I met Scott Sambucci when I spoke at TVC in July of 2007 in Menlo Park as a part of their “Entering the Entrepreneurial World” seminar. He was kind enough to blog about his take away from the talk in “Definition: Entrepreneurship” where he concluded that even though it was a noun it should be […]
Scott Sambucci on “An Entrepreneur’s Lessons Learned” Read More »
The last six weeks or so I have encountered a number of folks who have decided to use the downturn to launch their consulting career. Typically they have been encouraged in this by their former employer who has given them a large check a lot of free time. But some have chafed at cubicle life
Using the Downturn to Launch Your Consulting Career Read More »
Many start-up founders believe that the sales process should be this straightforward: Get the phone to ring (or e-mail inbox or skype or web contact form) Tell your prospect about your offering Take the order Alas it is normally not this simple, especially if you are selling to businesses. We do encounter some startups that
How To Measure Your Lead Generation Effectiveness Read More »
The third form of happiness, which is meaning, is again knowing what your highest strengths are and deploying those in the service of something you believe is larger than you are. There’s no shortcut to that. That’s what life is about. Martin Seligman interview in Edge “Eudaemonia, The Good Life“ Here are three activities to
Getting Your Startup Through the Downturn is a Marathon Not a Sprint Read More »
In April of this year I started to post quotes for entrepreneurs on @skmurphy. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs – October 2008 Read More »
What follows is an e-mail thread converted into a blog entry. I got a suggestion on our contact form related to the Startup Maturity Checklist: Some software companies will require you to sign an NDA before giving a presentation or sharing any other details about the company’s product. You may want to add this to
Why NDA’s Are Not On the Startup Maturity Checklist Read More »
Entrepreneurial focus means answering three related questions: what are we good at, how can we tell and how do we measure it, who wants it and how do they value it?
Entrepreneurial Focus: Right Layer, Right Problem, Right Time Read More »
What follows are some real questions I have answered either face to face or in e-mail over the last 90 days in response to the current downturn in Silicon Valley. Customer Development for a Consultants in a Downturn Q: I just completed my first two years of consulting–which were spectacular–after 20+ years of full time
Customer Development for a Consulting Practice in a Downturn Read More »
The October 2008 issue of Inc. magazine made it to the top of my reading pile today and I was delighted to read another great “Street Smarts” column by Norm Brodsky “Secrets of the $110 Million Dollar Man” which offers ten guidelines for starting a successful business.
Norm Brodsky’s Guidelines For Entrepreneurs Read More »
We had a great set of entrepreneurs at our “Idea to Revenue” this afternoon. The class was sponsored by CINA,the Chinese Information and Networking Association and held at Fenwick & West in Mountain View. Here are some of the comments from the feedback form: “Great overview of the early stage entrepreneurial process. I liked the
Comments From Today’s “Idea to Revenue” Class at CINA Read More »
There is a risk of complacency for start-ups (and even larger firms) who have achieved a level of security in their first niche. Markets change, consumer needs change, and you need to continue to explore opportunities to sell your offering to new customers–non-customers–even though it’s a much harder sales process than a renewal, upgrade, or
Non-Customers Are Where Important Changes Often Start Read More »
John Smart, the prime mover behind the old Accelerating Change conferences, sent an e-mail reminder about Convergence08 unconference November 15-16 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. It has a broad focus on some emerging technology areas that I hope will make for an eclectic and thought-provoking mix: synthetic biology artificial intelligence longevity intervention
Signed Up For Convergence08 Read More »
Many mid-career professionals may take advantage of this latest Silicon Valley downturn to launch a consulting practice. Some of them find their way to the Bootstrappers Breakfast, where they are welcome. If they want to establish a consulting practice I encourage them to join organizations like PATCA and WIC as well. In yesterday’s Wall Street
Two Professional Groups for Consultants Read More »
Ed Lee and I have been pulling together another EDA Bloggers’ Birds of a Feather, this one at the 2008 ICCAD Conference. It will be on Wednesday November 12, 4-6pm in the Fir Ballroom. It’s listed in the ICCAD program as an additional meeting: EDA Bloggers’ Birds-of-a-Feather sponsored by IEEE CEDA and organized by Juan-Antonio
EDA Bloggers’ BoF at ICCAD 2008 Read More »
After blogging about how “User Communities are Critical for Complex Products” two days ago I thought I would offer some quick tips on how to get started: Be clear on the benefits to the members. So many social networking groups are very clear on how members bring benefit to a user site, but not very
3 Tips for Developing User Community Sites Read More »
I sent the following E-Mail after a series of conversations and E-Mail exchanges with a founder struggling with entrepreneurial burnout. I encourage him to “please be healthy.” I thought it was apropos the current angst in Silicon Valley.
User communities are not just a low cost way to market and support your product, they are essential to complex technology products.
User Communities Are Critical For Complex Products Read More »
I had the pleasure of attending Steve Blank’s talk on “Customer Development for Startups” on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at TiE and I wanted to offer some pointers both to content he referenced and some related information on Customer Development.
Steve Blank on Customer Development at TiE Wed-Sep-17-2008 Read More »
Sean is speaking Thursday November 6 at the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the IEEE Technological Management Council on “Ten Business Books in One Hour for the Busy High-Tech Executive.” Location: Ramada Inn, 1217 Wildwood Ave, Sunnyvale CA 94089 (See Meeting Map) Time & Date: 6-9pm (Dinner included) on Thursday November 6, 2008 Cost &
Ten Key Books for Busy High-Tech Execs @IEEE-SCV-TMC Nov-6-2008 Read More »
I first met Sam Schillace at an Under The Radar event on “The Business of Web Apps: Where the Web Goes to Work” in March of this year. Sam co-founded Upstartle, the firm that developed Writely, with Steve Newman and Claudia Carpenter. I had been a user of Writely before it morphed into Google Docs
Sam Schillace at Tomorrow’s Bootstrapper Breakfast Read More »
