We finally have an alpha. Even if it is held together by string and scotch tape, it’s really exciting for us. Up to now, we’ve been focused on learning consumer behavior, testing hypotheses, and focusing our ideas. Now we are out to get confirmation (or lack thereof) based on actual usage of a minimal viable product. So what are we …
Mo’ Better Feedback
I write this blog for many reasons. Sometimes I want to work through a topic, sometimes I want to give back to the startup community, and sometimes I just need to be vocal in reaction to something I have read. There are a lot of internal motivations, but I am also interested in knowing what you like and dislike about …
Keeping It Simple: Unit Economics
Back in November, I wrote about financial modeling and wanted to pick up the topic again. I think this is very important for lean startups. A financial model focuses your brain on key goals and assumptions. It’s great to obsess over product-market fit, but you also need to take the time to make sure your economics are reasonable as well. …
A product I would love to see: professional networking via Facebook
Last Fall, I was thinking about a few things: people are increasingly trying to do professional networking via Facebook, but support for such a task is awful my LinkedIn network does not really overlap with my Facebook network my FB network has tons of successful, smart people who know other successful, smart people if a friend of mine recommended someone …
Facebook, Crappy Business, & A Wee Li’l Thing
Bo Peabody wrote a thought-provoking article for Business Insider called “Facebook And Twitter Will Always Be Crappy Businesses“. I had to respond to a few things: It is still too early to tell what brand managers are going to do, particularly on Facebook. You’re talking about a group of businesses (brands and agencies) with highly engrained habits and beliefs after …
Unspoken Truths: the game of industry research
I give both Mark Suster and Chris Dixon credit for pointing to elephants in the room (hot air balloons, etc) of our industry –- topics that most entrepreneurs feel they can’t talk about in public without risk of getting burned. Suster’s latest post on statistics and research firms is no exception. Go read it. When Jason Calacanis began his tirade …
You’ve got to really want it
For as much as we like innovation, most people aren’t cut out to start a tech company or even join one in a super-early stage. That’s my point of disagreement with Chris Dixon on his latest post, “Every time an engineer joins Google, a startup dies“. Smart entrepreneurs try to mitigate risk every way they can, but let’s not sugarcoat …
Thoughts on TechCrunch & Silicon Valley’s Gender Problem
In the leadup to Vivek Wadhwa’s TechCrunch article today on Silicon Valley’s gender problem, I saw him twittering with my friend and former colleague Susan Wu (now CEO of Ohai) about the topic. Susan wrote: “There’s implict & explicit gender discrimination. It’s the implicit, subconscious, unstudied stuff that is the most difficult to overcome.” and “it’s the unconscious, unexamined biases …
Targeting Matters!
The other day, Cindy Alvarez (product manager at KISSmetrics and author of a great blog), wrote a post called “Anybody, As Long As It’s Not You” , saying: “Who should give you feedback on your early-stage product mockups/demo? Anybody, as long as it’s not you. OK, sure, there’s probably an “ideal” audience to show your product to. But it probably …
Can business schools teach entrepreneurship?
I can’t help but weigh in on the “MBA – startup” meme going around. First, context on my background: I chose not get an MBA. Before my current startup, I worked for 4 VC-backed companies (founded by others) in various sales/marketing/bizdev roles, and bootstrapped and sold 1 company of my own. I did feel a need to learn finance, but …