“In a small way, every talent acquisition poisons the well for future, bootstrapped startups. It erodes the confidence of users and potential customers. People put their company blog on Posterous, they add their business to GoWalla, they gave AdGrok a few hours of their time, etcetera, etcetera. I’m not saying I would turn down the […]
Honor Customer Commitments To Avoid Poisoning the Well Read More »
The first observation of a new insight is often published in a lab notebook or personal journal or as notes from a meeting that captured an anecdote. Self-publishing often marks the first generation of new knowledge because “new” is often hard to comprehend and not accepted by the status quo or established publication channels. If
Self-Publishing Often Marks The First Generation of New Knowledge Read More »
This originally appeared in my “Entrepreneurial Engineer” column in EETimes as “Linc Jepson’s 74ze leverages Russian and American engineering talent to persevere” on Jan-18-2011. I have added some additional hyperlinks in this version. Linc Jepson studied Electrical Engineering at Tufts and after he graduated with his BSEE he was drawn to Silicon Valley’s technology boom
Founder Story: Linc Jepson, 74ze Read More »
“Unhappy users in our industry don’t continue to file bug reports; they start writing business plans.” Michael “Mac” McNamara talking about the EDA Industry I was reminded of this remark that Mac made at an SDForum event several years ago as I was reading the “Who Are User Entrepreneurs?” study which summarizes findings on innovation,
Bug Reports vs. Business Plans Read More »
Last week was a thought provoking one for me with Big Data Camp on Mon February 27, a “Great Demo” workshop on February 29, and a tour of the Strata 2012 exhibit hall on March 1. I encountered either examples or stories of visualizations that required hundreds to thousands of CPU hours to create at
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand CPU Hours Read More »
Alberto Savoia defines pretotyping as determining that you are “building the right product before you invest in building your product right.” His book “Pretotype It” (Second Edition available as a Free PDF or on Kindle for $0.99) lists a set of seven techniques for pretotyping on pages 39-40. This post analyzes and elaborates on the techniques
Pretotyping – Techniques for Building the Right Product Read More »
Some comments on Rich Skrenta’s observation: “I think it’s still a long time before we’ll have building codes for software.”
Building Codes For Software Read More »
Startups originate in the mind of an entrepreneur, often as the result of observing something that seems odd, or is the result of juxtaposing two or three seeming unrelated or even incongruous ideas. The first challenge the entrepreneur faces turn his insight into something others can critique and improve upon: to show them sketches of
Sketching The Likeness Of An Imaginary Business Read More »
This originally appeared in my “Entrepreneurial Engineer” column in EETimes as “Octopart helps nearly a half a million people find the part they need every month” on Mar-3-2011. I have added some additional hyperlinks in this version. I originally made a note to blog about Octopart in October of 2007 and again in April of
Founder Story Sam Wurzel, Octopart Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get these hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when these quotes for entrepreneurs are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
Quotes for Entrepreneurs–February 2012 Read More »
Here are three common questions technical entrepreneurs have for potential co-founders.
3 Questions Technical Entrepreneurs Have For Potential Co-Founders Read More »
Recorded discussion on Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen’s The Innovator’s DNA chapter 4, recorded on April 25, 2012. Jeff Allison, former VP of Engineering at Cisco Systems joins us to discuss observing. Chapter 4: Discovery Skill #3 Observing The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen Practical and provocative, The
Book Club: The Innovator’s DNA: Observing Read More »
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations “Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo! When: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8 am – 5 pm Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129 For out of town attendees: The Moorpark is located 400 feet from the Saratoga Ave exit
Great Demo Workshop on May 23, 2012 Read More »
On Wed-Feb-22 at Noon PST the Book Club For Business Impact covered lessons learned applying a number of techniques for associating from chapter 2 of the “Innovator’s DNA” by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen.
Associating, Pattern Matching, and Sensemaking Read More »
Doing business on a handshake requires us to listen carefully and offer our diagnosis your needs before moving on to how you can help yourself and where we can add value.
Doing Business On a Handshake Read More »
Recorded discussion on Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen’s The Innovator’s DNA chapter 3, recorded on March 28, 2012. Sarah Gray, Ethan Thorman, and Mark Cook join Steve Hogan and Sean Murphy to discuss lessons learned asking questions to foster innovation. Chapter 3: Discovery Skill #2 Questioning The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal
Book Club: The Innovator’s DNA: Questioning Read More »
My father used to complain that a friend of his would make his doctor practice veterinary medicine. The doctor would ask him what was wrong and his friend would reply in a non-committal way. Some entrepreneurs, especially in the early market, seem to prefer veterinary marketing: running tests and making changes in their application without
Don’t Practice Veterinary Marketing: Talk to Prospects Read More »
I have been really encouraged by some of the great comments I have received on some recent blog posts.
A Great Comment Can Brighten Your Whole Day Read More »
Max Bloom and Peter Bloom–yes they are brothers–have opened a new co-working space in Santa Clara called “Ground Floor Silicon Valley.” The 15,000 square foot facility is located at 2030 Duane Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95054 It’s an interesting facility that has only been open a few weeks. The facility includes about 4,000 square feet
New Co-Working Space in Santa Clara: Ground Floor Silicon Valley Read More »
Mitchell, a leading provider of technology, connectivity and information solutions to the Property & Casualty claims and Collision Repair industries, today announced significant enhancements to the SmartAdvisor(TM) Utilization Review (UR) Decision Manager(TM), an industry-leading solution that automatically integrates utilization review decisions within the bill review process, empowering insurance claims payers with the ability to reduce
Industry Leader Embeds DataCare UR Enforcer Read More »
