Industry dinosaurs like me can still remember when there was no such thing as a startup pitch competition. But times have changed: the glaciers have retreated, bipedal mammals have become the dominant life form, and there are now more startup pitch competitions each year than coffee shops near Wynyard Station. Good for startups, right? Yes… Read more »
The goal of customer research at the earliest stages of a startup journey is to help us validate/ invalidate the assumptions we have made when believing we that we know what customers want. Chances are, in the first few years, your tech startup is more based on a hypothesis than the satisfied paying customers you’re… Read more »
Want to create a perception that you’re a leader in the customer community your startup serves, or in the professional startup field you work in? It’s not rocket surgery: become the person who creates a regular meetup and community about it. Say you’re a [professional] in [startup category], like [product manager] in [aged care SAAS].… Read more »
(Author’s note: This story begins with the death of a friend and mentor. It is also about something I only just figured out last week — unusual for a ‘wise old sage’ of the Aussie tech startup community. Please bear with me and I promise it’ll be worth your time.) Last week I was on… Read more »
As an early-stage tech startup founder you will often have to write your own startup’s marketing copy, and you may find it difficult if the brand’s tag line is the first line of marketing copy you’ve ever written. Because you spend so much time with your head focused on how to solve the customer problem using… Read more »
Should I offer cash or equity to a startup advisor? Cash whenever possible, and equity only if you truly must. As a general principle, offer cash/commission to people helping you close a one-off deal (like raising a round) and only offer advisory equity to people you’re confident are going to be ongoing advisors to the… Read more »
I hear this a lot from founders: “I don’t need to do more customer research because I’m focused on solving the problem I experienced myself. I AM the customer!” Except you’re not, not any more. You haven’t been the customer since the time you first started thinking about solving this problem for others as a… Read more »
There’s a time (usually in the future) and a place (bigger markets first) to register patents, but if you’re still getting used to fielding questions from VCs, this is probably not the time and place. So why does it still get asked? Not sure but I think it’s a legacy from days when VC would… Read more »
The main way tech startups grow is through creating technology that solves valuable problems for their customers but another way they grow is through cutting smart deals with other companies. The first few deals I negotiated were content licensing deals, first for Microsoft’s online efforts and then for Yahoo, back in the mid-to-late 1990s. Since… Read more »
Sometimes when you present the opportunity as “we just need you to build what we specify” you’re taking away the biggest motivation there is. If you’ve been working in startups for a while, you’ll be familiar with this kind of request: Seeking: Technical Cofounder I am looking for someone to join us as a technical… Read more »
At an accelerator demo day, nobody comes planning to invest in all the startups in the cohort. The goals are to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to consider whether to begin a dialogue with the best of the startups pitching. What if you don’t believe you’re the best in your cohort on the… Read more »
I like participating in outdoor endurance and adventure events for many reasons, not the least because they often involve solving problems and taking calculated risks based on partial information in a small team of high-achieving people who aren’t getting enough rest. It’s no coincidence that “…solving problems and taking calculated risks based on partial information… Read more »
Once you’ve raised capital, don’t manage the business as if you’ll never be able to raise again. You need momentum. I remember disagreeing with a startup founder when he said: “I wish I’d allowed for the possibility that we might not be able to raise another round and managed the business as if we’d have… Read more »
It’s probably not the One True Rule Of Success but it’s got to be in the Top 10: never agree to have a chat with someone you don’t know until they’ve told you what they hope to get out of it. Earlier in my career, it was me doing all the network heavy-lifting, asking other… Read more »
The earlier you are; The fewer your customers; The further you are from your revenue goal; and The bigger the customer; The more likely you are to screw yourself on the sales negotiation. Do you want one more thing to practice every day? No! But practice being aware that this is probably true any time… Read more »
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