Violent Execution & Quartetly Focus – Daily Startup Tip
When running a startup it appears there are a million things to do, it is completely overwhelming. In reality there is really only 2-3 critical objectives which when violently executed on a quarterly...
View ArticleHow Much Runway Have You Got? Daily Startup Tip
The one thing every startup has to know and share with their investors and possibly their team is their Runway. Runway is the amount of time a company has before they run out of money. Obviously this...
View ArticleRaising Capital or Selling Your Business Might Take Longer Than You Think –...
Following on from yesterdays topic of knowing your startup’s Runway raises the topic of how long it takes to either raise capital or sell a business. I have mentored entrepreneurs for a few years now,...
View ArticleGet to the Point!!! – Daily Startup Tip
Too often I hear or receive pitches from entrepreneurs that waffle on endlessly without actually saying anything. If I don’t understand what you do after 30 seconds of burble I start to lose interest,...
View Article7 Tips for Hiring and Managing Freelancers
Rules are the Scar Tissue of Past Mistakes I was talking to a few new entrepreneurs about how to manage the process of employing freelancers to run their projects and startups and thought I would list...
View ArticleIt’s Not Your Fault It’s Mine – When Hires Go Wrong
I originally wrote this post over a year ago but got new material a few months back so its a mix of four experiences. There is a fantastic scene in the movie Casino where Robert De Niro is walking...
View ArticleDaily Habits, Measurements & Dashboards
Startups move fast, they often grow very fast, they can crash just as fast. More than one thing can kill you. You can grow too fast, working capital spikes, costs can spike, cash collections slow to a...
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11 Reasons Why You Should Implement Github In Your Startup From Day One
I have hired a lot of freelancers in the last 10 years and the one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the number of “Web Developers & Coders” who don’t use some form of software version...
View ArticleDeal or No Deal? – Delusion Isn’t Helping Your Startup
New Sales Teams I talk to a lot of startups, last week more than 25. Also I ran a sales team for 8 years and had about 20 channel partners for 4 years so over a 25 year sales career I have run or been...
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The Bowling Alley, The Lonely Guy and Picking Your Startups First Market
The Lonely Guy Every few weeks I seem to be having conversations with founders about the markets they are attacking and who their ideal customer is. Often I find they have selected the market based on...
View ArticleWhats your Problem?
I can’t tell you how many entrepreneurs I meet who tell me all about their new fan-dangled technology but can’t tell me who cares or what problem they are solving. Often they haven’t identified a...
View ArticleStrategy for Launching & Growing A New E-Commerce Site
Had a question a few weeks ago, how would I go about promoting and growing a new e-commerce site. I launched three e-commerce sites over 15 years, the first one was one of the early IT product sites...
View ArticleGiven The Stock Market Slump Smart Startups Are Considering Their Funding...
So there is a lot of bad news about global stock markets and lots of doomsayers about what it will do to startups and their funding plans. But there are some positive effects. I just received an email...
View ArticleWhen You First Start Out
When you first launch you maybe concerned about what people will think about your actions, your startup, your marketing, your ideas. You may be concerned that you seem too brash, too young, too new,...
View ArticleThe Tools & Stacks We Use To Run Startup88.com, Day Job & Side Projects
Thought it might be useful for you to know what tools we use to run Startup88.com and also a lot of projects we work both in the day job and my side projects. Startup88.com Startup88 is hosted by...
View ArticleEnterprise Sales For SAAS Startups
Had a discussion with an freshly hatched enterprise startup the other day, a self acknowledged newbie we got to discussing the process of selling into the enterprise. Another thing I am grateful to...
View ArticleHardcore Sales Prospecting
Had a mentoring discussion with some fellow mentors today and when asked how many sales calls a new startup selling into the enterprise should be making a day I suggested 20 minimum. The mentors all...
View ArticleStartup Security Lessons Pt 1 – Ashley Maddison
In the last few weeks there have been some spectacular hacking stories that have provided fantastic entertainment assuming you that you were not one of the victims. The hacking of Ashley Maddison...
View ArticleSecurity Suggestions For Startups Pt 2
Tonight I had to stop in to buy a bottle of wine from our local superstore and was made a very attractive offer on a product if I signed up to the retailers club. Normally I refuse all loyalty...
View ArticleIP Tips for Startups – Dr Justin Blows Interviews BT Imaging CEO Dr Ian Maxwell
This huge machine is Ian’s company BT Imaging’s QS-W2 , the photovoltaics industry’s premier silicon wafer robotic inspection system. Justin Blows, Principal of Phoenix Intellectual Property,...
View ArticleStartup Business Ideas – WordPress
WordPress is a web juggernaut. There are an estimated ~70 million blogs powered by WordPress and a good portion of those are businesses. While I love WordPress and have been using it for 9-10 years it...
View ArticleThe 389 to Bondi & Losing Great Talent – Startups & Team
Had lunch with an old friend Michael Derrick (see below) who has been wise counsel and mentor to me over the years. We usually talk business and got to discussing people and teams. I made the comment...
View ArticlePicking a Co-Founder Is Like Marriage Without The Sex
More than a few times over the last few months I have had discussions with entrepreneurs I mentor about problems with potential and existing co-founders. A few observations. It is widely held that...
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25 Tips For Creating An Email Marketing Machine For Your Startup
Regardless of what you think about email there is one thing certain, email is not dead. For years people have been saying email is dead as a means to reach your clients and prospects. 1000s of (self...
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50 Easy Hacks to Bootstrap Your Startup
This post was originally published by our partners at the Founder Institute who run the World’s Largest Entrepreneur Training & Startup Launch Program. Founder Institute has chapters all around the...
View ArticleComplex Startup Business Models , Charlie Munger & Occams Razor
After a few crazy conversations about convoluted business models in the last few months I felt compelled to write this post…. Ocaams Razor Occams Razor is a theory ascribed to a 1300th century...
View ArticleHow You Can Really Turn Failure Into Disruptive Success
After six months of hard work, we were sitting together on a warm spring afternoon enjoying a beer in one of Melbourne’s new hipster bars. We had learnt a lot, travelled all over Australia and met...
View ArticleThe 5 Tricks To Build A Startup In 6 Months Like A Pro
I wanted to reach out to everyone in this blog post and share with everyone some awesome tricks to build a startup lightning fast, validate your idea within six months and have a growth-ready startup...
View ArticleIs Your Startup Idea Worth Nothing?
The mantra of ideas being worthless can be heard from all corners of the globe. Venture capitalists back founders and not ideas. As mentioned in another blog, in 2009, the entrepreneur and author Seth...
View ArticleBest Low Risk Innovation Tools For Your Startup – Free Book
LEGO has earned the right to celebrate. Not only are kids playing with more mini LEGO people than there are human beings on the planet but in 2015, they were nominated by Forbes as the most powerful...
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