Every startup begins with aspirations of being “the next” Google or Facebook or Amazon. This unbridled optimism is what drives an entrepreneur. Each new technology market has new success stories, and drives future entrepreneurs to chase after their dreams. However, the reality is that not every startup can “win” their market. With each new technology market, billions of potential entrepreneurs [...]
For the entrepreneur, life in an early stage startup is fairly straightforward: you build a product and acquire your first customers. Plenty of books and other materials have been written to guide help a company through the initial stages of sales and product development, including the Lean Startup movement. After the product has been built and the startup has initial [...]
Strategy can be a confusing topic. Countless books and articles are still being written explaining what strategy is and how to do it. New strategy models are constantly being developed and sold like snake oil as the cure for all corporate ills. Early in my career, I watched an executive off-site derailed over the confusion between a strategy and a [...]
There has always been a lot of confusion around “what is business development?”. I recall a Venture Hack event in the past where a speaker remarked, “there is no such thing as business development”. While the speaker was making the statement for shock value, it does illustrate the confusion around business development. Historically, with startups, confusion reigned because no one [...]
