ASIC Design Starts Dropping: Implications for EDA
According to a recent analysis by Bryan Lewis and John Barber, ASIC Design Starts dropped by more than 50% between 2000 and 2008.
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Rich Mironov: Service-Model Thinking for Product-Model Folks
This evening I attended “Are You a Chef or Are You a Grocer?” an SVPMA event featuring Rich Mironov. It was an excellent presentation on SaaS (Software as a Service) business models. Mironov outlined four components as key to a successful SaaS offering: Build a multi-tenant infrastructure Manage for slower incremental sales Commit to continuous marketing Get
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Questions That Sell By Paul Cherry
I had promised to check out and report back on “Questions That Sell: The Powerful Process For Discovering What Your Customers Really Want” by Paul Cherry, which was recommended by Jennifer Vessels at Next Step’s workshop “How to Sell the Real Value of Your Solution” on Thursday, November 7, 2006. This is a good book,
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Applying the “Agile Manifesto” to Software Startups
What follows are some quick thoughts on how to apply insights from the “Agile Manifesto” (see also Martin Fowler’s excellent essay on “The New Methodology” for a nice overview of what agile development entails) to early stage software startups. Value This More In Preference To Individuals And Interactions Processes And Tools Working Software Comprehensive Documentation Customer Collaboration Contract Negotiation
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SaaS Requires Excellent Support Not Upselling to Proliferate
Rich Mironov profiles Replicate Technology (a current client) in Service Revenue and Upsell Marketing” and mischaracterizes–in our opinion–their strategy as upselling or upsell marketing.
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Software Demo: Are You Showing The Last Thing First?
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations is an interactive workshop we are presenting jointly with Peter Cohan of the Second Derivative on March 29 at the Moorpark Hotel (Saratoga/280) in San Jose. Sign up and bring a copy of your software demo: you can present the “executive attention span” version and get feedback. Guy Kawasaki mentioned one
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SDForum Startup SIG: Interim CEO’s featuring Mark Lazar
Tonight I attended the SDForum Startup SIG, featuring Mark Lazar. Mark is a highly experienced chief executive with a proven record in successfully growing and managing companies in the software and telecommunication industries. Mark is usually attracted to opportunities where a company needs help in accelerating growth or turn around. Mark holds both a BA
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CINA Blog Panel Wrap Up
Recap from a CINA panel on blogging Mar-15-2007 where I participated as a panelist. I cited Regis Mckenna’s “Real Time” and “The Cluetrain Manifesto.”
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CINA Panel on Blog: What It Can Do For You
Sean Murphy is on a panel at the CINA Technology/ Innovation Program tonight (Thursday March 15, 2007). He joins expert bloggers Zoli Erdos and Henry Lu in discussing how to use blogs to benefit your professional and personal life. They will share with you their successes, walk you through the maze of online blogs, and provide tips for
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Selling Around IT in Larger Firms
Large firm IT departments are “gatekeepers”. Their job is to keep the enterprise network computing infrastructure safe and operational. New software from a new vendor is almost always viewed as a threat. Most of the time, they will say NO to any new software. Most of the time our clients have to sell around them. Here’s five
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Building A Great Product Roadmap: Eric Walczykowski, Deloitte Ventures
Product roadmaps are entirely driven by solving problems for your customers. Start by asking your customer, “how can we help you?”
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March Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup
Last night I attended the Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup. Below is my opinion of the companies, the presentation, and my attempt to capture the content from the questions and answers. The first presentation was given by MyThings, a website that allows you to catalog your belongings on-line. The site was first used as a service called
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SDForum Quarterly Venture Breakfast with PWC’s: Seed Investments
This morning I attended the SDForum Quarterly Venture Breakfast with PWC’s Seed Investment Report given by Steve Bengston from Emerging Company Services (ECS) group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the United States, last year the reported amount of VC investments totaled to $25.5B. Of the 25.5B, 1.2B was invested at the seed stage across 311 companies. Moderator
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Startup Epicenter Offers Intensive Workshops, Challenge & Festival
Startup Epicenter has just announced two back to back entrepreneurial education events that together offer an intensive program designed to help you prepare for the grueling demands of an entrepreneurial journey. SKMurphy is a sponsor for the events. March 27-29 Startup Epicenter Intensive Workshops March 30-31 Startup Epicenter Challenge & Festival The program on March 29 starts at 2 in the afternoon, which leaves your morning free
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Getting Early Feedback
Getting early customer feedback is critical to fine tuning your product so that you can scale up. The temptation is to use a on-line survey tool to save your time, but I think for your early customers a questionnaire may only give you the answers that you are looking for, not the information that you need.
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Building Communities using Search Co-op
We have added Google’s Search Co-op to our Resources page. As an entrepreneur, you need to dabble in so many fields. Some areas of expertise an startup needs are legal, accounting, funding, marketing, sales, public relations, recruiting, hiring, partners, and advisers. We work with some great experts and partners and you can take advantage of
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Julian Fellowes on Persistence, Getting Started, and Logical Consequences
Commentary on Julian Fellowes answers to 3 interview questions about the need to get started, persist, and accept the logical consequences of your choices.
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VC Investment in Asia and What It Means to Korea
Tonight I attended a KIN / KASE Event: “VC Investment in Asia and What It Means to Korea.” The guest speakers were Han Kim, Partner at Altos Ventures and Tae Hea Nahm, Partner at Storm Ventures. VC Investment in Asia and What It Means to Korea I have heard many VC’s speak on how they
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2 Disruptive Trends: Open Source & SaaS
Last night, I attended the SDForum Business Intelligence SIG. The guest speaker was Barry Klawans, CTO of JasperSoft who spoke on 2 Disruptive Trends: Open Source & SaaS. From Barry’s talk I learned: The advantages vs. disadvantages of SaaS (Software as a Service) The similarities between SaaS and Open Source How to leverage open source
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Clark Dong: Software Startups Don’t Need VC’s To Start
Clark Dong gave an interesting demonstration of a new action item tracking tool for startups called TaskPick at last night’s SDForum Startup SIG. He came on after my show and tell on how and why we use Central Desktop in our practice. He was articulate and energetic and I was very impressed with his approach. His message below is
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