by Martin Zwilling

1. Deliver an innovative solution to a painful customer problem
This can be high risk if your solution doesn’t work, or your price is more painful than the problem.
A bad risk is assuming that you because you like the solution, everyone will buy it, or that you can build an existing solution cheaper than anyone else.

2. Plan to replace your product with a better and cheaper one
Probably more companies fail by avoiding this strategic risk than any other.
If the current product is making money, it seems like a bad risk to obsolete it.

Yet, new technology can quickly blindside you, and market dynamics change, plus you need to broaden your opportunity.

Read the rest of this post »

Author: Dharmesh Shah

 37 "Signals" From 37 Signals

1) Great businesses have a point of view, not just a product or service.

2) Writing a plan makes you feel in control of things you don’t actually control.

3) You have the most information when you’re doing something, not before you've done it.

4) Stuff that was impossible just a few years ago is simple today.

5) Failure is not a prerequisite for success.http://bit.ly/37Insights">

Read the rest of this post »

Marc Andreessen, former serial entrepreneur now of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, was a guest speaker at Stanford Business School earlier this month.

His lecture was full of insights into what it takes to start a successful business, the importance of product, and the current climate of venture capital and entrepreneurship.

One of the most interesting segments details Andreessen's three requirements for a successful startup:

1. Enormous market (either existing, or new)

2. A fundamental technological or economic change (the product must be "10 times" better/faster/cheaper than what's on the market now)

3. A kick-ass founding team (tech and sales "superstars" are most important)

Author: Karin Price Mueller

When you work for someone else, you earn a salary for the work you provide. Pretty simple.

Being your own boss is another matter entirely. You need to bring in money to run your personal affairs, but the business needs cash, too. Deciding how much income to take compared to what you should leave for the business is a quandary, indeed.

"It is imperative that the business owner know their income revenue cycle, payables and receivables. A critical issue to understand is cash flow, which is the lifeblood of any small business," says David Morganstern, a certified financial planner with CMC Advisers in Portland, Ore.

That includes paying yourself. Here are some tips to help you take the income you need while leaving your business with a decent operating budget.

1. There is no formula
As a business owner, taking a salary is not as simple as being satisfied with what's left in the till after expenses are paid. Having a fixed salary, while inviting, may not be realistic because the financial health of each business is different--and fluctuates from year to year.
Your first consideration should be not about the business, but about your own personal living needs. Determine how much you need to pay the mortgage, food bills and other expenses, and that's the amount you strive to meet. But of course, business profits aren't likely to be as stable as your personal money needs, so you have to be flexible.

Lifestyle overhead should remain low to avoid any undue stress on the business, says Curtis Smith, a certified financial planner with Interactive Capital Management in Sugar Land, Texas. Low personal expenses will leave more money available for the business to maintain operating capital--and hopefully a cash cushion--for the future.

Read the rest of this post »

Keynot of Steve Blank on Customer Development 2.0

<br />

Author: Sean Ellis

VC backed startups generally aspire to valuations in the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, but very few really consider all of the elements they’ll need to make it happen.

After analyzing several startups I’ve worked with that have reached or are approaching these valuations I’ve boiled it down to four interdependent commonalities that always seem to exist.

While they are easy to describe, they are of course very difficult to achieve. Still your best chance of achieving them is to know what they are.

Sean Ellis is founder and principal at 12in6 Inc., a firm that helps startups transition to high growth companies. This post was originally published at his blog, and it is re-published here with permission.

Read the rest of this post »

 

Last week one of the schools I teach at invited me to judge a business plan contest. I suggested that they first might want to read my post on why business plans are a poor planning and execution tool for startups. They called back laughing and the invitation disappeared

At best I think business plan competitions are a waste of time. But until now I haven’t been able to articulate a framework of why or had a concrete suggestion of what to replace them with.

Read the rest of this post »

Read the rest of this post »

Read the rest of this post »