$160 million in the bank

Giff Constablemanagement, startups

I was just catching up on the Chirp conference care of GigaOm when I stopped dead at this sentence, “With more than 100,000 applications created on its platform to date, it’s frankly amazing that Twitter hadn’t formalized its road map and addressed competition with developers before … [t]hough with $160 million in the bank you’d think the company could have …

Enthusiasts vs Normals

Giff Constablemarketing, social media

First Chris Dixon tweeted, “Does anyone really want to have a “conversation with brands”? I I want my relationship to Starbucks limited to buying coffee.” Roger Ehrenberg then responded with a great post on authenticity in brand conversations. I would argue that they are both right, they are just talking about two different people.  Just as Dixon once wrote about …

Advertising & eCommerce: Respecting the Consumer

Giff Constableadvertising, Aprizi

A few entrepreneurs have written lately about the blurring of ecommerce and advertising (albeit advertising that is about driving a sale rather than building brand affinity). I agree; Aprizi’s attempt to build a “Pandora for online shopping” shares some traits with ad targeting efforts because in the end we’re all trying to improve relevance.  I want to highlight a key …

Not Cheap, Not Disposable

Giff Constablestartups

I side with Mark Suster on the need to retire the phrase “fail fast”.* I understand both sides, and the differences are hardly surprising since VCs live at the macro level (company fails) and entrepreneurs are immersed at the micro level (assumption fails). But it’s still a dumb phrase because it gets misinterpreted too easily. Take this quote from Umair …

The “Past is Prologue” Objection

Giff Constablestartups, venture capital

One of the most annoying things for an entrepreneur to hear, and one of the hardest things for a venture capitalist to navigate, is the “past is prologue” doubt. By that I mean: “your idea failed before, so why will it work this time around?” Given that most Web 2.0 ideas were conceptualized, attempted, and failed, during Web 1.0, this …

Are you all on the same page? A 20 minute Test.

Giff Constablemanagement, startups

When you are in the weeds building, testing, and iterating, communication challenges can pop up. First, you want everyone on the same page as to how the “value proposition” has evolved, what needs to be validated next, and why. Second, when your business feels like a moving target, sometimes it can be awfully hard to explain to others in clear …

Investors & Customers – sometimes there’s an early stage disconnect

Giff ConstableAprizi, startups, venture capital

peHub just wrote an article titled “VCs love Blippy, but do users?” Some of you correctly guessed that Blippy was the company I was referring to when I wrote, “Don’t let another startup throw you off your game”. And it’s true, there are a lot of VCs really excited about that company. Aprizi, Blippy, Bynamite, Swipely and a number of …

He should have fired my ass

Giff Constablemanagement, startups

Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital today posed the question of how a startup maintains speed once it hits adolescence. His conclusion is that “speed is really the result of a having the company aligned.” Howard Lindzon, the colorful CEO of Stocktwits, responded with the following comment: “we deal with this today. managing feature creep is key. obviously being aligned is …

Forget how many angels fit on a pin

Giff Constablestartups

I’ve been enjoying my lurk on the lean startup circle google group, but I’ve noticed a recurring attempt to definitively define what “lean startup” is and isn’t. I understand the desire to insert some sense of certainty in our uncertain world, but argue against it. It is a waste of time to argue over which tactics qualify as lean startup …