technology and Magic Read More »
This weekend I attended the Bay Area Maker Faire 2015. New this year was a Startup Pavilion with about 20 companies selling their products and looking for early adopters. Through out the show, I also found many startups looking for support for their kickstarter campaigns.
Bay Area Maker Faire 2015 Read More »
Excerpts from Paul Grahams’ October 2014 essay “Before the Startup” with commentary interspersed. This essay is in some ways less self-confident than many of his earlier ones. He seems to recognize more explicitly the limits of his ability to offer advice that entrepreneurs in the Y Combinator portfolio–or entrepreneurs applying to Y Combinator–will actually follow.
Entrepreneurs Focus On Customers Not Startup Mechanics Read More »
The practical and spiritual aspects of entrepreneurship as a calling are well documented in “The Call of the Entrepreneur.”
Entrepreneurship As A Calling Read More »
Busyness won’t build your business, it closes off your creativity and your luck. Anticipate, or at least acknowledge, missed deadlines and commitments: triage or re-negotiate. Busyness I recently wrote a friend to ask if he wanted to do something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time but if something
Busyness Won’t Build Your Business Read More »
Don’t waste time painting Tom Sawyer’s fence: proving someone wrong is actually a poor source of motivation. It’s OK to ignore conventional wisdom, but don’t get trapped into doing someone else’s work (or building their platform) just to prove them wrong. Build something instead of trying to win an argument.
Don’t Waste Time Painting Tom Sawyer’s Fence: Proving Someone Wrong Is A Poor Motivator Read More »
Some advice from a couple of founders that ran successful crowdfunding campaigns: Matt Oscamou, CEO of Frontier Bites, Mark Palaima, Distinguished Engineer at Avagent, and Noah Dentzel, CEO of Nomad Goods.
Advice on Crowdfunding from Matt Oscamou, Mark Palaima, and Noah Dentzel Read More »
I will be a mentor at the B2B Startup Weekend June 6-8 in San Francisco.
Mentor at B2B Startup Weekend Read More »
Are you a startup founder who wants to make an objective assessment of your new product idea? Schedule a no-cost, no-obligation MVP Readiness Review. You can also use the session to prepare for customer discovery interviews or to debrief on interviews you have conducted to glean further insights.
Office Hours: Schedule Time to Review Your MVP Readiness Read More »
Peter Cohan from Second Derivative offers some of the best sales demo/pitch training and hands-on learning that we have seen. So we are honored to offer these interactive workshops to startups. Here is the upcoming schedule: March 5&6, 2014 “Great Demo!” San Jose, CA May 21&22, 2014 “Great Demo!” San Jose, CA October 15&16, 2014
Improve Your Sales Pitch Read More »
We get a number of questions about logos, here are three tips for designing or choosing a logo when you are bootstrapping or just getting started: Text Treatments: text logos are simple, the company name is always right there. Most high tech logos are text treatments, they are clear and simple. With text logos you
Tips for Choosing a Logo Read More »
If you missed SKMurphy and SalesQualia at Lean Startup Conference’s workshop, Sean Murphy and Scott Sambucci led an interactive workshop on developing and debugging your repeatable and scalable B2B sales process. In the workshop, we worked a number of sales issues that the attendees from lean startups had: Can’t get potential customers to call back
LSC Workshop on Engineering Your Sales Process Read More »
If you missed our “Working for Equity” panel at Silicon Valley Code Camp 2012, Theresa Shafer and the four CEO’s on the panel had a lively conversation about what’s really involved in leaving your day job and striking out on your own or with partners.
Recap of “Work For Equity” A Startup CEO Panel at SVCC 2012 Read More »
Here is a list of tools for finding a physical workspace: this covers desks, cubicles, offices, and meeting rooms you can rent by the hour, day, or month.
Tools for Finding a Physical Workspace: Deskwanted, LiquidSpace, Loosecubes, OpenDesks Read More »
MyPermissions: Checks for third party application access to your Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, and Flickr accounts. SocialMention: Allows you to do keyword and phrase search across more than one hundred social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google, etc… HackerFollow: follow comments and posts by your favorite Hacker News contributors
Three Useful Tools: MyPermissions, SocialMention, HackerFollow Read More »
