Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
If I had to boil down my best startup advice into a single sentence, I’d tell people: “Build great products that solve important problems.” If you solve an important problem, people will try and pay for your product. Getting someone to pay for your product is the surest path to revenues. Yet simply solving an … Continue reading Build Great Products That Solve Important Problems
Most entrepreneurs focus on expanding the envelope of possibility. They love to tell me about potential applications of their technology and new markets that could use it. Their goal is to expand the envelope of possibility. Expanding the envelope is critical. Startups begin with nothing; only by expanding the envelope of possibility can they succeed. … Continue reading You need to shape the envelope of possibility
Judd Apatow is probably the most influential person in the movie industry today. Thanks to a string of hits that he directed or produced, like Old School, Wedding Crashers, Superbad, and Bridesmaids, his brand of comedy has become the dominant school. So given his success, you’d think that Apatow would rely on his billion-dollar comedy … Continue reading You’re not your audience
In our zeal to pursue the Lean Startup methodology (which is an excellent approach), we tend to focus on techniques (MVP! Customer Development!) rather than the underlying abilities you need to apply them successfully. I think that there is a formula for iterating your way to success: Willingness to try + Ability to learn + … Continue reading Willingness to try + Ability to learn + Listening to feedback = Success
In his enormously entertaining and insightful interview on the Kevin Pollak Chat Show, director and actor Eli Roth (Hostel, Inglourious Basterds, Hemlock Grove) made an important point about the movie business, and why it was hard to work with many studios: “People don’t make movies they think will be successful; they make movies they think … Continue reading Make things you think will be successful, not things you think won’t fail
A lot of people write about why entrepreneurs are lonely (including me). Among the things we usually cite: Uncertainty, not being able to confide in others, having to be relentlessly upbeat even as disaster strikes. I think we’re actually missing a key insight. I recently read Jonathan Haidt’s book, “The Righteous Mind.” It’s a great … Continue reading Why Entrepreneurs Are Lonely (And What You Can Do About It)
I just finished listening to Kevin Pollak’s amazing interview with filmmaker Peter Farrelly (“Dumb and Dumber”, “There’s Something About Mary”, “Hall Pass”). You can watch it on YouTube here: http://bit.ly/12X3CGJ (Note: This is a 2 1/2 hour interview…be ready to be seated for a while!) Farrelly covers his entire career, how he became a writer, … Continue reading Why It’s Good You Don’t Always Get What You Want
It’s fashionable these days to lament the fact that Silicon Valley doesn’t think big. Instead, entrepreneurs are focused on building apps that will experience explosive growth and be sold for a billion dollars before ever having to discover a business model (sound familiar?). I was at the 40th birthday party of one of my friends, … Continue reading Stop thinking big and start thinking small
Mistakes are an inevitable part of the startup process. You can’t set out to do something that’s never been done before, and expect to get everything right. (For that matter, you can’t set out to do something that’s often been done before, and expect to get everything right!) The key to success lies in how … Continue reading Learn to savor your mistakes
I strongly urge you to read the entirety of Alex Payne’s “Letter to a Young Programmer Considering a Startup.” http://bit.ly/132Lcpc This heartfelt, eloquent essay encapsulates much of the ambivalence I feel about the startup world. I am, of course, a startup enthusiast. Sometime in the next few years, I’ll reach the point where I’ve started, … Continue reading The purpose of a startup is not “success”