Branding is for Old-School, Madison Avenue, Creative-Guru, Marketing Geniuses
Non-ROI-measurable marketing sucks. Non-ROI-measureable marketing practices are a throwback to pre-Internet days, when advertising and branding were built upon a house of cards. Creative geniuses in their black turtlenecks mucking about in their black boxes creating...
SofttechVC's Charles Hudson at San Diego Tech Founders
San Diego Tech Founder Chris Hoover was kind enough to produce these fantastic notes on Charles Hudson’s talk from April 23, 2014. Thanks, Chris! (Edited for clarity.) Charles Hudson (Bay Area VC SoftTech) discussed perspectives on funding...
It's not the Mentors — it's the Mentor Program
I’m going to go out on a limb here. I guarantee that good startup mentors exist everywhere, even in your neck of the woods. Without any more evidence than my personal experience—working alongside hundreds of mentors and entrepreneurs around the globe, including such...
5 Ways to be a Better Mentor
Mentoring is also a more significant part of the economy today than since, perhaps, apprentorship in the craftsman age. Why? The rise of entrepreneurship and the freelance economy is similar to the craftsman age since as the very structure of the economy undergoes massive transformation, workers are increasingly required to find their own means of making a living.
During the Industrial age, most labor was focused on optimizing repeatable tasks. Repeatable tasks are taught. Mentoring was more focused on developing leadership qualities, responsible for corporate management. See Blank’s Sloan vs Durant. Today’s mentoring must teach leadership, too, but additionally, the nature of entrepreneurship.
Success and Failure — San Diego Startup Community
With Brad Feld coming to town this week, I think it’s a good time to evaluate the state of San Diego’s Startup Community. If you don’t know Brad, you should take a few minutes to learn more about him. He is an entrepreneur turned investor, a co-founder of the TechStars accelerator program, a prolific author and a community builder. Last year he published Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, which explores the ingredients necessary to have a thriving startup scene. The challenges Brad discusses are spot on and I highly recommend the book.
I first met Brad in the Fall of 2010, when he and TechStars co-founder David Cohen came to San Diego as part of their Do More Faster book tour. San Diego didn’t represent; it was a pitiful showing. Brad told the audience San Diego was 10 years away from having a solid startup ecosystem and he challenged, “who in the audience is committed to leading the effort for 10 years?” A few hands raised up, some by those merely seeking affirmation and the chance to pitch Brad on their failing startup. (When Andrew Beinbrink and I pressed those after the meeting to join us in building San Diego Tech Founders, they evaporated faster than dollars in a freemium business model.)
Looking Back to Henry Ford and Ahead to Lean Startups
Whether you are a government entity attempting to grow a startup ecosystem, a university trying to commercialize technology, a big business intent on reinvigorating (or saving) your business, or an entrepreneur seeking to change the world, you’re likely using old-school, 20th-century “innovation” methods in a new, unrecognizable, global economy.
Don't Think Big. There, I Said It.
Those who run in #LeanStartup circles know too well the problems encountered with language. Eric Ries, Steve Blank and others are criticized for choosing terms and phrases — lean, customer development, MVP, fail fast, etc. — which unintentionally lure...Why UX? Why now?
When you hear concepts over and over, you often wonder is it because it’s swarming or because your ear is newly attuned to it? Did you know there’s a lot of people who believe that the #11 has super powers and that’s why when they look at the clock, it’s always 11 after? Seriously.
UX is hip. And rightly so. I thought I’d share a theory why this is so and what impact it might have on your startup. This despite the fact that I’m relatively new to UX concepts.
Crossing the Lean Startup Chasm
As an early believer in Lean Startup movement, I can perhaps be excused for my unbridled enthusiasm for the release of Eric Ries’ new book, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Not however, for the reasons you might expect.
In fact, some early adopters of Lean Startups — those who have already bought into the framework to the extent that they’ve applied its practices into their high tech startup — might be a tad disappointed. They might have to look a little deeper; there’s no vanity steps to success herein.
