Be worried about the right things at the right time. I took this photo on an ancient four-prop 30 seat passenger plane in Tonga. It looked a bit like an old DC3 (it wasn’t) with the old-fashioned metal riveted skin and the only other time I’d flown in something like that was in Kenya. Obviously… Read more »
I was reminded of an important analogy in a first mentoring session with prototype-stage startup. They’re building a two-sided marketplace in a smartphone app. They couldn’t wait to show me the app and were surprised and initially a little miffed that I wasn’t interested in seeing a demo. From my background notes I could guess… Read more »
In this world of Instagram and Snapchat, Siri, Alexa and OK Google, writing in general is hard but finding time, inspiration and motivation to write blog posts is harder still. This is what works for me. Don’t undervalue what you already know Whatever you do know how to do, somewhere online there is someone who… Read more »
One of the most common questions an investor will ask a founder is, “do you see yourselves as a vitamin pill or a headache pill?”. “Uhhh… we think we’re a software startup?” Is not the correct answer. Worse, sometimes they will criticise you by saying, “You think you’re a headache pill but actually, I think… Read more »
The truth is, $500 is not going to get you very far on most marketing platforms. Unless you’re incredibly lucky you’re not going to guess correctly the first time you experiment with the variables of [creative]+[placement]+[time]+[advertising channel] and it isn’t enough marketing budget to run even one A/B test and get some conclusive results. But,… Read more »
Being a great startup founder is not just about running focused stand-ups and killing pitch comps. And it’s not just about recruiting a rock-star team and letting them do their voodoo. Neither is it about closing a funding round and then ignoring your investors until it’s time to raise again. An underperforming team member can… Read more »
What’s a SAFE, what’s a convertible note, and are they really better for founders than raising investment in a priced equity round? The short answer is that you can raise investment with a SAFE note or convertible note in Australia, but you might not necessarily find it easier to raise the money if you do.… Read more »
If you’re not on a mission to solve a specific problem, how do you choose the best customer problem for your startup to work on solving? Solve customer problems that arise often, every day We have to help our customers develop new habits — to use our product/service to solve that problem, rather than their… Read more »
If you’re certain you understand the business, and you are confident your investment in it will succeed, what you’re doing is not venture capital, it’s banking. Venture capital must have a high degree of risk in order to have a chance of earning the high returns venture capital investors expect from this asset class. Venture… Read more »
Let’s consider whether adding another connection to another stranger is actually going to help you achieve anything, or whether the value of your time is actually all going to Microsoft (which owns LinkedIn). How many contacts can you really stay up-to-date with? LinkedIn says I’m connected to 7,881 people. If they all just post an… Read more »
It’s very common for the startup founders I meet to want to offer the earliest versions of their product or service to early customers for free, or at a significant discount. I encourage them (and you) to not do that. Discounts work best when the customer already has an expectation of what the price should… Read more »
Australia’s universities are in desperate trouble, and their first move has been to cut the entrepreneurship and innovation arms they should be defending at all costs. Sometimes, there’s no satisfaction in being right with predictions; like the time back in early March, when I predicted that the tech startup accelerator programs and incubators being offered by… Read more »
Yes, be honest! Be honest about what you think you’ve learned so far, and what you hope to learn about during the accelerator. No accelerator wants startup founders who pretend they don’t need any help, that believe they are a sure bet for success. Accelerators exist to coach you, and if you don’t need any… Read more »
The three things I have to say that are most likely to offend startup founders are: I’m not interested in investing in your startup because I don’t think it’s going to be successful; I’d rather not accept your LinkedIn request; and I’m not going to sign your Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) You shouldn’t take it personally… Read more »
In a briefing to portfolio companies, A-List venture capital investor Sequioa Capital calls COVID-19 a black swan event — something rare, of significant global impact, and difficult to predict except in retrospect. Uncertain times always come with new opportunities for those in a position to identify and exploit them, but most black swan events are bad news for… Read more »
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