I talked to software founders last week in Ireland, Salt Lake City, El Paso, Dallas, Phoenix, and other places. I didn't recommend the same thing to any of them about funding …
"It's all about the X." I told that to a technical founder yesterday and it finally got through to him. We were talking about their prospect pipeline, expenses, milestones, funding, and marketing …
If you didn't hear this story for yourself, you might not think that a tiny software company could bootstrap and grow profitably for 8 years, then finally raise outside capital …
I was on an accelerator panel this week to give feedback to the founder of a marketplace startup. Her company has already generated over $500K in net revenue with no outside …
There has been a serious pullback in the valuations of private and public software companies this year. But I'm not seeing a serious pullback in demand for software tech from business …
"The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed." -- fiction author William Gibson. You've created a new thing that actually works. But that's not enough. A few customers use …
Building a software product is very hard. But getting customers, revenue and steady growth is now the HARDER PART of the startup-to-scale game. Great products are necessary but not sufficient. It doesn’t matter …
I have seen a lot of technical founders become capable CEOs and great leaders. But I have never seen a savvy business/sales founder develop into a great coder and engineer. This is …
When I’m talking with startup founders, I often use a specific term that requires some explanation. It's LEVERAGE. As in "Where's your leverage in that area?" This isn't financial leverage that multiplies your …
Entrepreneurs are optimistic. They find hard problems and think "I could fix that." Normal people don't do this. Most people run into problems or frustrations and just think "that sucks." A big …
Measuring avg. Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) with clarity and confidence is really hard when you are starting your SaaS business. Here are the most common CAC mistakes that SaaS startup founders …
For startups trying to find traction and happy customers, it just doesn't pay to try to sell to everyone in your market. Or the average customer. For startups selling new things, …
One of the most useful tools I use in entrepreneurship and marketing is The 10% Rule. I use it every day. It works like magic well when looking at any market …
What's the least believable part of this startup financial projection chart? Hint: It's not the hockey-stick revenue growth. 100% YOY revenue growth is not common, but it happens. The crazy part of this …
The savviest entrepreneurs and the most experienced marketers know something that isn't obvious. You wouldn't know it if you haven't done it for years. It just looks easy and effortless when you …
I talked with a technical founder today who never got revenue traction in his startup, but he was able to sell his technology to a bigger software business that wanted …
The most successful founders I know are extremely savvy about execution. Superpowers. But they also were thoughtful and clear about the strategic decisions they needed to make to execute so well. Most …
Here's my definition of strategy: Strategy is just the decisions you make that make execution work better. If execution doesn't improve eventually, it was the wrong strategy. I believe these things about strategy …
I caught up with a founder friend yesterday to hear about his new Web3 startup that uses blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFT technologies. We last spoke when we both lived in Phoenix …
A founder I advise just sent their annual 2021 investor report today. They grew from $1.8M ARR to almost $5M ARR this year. This means the value of the company more than …
Here's my favorite thing about the crazy game of growing startups into bigger global companies: Fast-growing companies are opportunity factories. Fast growth creates massive career acceleration for those who join early, grow …
"How big is your potential market?" is an interesting question. But it's not very helpful to software startup founders. Here's what's actually useful: "What's the fastest way to get 100 or 1000 extremely …
Last week in Phoenix I spent an hour with my good friend Hamid Shojaee to talk shop on his AZ Tech Podcast. Here's what we talked about: What's happening in …
I have talked to dozens of founders and CEOs this month about their plans for 2021. The most powerful words a founder can say about their plans next year: Doubling down. "We …
"Why do we need to worry about our category as a startup right now?" That's a common question. The category game is not for every business. Small businesses play in existing categories. …
A real conversation with a talented and dedicated founder: "The seed investors I'm talking to don't think our TAM (total available market) is big enough since we focus on healthcare." Really? How …
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