You Don’t Need an MBA for Startup Success
I don’t have an MBA. I used to fear that this would put me at a disadvantage in starting my own company, but now I’m convinced that it may be…
The Biggest Startup Opportunities Solve Big Problems
Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement when, instead, they should be looking for problems to solve. Customers pay for solutions, but there is no market for…
What Social Entrepreneurship Is Not
A term I hear more and more these days is “social entrepreneur.” In the simplest of terms, these are people who seek to generate “social value”, rather than profits, and…
Your Customers Don’t Share Your World View
As an entrepreneur, you should assume none of your customers are like you. In reality, most entrepreneurs assume just the opposite. Customers don’t have your technical knowledge, your passion, and…
The Business Card is an Endangered Species
In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number…
Four Threats to Startup Survival
The best survival guides tell you how to be proactive and avoid the probabilities of ending up in a worst case scenario. Of course you need to learn how to…
Eliminate Friction in the Feedback Loop
Entrepreneurship is not a job for the Lone Ranger. Every startup requires building and maintaining effective relationships with people, including partners, team members, customers, and investors. That means giving and…
When, and What, Should You Outsource?
Since my background includes software development, I often get the question about when to build a solution in-house, versus outsourcing it to a local company, near-shore software development service, or…
Create a Business Model that Works
Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product…
Angel Investors May Not Be For You If…
We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. These people are highly focused on investment…