Thanksgiving 2011
Reflections at Thanksgiving 2011: in the second half of my life, it’s time to appreciate all that I have and be more forthcoming in my gratitude to others.
Great Demo Workshop on February 29, 2012
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations “Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo! When: Wednesday, February 29, 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
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Pictures Are to Words as Conversations are to Surveys
You waste time and reputation using these methods for B2B customer discovery: surveys, landing pages, and asking for endorsement before product experience.
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Start Black Friday at the Bootstrappers Breakfast in Mountain View
Do your shopping on-line and avoid the crowds, then drop by the Bootstrappers Breakfast® in Mountain View this Friday at 9am at Red Rock Coffee. We will be upstairs in our usual location in the corner to the left of the staircase. A Bootstrappers Breakfast allows you to Take part in a serious roundtable conversation among
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Panelists Announced for Bootstrapper’s Manifesto Book Club Webinar
We have two bootstrappers as panelists for Wednesday’s Business Book Club webinar on Seth Godin’s Bootstrapper’s Manifesto. Neal Tovsen, founder of TelemetryWeb.com Neal’s fifteen years of professional experience have focused on the architecture, design, and end-to-end development of highly available, distributed, scalable, software-as-a-service platforms. His understanding of how to integrate sensor networks, remote monitoring, and
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Veterans Day 2011
On Veterans Day 2011 we honor those who have served in the military and lived: thanks for putting your life on the line for all the things we hold dear.
Seth Godin’s “Bootstrapper’s Manifesto”
In Seth Godin’s “Bootstrapper Bible” he has this short manifesto that really is worth reading periodically. We will be discussing this at next week’s Book Club for Business Impact with several bootstrappers: I am a bootstrapper. I have initiative and insight and guts, but not much money. I will succeed because my efforts and my
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Perfectionism vs. Mastery
Perfectionism vs. Mastery Mastery’s great accomplishments require time and a willingness to release a sequence of prototypes. Perfectionism means you don’t ship until it’s perfect. Which means you never ship or what you ship has not learned from problems or needs that only visible post deployment. Randall Munroe’s “The General Problem” embeds this observation: “I
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Customer Interviews: Allow Yourself to Be Surprised
A few thoughts on customer interviews and why their capacity to surprise us makes them preferable to surveys and landing pages for early market exploration.
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Stay Tuned! We Are Being Purposefully Vague Right Now
I came across an interesting tool this week in the collaboration area. The web page invited me to apply for membership, prompting me to enter my e-mail, twitter handle, blog, and a brief bio. But they were “purposefully vague’ about who they were. It wasn’t exactly stealth mode, more like maintaining deniability if it failed
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Geva Solomonovich of Fraud Sciences at Fri-Nov-4 BB
Geva Solomonowich, an early employee at Fraud Sciences and several other startups joins us tomorrow to share lessons learned getting early customers and growing the business. Francis Adanza interviewed him on the Bootstrapper Breakfast blog in mid-October, here are some excerpts: Francis: Prior to Fraud Sciences, what were you doing? Geva: Before Fraud Sciences I
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Book Club: Brian Arthur’s “The Second Economy”
Call-in Book Review Recorded on WednesdayDecember 14, 2011Anne Rozinat of Fluxicon and Sean Murphy of SKMurphy discuss the impact of the pervasive digitization of business processes on cloud business models. View the recorded session The Second Economy by W. Brian Arthur This McKinsey Quarterly article provides the context for a thought provoking discussion of the
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The Startup Mythology of Silicon Valley
Align your startup with a higher purpose to sustain motivation. Avoid “entrepreneurial lifestyle” and startup mythology: build a going concern.
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Book Club: Seth Godin’s Bootstrappers Manifesto
Recorded Discussion on Bootstrappers ManifestoSteve Hogan moderates a discussion with Neal Tovsen of TelemetryWeb.com and Sarah Gray of of MercuryApp.com on Seth Godin’s Bootstrapper Manifesto. This recording starts after the panel introductions please see View session www.skmurphy.com/blog/2011/11/14/panelists-announced-for-bootstrappers-manifesto-book-club-webinar/ for details on panelists. The E-book version of The Bootstrappers Bible is available at no charge from The
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Quotes For Entrepreneurs–October 2011
You can follow @skmurphy to get them 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.
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A Professional Always Specializes
I watched the Grey Fox recently as was struck by two pieces of dialog. Richard Farnsworth plays Bill Miner, “the Grey Fox” a train robber and “gentleman bandit.” When asked by another ex-convict to take up robbing banks instead of robbing trains he answers: Bill Miner: “A professional always specializes.” I first heard this
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Planning for 2012: We Are Interested In Your Insights and Suggestions
We are starting our planning process for 2012 even as we scramble to finish everything still on the cooker for 2011. We have meetings scheduled with our partners to help us assess what we have learned from 2011 and arrive at a working consensus for 2011-13. I welcome any suggestions for: How to improve this
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Founder Story: Eric Deal, Cyclic Design
This originally appeared in EETimes on-line as “Eric Deal bounces back from a startup shutdown to establish Cyclic Design” on Dec-20-2010. I met Eric Deal, president of Cyclic Design, through the IEEE Consulting Network of Silicon Valley and was impressed by his energy and enthusiasm in bouncing back from one failed startup to begin a
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Dave Stubenvoll Guest for “Origin & Evolution of New Business” Oct-26-2011
Our “Book Club For Business Impact” promises actionable insights for entrepreneurs and change agents, drawn from the panelist’s experience and informed by the book’s content. Dave Stubenvoll, CEO of Wowza Media, joins the discussion of Amar Bhide‘s “Origin and Evolution of New Business” this Wednesday October 26 at Noon PDT. Click http://skmbhide111026.eventbrite.com/?discount=WowzaMedia to attend at
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Founder Story: Ghislain Kaiser, Docea Power
This interview originally ran Nov-4-2010 at “Docea Power Successfully Bootstraps As a New EDA Player.” I had a chance to catch up with Ghislain Kaiser, CEO of Docea Power, a promising new startup based in France. Their product, Aceplorer, has been gaining increasing acceptance in the power and thermal management space. Ghislain was kind enough
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