I’ve done too many Twitter threads by now to not write down some thoughts in a longer format. It is a tough market to operate right now for businesses. Note that I didn’t say ‘startups’ or ‘technology companies’, it is tough for businesses. Pretty much all of them. When everyone is pulling back on spend,… Continue reading
Thanks to Kate Kendall for inviting me to give a talk at the inaugural IndieConf – a conference for startups doing things ‘the indie way’ (self-interested plug: my post on startups vs SMEs vs indie businesses). It was a great conference with some interesting and vastly more qualified speakers than I. For the purpose of… Continue reading
Much of my time chatting to early stage founders is about how I can help them – often times, it’s not something I can provide direct advice about, but I might know someone who would be helpful. This is a post written for ease of future reference about how I think about intros, and how… Continue reading
I’ve been trying to think of a way to create a framework around a principle I’ve explained a few times now to founders. Not sure I’ve hit the nail yet (let me know views!) but hope to evolve the framework. One of the biggest challenges in the startup world is who you should listen to…. Continue reading
I find myself returning frequently to the concept of (tech) small businesses versus startups. A lot of that is because it seems like everyone in the ecosystem – founders, businesses, suppliers, partners, investors and larger stakeholders (government) – seems to forever be confused about the differences. At the same time, we’re seeing a huge rise… Continue reading
I figured I’d write down some of the books I frequently recommend to people in a blog post so I can update it over time and send people back to it. Put vaguely in order of usefulness/importance but don’t expect me to think that heavily. Links to Amazon Kindle (US) listings, but for Australians who like… Continue reading
One of the most often conflated things in the ‘startup ecosystem’ is the difference between a small business (I often say SME – small to medium enterprise (in the US they would say ‘SMB’)) and a startup. It’s hard to wrap your head around, and while there are some frequent offenders (coughgovernmentcough), I’ve also seen… Continue reading
Inspired by Nic Hodges, here are my predictions for 2018. I’ll try and remember to review them roughly the same time every year. 1) A big cryptocurrency bust It’s inevitable that we’re going to have a great big correction somewhere in the market. I’m not sure when it will happen exactly or what the trigger… Continue reading
People love to talk about bootsrapped startups. How they succeeded ‘despite the odds’ by bootstrapping, how they ‘rejected traditional forms of capital’, or simply that they didn’t need any money, so why take on investors? At least 50% of the time, it was totally the wrong decision for them and the business. To start, let’s… Continue reading
I was shocked to see in the 2017 Startup Muster report this chart about the support that people said they needed: So a lot of people (it was a multi-select question if I remember correctly) said that what they needed was media exposure or social media exposure. 99.999% of the time, that’s totally and utterly wrong…. Continue reading