Working for free is a common practice and even a necessary one at that. Most truly new ideas need true believers to get them into an executable state, let alone a revenue generating state. That only becomes a problem when we start asking others to share that risk, especially those folks who aren’t co-founders.
One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is trying to be a competitor in an existing market instead of creating their own market. In this post, I’ll give you some case studies and strategies to get you thinking bigger.
One of the most common questions I get from company leaders is about who to hire and when. It doesn’t matter if your company is two people or 20 or 200, your next hire is always the most important hire. Filling the wrong role at the wrong time is a waste of money and potentially even a waste of talent.
If an organization isn’t using data to develop and grow its products, then its days are probably numbered. Let’s fix that, because every new product, every new feature, every growth experiment, should be using data to make decisions.
Most of us entrepreneurs chase success like a dog chases a car - we don't know what to do with it when we catch it. That's because most of us have at least one weakness in our growth game.
There is no better professional achievement than launching a product and watching it succeed. But a successful product launch is really nothing more than a glorified proof of concept. No company ever survived on the hype of a launch, no matter how high the trajectory of the rocket. Once that rocket is up in the air, we lose a lot of control over it, and the period immediately following the launch is often marked by total chaos. What we need is something that looks more like organized chaos, and for that, we need a product team.
I need to ask you a sensitive question. How many times have you gotten screwed out of fair payment for your product or service? If the answer is more than “zero,” then you’ve probably made sure it’ll never happen again. Right? Or have you? Chances are, there might still be gaping holes in your payment strategy.
If we’re going to spend time on competitive analysis — and mind you, lack of competitive awareness is one of the top reasons investors reject growth stage startups — we might as well go all in. Here’s how to do just that.
Customer indifference is the number one killer of new products and services. It can be tricky problem to solve and even more difficult to detect, because it’s often mistaken for something else.
Launching a successful Minimum Viable Product is only the beginning. Selling and scaling an MVP is harder and riskier. If our product doesn’t emerge from MVP and quickly generate enough revenue to push our startup into the growth phase, our startup will stagnate. However, there are a couple challenges we’ll face right out of the MVP gate.
There’s a right way to approach crowdfunding, and a whole lot of wrong ways. Some of those wrong ways could lead to litigious customers, fines, and even criminal charges. So let’s talk about avoiding the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when considering crowdfunding.
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The early stages of startup are full of challenges for both new and repeat entrepreneurs alike. Minimum Viable is 25 of my best startup advice posts from behind Medium's paywall, covering the period from the very beginning of the idea stage through to the growth stage. This isn't business plans and pitch decks. It's proven strategies and new ideas for making, leading, and growing a startup.
Startup is for everyone. If buying the book doesn't fit your current budget, contact me. Let me know your story and I'll hook you up with a copy.
Do you feel like an outsider when it comes to startup, entrepreneurship, or starting or running a business? Are there rules and processes and terms you don't fully understand? Does it feel like a closed club sometimes?
Everything You Should Know About Startup is all the stuff I wish I knew when I was first starting out, run through the lens of having done it for so long and still doing it. It's not Silicon Valley buzzwords and mantras. It's nuts and bolts and logic that applies in the real world.