I love the goal of Muse businesses (pay for your life without taking your time)[1], but become extremely worried when I hear someone say they are going to start one. Here’s the problem: Without significant development resources, the muse seems only to work[2] for two types of businesses: drop-shipping and gadget innovations[3][4]. Drop shipping Drop-shipping [...]
Continue Reading14 May
Business books are a huge waste of time when reading them is the result of browsing “for something interesting.” But they’re a lifesaver if you have a specific question you need answered. Reading a book is always a good use of time when you’re missing a learnable bit of knowledge. The types of questions you should be [...]
Continue Reading08 May
(Note: In this post I’m talking specifically about tech startups, and especially non-sales-driven tech startups) Clever landing page tests and interviews can tell you whether an idea is bad, but not whether it will work. There’s still a big leap from “problem exists” to a product that delights while fitting into someones life and being [...]
Continue Reading04 May
Every investor we worked with at Habit treated us unbelievably well. That being said, accepting (and striving for) the funding led us toward building a company we hated and were bad at. Turns out, we just wanted to make a living working on creative projects with our friends. The billion dollar dream was someone else’s[1]. [...]
Continue Reading11 Apr
You’re on a flight and the guy next to you spills his peanuts and then knocks over your wine with his head while he’s trying to retrieve the nuts from the floor. You sigh and begin fantasising about disrupting the abysmal air travel industry with a pleasant experience. And then you give up because you [...]
Continue Reading09 Apr
Before you start your first business, do a relevant project. Businesses have overhead[1]. Projects don’t. If you tell me you’ll pay $20k for a solid developer hire, and I think I might be able to dig up someone great, then I don’t need to go off and set up a headhunting company. I just need to [...]
Continue Reading05 Apr
What’s the problem with greeting cards? They take too dang long! And they’re a meaningless gesture anyway, so why not make them easy? That’s the approach all the e-cards have taken. These companies have looked at the lay of the land and declared: “The problem is convenience.” Moleskine looked at the same territory and instead [...]
Continue Reading28 Mar
Fashion designers source inspiration from outside fashion. Basing fashion on fashion leads to derivative, unoriginal, and unimportant work. Every other medium is fair game: architecture, art, nature, computers, music, colour, political or economic turmoil, boardgames or schoolyard play. They pin up all the source material and begin experimenting with how to translate it. They try borrowing the [...]
Continue Reading27 Mar
How many sales calls can you make a day? 10? 20? You prep for each one, take notes afterwards. That last one was stressful and the guy yelled at you, so maybe you get a cup of coffee. You’re barely break even, and you’re paying yourself peanuts. Sales guys have way higher salaries than you do. [...]
Continue Reading27 Feb
Folks who know nothing about your business will evaluate it based on the default metrics: traffic & revenue. They will advise you to increase these 2 numbers. Accepting the default metrics is bad. The top cause of startup death is trying to grow before the foundation is solid. The default metrics are dangerous because they compel [...]
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15 May
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