07.11.06
What kind of Angels are you pitching to?
Before you pitch, make sure you know your audience. Here’s a good description of the different kinds of Angel investors.
Hat Tip: Jeff Clavier
Permalink Comments off
Management Wisdom: Firing People
I’ve had to fire quite a few people over my past n companies. Some firings went really well. Others were a complete disaster, especially when I had to fire those that were consumed by the Dark Side. Wish I had read “When Firing Someone, Focus On Those Who Remain” back then. And if you’re planning on starting/running/building a company, I suggest you read these links too.
Permalink Comments off
06.19.06
Success checklist for software startups
Kleiner Perkins has a condensed list that describes what the ultimate software startup needs. I suggest you ask someone other than yourself (or anyone else in your company) measure your product against this list and rate how well you do against each point:
- Instant Value to customers - solve a problem or create value with the first use
- Viral adoption - Pull, not push. No direct sales force required
- Minimum IT footprint, preferably none. Hosted SaaS is best.
- Simple, intuitive user experience - no training required.
- Personalized user experience - customizable
- Easy configuration based on application or usage templates
- Context aware - adjust to location, groups, preferences, devices, etc.
Hat tip:
Permalink Comments off
03.24.06
Do you have a wealth-oriented mindset?
I don’t think it’s possible to achieve long-lasting wealth without the proper state of mind. Although I have not bought his book, T. Harv Eker’s “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth” does have this list that illustrates a wealthy mindset vs. a poverty mindset.
Take a long, hard, honest look at the list and decide where you belong. I think this helpful tool illuminates areas you might need to work on.
- Rich people believe “I create my life.” Poor people believe, “Life happens to me.”
- Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.
- Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
- Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
- Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
- Rich people admire other rich and successful people. Poor people resent rich and successful people.
- Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.
- Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.
- Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
- Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.
- Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.
- Rich people think “both.” Poor people think “either/or.”
- Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.
- Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.
- Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.
- Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
- Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.
Permalink Comments off
Building a Winning Business Plan
Mahalo Nui to Monte Littlefield of Pipeline Communications and Technology for putting together this presentation on Building a Winning Business Plan.
It’s short, simple, to the point, and most importantly, is the result of Monte’s own personal experience in raising Angel funding for his fledgling company. He worked his relationships with Hawaii’s VC community for over a year and has proven himself to be a coachable CEO that listens to the right people at the right time.
Monte, we’re all cheering for you man. Go baby!
Permalink Comments off
Tech Entrepreneuring - the ultimate reality program
Here’s a presentation I made thanks to www.htdc.org folks. Mahalo Nui to Sandy Park, Laurie Akau, and everyone else over there for their hard work in putting this together.
Good fun!
What I talk about in this 1.5 hr presentation is:
- How to ride a tech trend up, down, and out with class.
- What VC’s look for
- A slightly different model for starting up companies with far less capital yet with similar gains.
- a small dose of a spiritual perspective on success
Let me know what you think!
Permalink Comments off
03.09.06
simple, yet deep entrepreneurial tips
Marc Hedlund put up these tips to live by at ETech, Dane at Business Opportunities Weblog condensed them, and I remixed them here.
- Losing sucks
- Building to flip is building to flop
- Prudence becomes procrastination
- Momentum builds on itself
- Jump when you are more excited than afraid
- Pay attention to the idea that won’t leave you alone
- If you keep your secrets from the market, the market will keep its secrets from you
- Immediate yes is immediate no
- Build what you know
- Give people what they need, not what they say they need
- Your ideas will get better the more you know about business
- Three is fine; two, divine
- Work only with people you like and believe in
- Work with people who like and believe in you, just naturally
- Great things are made by people who share a passion, not by those who have been talked into one
- Cool ideas are useless without great needs
- Build the simplest thing possible
- Solve problems, not potential problems
- Test everything with real people
- Start with nothing, and have nothing for as long as possible -
- The best investor pitches are plainspoken
- No means maybe and yes means maybe
- For investors, the product is nothing —
- The best way to get investment is not to need it
Permalink Comments off
Handling Q&A
Read “Icing the Hot Seat” By Jerry Weissman, Power Presentations, Ltd. for some really good tips on how to handle Q&A:
- DON’T make a list of potential tough questions and prepare an answer for each.
- DON’T refer back to a slide if someone asks a question about a subject you’ve already covered.
- DON’T compliment your questioner by saying, “That was a good question,” or “I’m glad you asked that.”
- DON’T think you don’t have to answer irrelevant questions.
- DON’T use every question as an opportunity to deliver your message.
- DON’T shift to a different subject if you don’t know the answer to a question.
- DON’T feel you must answer all the questions if you are asked a multiple question.
- DON’T repeat the question so that everyone can hear it.
- DON’T say, “I’m not at liberty to answer,” or “If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” if a question addresses a confidential matter.
- DON’T answer the question you want to answer.
Permalink Comments off
03.07.06
How to sell $1.3M of software in 3 days and lose a ton of money
Good story here:
“How Axosoft Sold $1.3 Million Worth of Software in 3 Days”
Here’s how they did it:
1. Take a $495 package and instead sell it for $5.
2. Promise you will donate all of the $5 to the Red Cross.
3. Get Robert Scoble to promote your promotion.
The immediate result:
A. Sell 2,642 copies of the software.
B. Get your ass handed to you in terms of credit card payment fees that you have to eat.
C. Divert the entire company to fullfilling unprofitable orders.
D. Lose a lot of money.
The long term possible result:
I. Great PR.
II. Great referral.
III. Great word-of-mouth marketing potential.
IV. Good chance to get support revenue.
Summary:
A fantastic story of how to get a lot of buzz about your company. Even though they “lost money”, it would have cost them tons more to get similar coverage using traditional methods. For that, they should be commended.
Permalink Comments off
03.06.06
Many businesses fail because they have too much capital
I’ve got a personal affinity to bootstrapped startups. Bootstrapped to me means starting up with little or no capital. I like that model because it forces you to watch every single penny, every single hour, every customer, every sale, every problem, and every employee.
Think you can’t start your company without money? Well, that is probably technically true, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get started with doing *something*.
I was working with an entrepreneur who didn’t have enough capital to start up his company. His solution was to try to sell t-shirts with the company logo and use that to raise a few bucks until he can get going. Who knows whether he’ll succeed in that or not, but you gotta give him credit for being both resolute in his conviction and creative in his resourcefulness.
Ed Sim wrote this post “Having too much money can be a curse, not a blessing” that motivated me publish my $0.02.
Permalink Comments off