Thanks to Twitter, it just came to my attention that the USPTO is seeking input from the public in the wake of the Bilski case. I had to stop everything this afternoon and get a letter out — the deadline is Sept. 27. I’m sure there are more cogent arguments out there, but I had to do my part. If …
Virtual goods aren’t so weird after all
I have been studying the “entertainment” of shopping for five years now. At Electric Sheep, we focused on the virtual side, studying places like Second Life, Stardoll, and Polyvore, and advising large brands and ad agencies on the topic. We embedded ourselves within the vibrant Second Life design and fashion community. We designed and built many virtual entertainment experiences. For …
How a blog can help you with customer development
There are many strategies for customer development, and here is another one: start a company blog focused on the problem you hope to solve and the people you hope to solve it for. In this context, your purpose with the blog is not to get vast amounts of traffic, but rather to help you connect with and learn from lots …
Focus. There is no but.
Jordan Cooper, a bright NYC entrepreneur and investor, just wrote a post called “If you’re building for $1B, is “Focus” a Farce?” He writes: “I find myself wondering if changes in the product development lifecycle are not giving birth to a new type of non-bootstrapped operation/execution that is more forgiving of experimentation at the expense of focus (think extension of …
The hackNY summer intern program, in our words
Hilary asked what participation in the hackNY‘s 2010 internship program meant to us at Aprizi. Here is what Liz and I sent her. We cannot stress enough how important the program is for the nascent NYC startup ecosystem, so I wanted to share these words publicly: Aprizi was honored to take part in the 2010 hackNY internship program. Our intern, …
A Customer Development Teaching Exercise
Trevor Owens, the young dynamo in the NY startup scene who organized NYC’s lean startup machine weekend, asked my help in discussing “Idea Validation and Opportunity Assessment” at an all-day NYU event. We have been emailing back and forth about an audience participation exercise and I would love your thoughts on what could make it better. New entrepreneurs hit three …
The “anything” job (and our new product)
Big company people are used to delegation, resources at their disposal, and the benefit of a strong brand name. As startup people, we have none of that. Our job description is “whatever it takes.” Like most founders, I wear a lot of hats at Aprizi. While I had been creating the product mockups in Balsamiq and Photoshop, I had not …