Last week, I posted “20-20 hindsight-insight into a Unicorn” which discussed the process of seeing the forward path (insight) to building a Unicorn tech startup by first envisioning the startup from the future – as if one is actually there, reminiscing (20-20 hindsight) about the path one took to get … Continue reading →
Frankly, I hate using the so overused “disruption” word. Every wannabe startup feels compelled to call itself “disruptive”, contrary to the facts, and every venture capitalist subconsciously (consciously?), assumes that every startup calling itself a “disruptor” is naive and not investment worthy. Oddly, disruptors are precisely what VCs want, but … Continue reading →
I no longer build startups using a linear approach – that’s the process inherently integrated into canned startup business plan software, and taught by MBA programs for nascent entrepreneurs. My startup process is highly iterative. Product concept. Competitive / market research. Revisit product concept for differentiation. Patent research. Revisit product … Continue reading →
Investors like to see a “Mission Statement” for startup companies – something short and sweet, something that checks all of the politically correct boxes, and incorporates the trendiest business phrase of the month. A perfect, digestible, double-digit IQ blurb. Unicorn doesn’t have that. Disruption is complicated, and our mission is … Continue reading →
In the early Silicon Valley days, I bought a truckload of wood from a San Jose building supply company, and built a wall in a second floor warehouse loft on North First Street in San Jose. My two co-founders, one of whom I met while working on some cool products at … Continue reading →
Startups are friggin’ hard. Some win despite incredible ineptitude. Some lose despite extreme effort and planetary alignment. A few startups are really big winners, and some are incredibly huge losers. I learn from each of my startups, and try to identify useful fundamentals of the big winners and losers. Making … Continue reading →
Back in 1967, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. That was also the year that Mel Epstein, then the Director of Promotions for the New York radio station WNEW, coined the now iconic the phrase “It’s 10 PM … Do you know where your children are?” Fifty years … Continue reading →
