Startups are made out of people. When the people wear down, progress halts. Recently, I’ve been stressed. I was just shy of the breaking point, in that my output was still good but the internal process was a mess. I was burning increasing amounts of energy just to meet the next short-term deadline. Toyota has [...]
04 Feb
The point of following your passion when you start a company isn’t because it magically makes the work easy. It’s still hard and you’ll still hit the dip. The real benefit is this: By following an internal compass (what you care about) rather than an external one (market trends & “opportunities”), you’ll repeatedly return to [...]
21 Jan
I’m confident and capable in customer meetings, but not conferences. In bars, but not clubs. In cafes, but not markets. Expertise, and thus confidence, develops in silos. The most shy person you’ve ever met can explode into life and become the king of the room when the topic of conversation shifts toward his area of [...]
10 Jan
Ask anyone how to start a local marketplace business and Zaarly will have successfully done the opposite. Bo did a great interview about how they approached it all. Although there’s plenty to learn from the interview, I want to focus on a comment from an agitated viewer. This comment represents a common mindset which, left unchecked, [...]
31 Dec
Happy new year! This is a new post format. Does this sort of once-a-week curation deliver any value, or is it just blog spam? Please let me know in the comments, on twitter (@robfitz), or via email (rob@thestartuptoolkit.com). Thanks! All the very best. The idea that we need to be sane and organised to do [...]
30 Dec
I’ve done nothing for the past 5 years but drive companies out of business. Through doing so, I’ve learned how to make failure sustainable. Career entrepreneurship isn’t viable if you’re forced to return to a full-time job after every slip-up. Upside versus downside A few years ago, I would have claimed that the definition of [...]
29 Dec
28 Dec
Paul Graham knows how to make new things: I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly. » 6 Principles for Making New Things by @paulg [...]
27 Dec
You want to start a company restoring ancient stained glass windows to their former glory. You live in a country rife with cathedrals and have spent a lifetime appreciating these translucent masterpieces, but you don’t have any deep technical knowledge of their restoration. How do you get started? Why is it that most people can [...]
26 Dec
Merry Christmas! Here’s some homework. It will take somewhere between five minutes and a week. I’m going to do it too, and my answers (and the consequences thereof) are down below. First, write down what this is all about. Second, Write down the top three things you need to learn to achieve that. I know you’re [...]
07 Feb