Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
As a startup guy, I always seem to find myself selling against the evil empire. The empire is always changing (in my own career, it’s gone from Microsoft to Google to Facebook) but the story remains the same: You’re always outnumbered, and you’re always outgunned. Yet despite these facts, my companies have been able to … Continue reading Let The Customer See You Sweat
While the startup life can be full of excitement, it can also be incredibly repetitive. Take the pitch, for example. Many entrepreneurs dislike fundraising because they have to deliver the same pitch over and over. I’ve lost track of the times that people have referred to themselves as a wind-up toy. Yet if entrepreneurs think … Continue reading Getting to the point is a cardinal virtue
Inc Magazine recently ran a great piece on “The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship.” http://bit.ly/15avBVM The piece, which includes some revealing stories from entrepreneurs who found themselves on the brink, touches on some of the psychological reasons why entrepreneurs are particularly vulnerable, such as their tendency to feel emotions more strongly and take more risks than … Continue reading The Overlooked Reason Entrepreneurs Are Vulnerable To Depression
A while back, I read a popular blog post on “Why I’ll Be a Solo Founder Next Time”: http://bit.ly/16pSfTr The author, Denny Britz, writes about how his previous startup failed because he and his co-founders were “bad” founders, and vows to do things differently his next time out: “If you haven’t found the right team … Continue reading You Never Have The Perfect Tools For The Job
I love Jason Lemkin’s writings about entrepreneurship and building SaaS companies. Jason’s most recent success is EchoSign (sold to Adobe), and he was unusually candid about the importance of having a VC investor rather than a “party” round: http://bit.ly/17a2AW7 “Everything else, for funding, in the end didn’t really matter. The first $2m? Great, but we … Continue reading Always Get A Lead Investor
The great Eric Barker recently reviewed the research on fear, and found that there are three secrets to fearlessness, as practiced by courageous types like firefighters and special forces operatives: http://bit.ly/1awzzJt 1. Training and Preparation “The Navy SEAL team that killed Bin Laden trained for weeks inside a full scale replica of the compound they … Continue reading Why Worry?
It’s brightly colored, and made from rendered animal skins and bones…. Nah, just kidding. (Not about the animal bones–that’s absolutely true.) Your startup is like Jello because it starts of in a liquid state, but undergoes a phase transition and becomes (more or less) a solid. When your startup begins, it is completely fluid. You … Continue reading How Your Startup Is Like Jello
The always-insightful Mark Suster has another winning post up, “The Perils of Shiny Objects.” http://bit.ly/12qAmXm “In today’s uber-connected, social media, everything-is-public, people tell you there’s killing it with these new features, investor & mentor whiplash – it’s hard to avoid the latest thing. Pinterest is killing it with their new UI. 4 months later every … Continue reading The Real Problem With Shiny Objects
People in Silicon Valley are unusually likely to believe themselves immortal. Literally. Whether it’s cryogenic preservation or the uploading of consciousness, we go so far as to deny death’s inexorability–at least for us. I’m sympathetic, since I’m terrified of death–my children all know that my fond wish is to be put into a robot body … Continue reading Life is Fragile; Don’t Postpone It
Many people in Silicon Valley, including me, advise entrepreneurs to build insanely great products. But every once in a while, it’s a good idea to remind yourself that at the very beginning of your startup, you should focus more on finding a great market…for which you can then build an insanely great product. The founders … Continue reading Crappy Product + Great Market = Success