Hugh Stephens

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Enterprise Startups

Trying to appear bigger than you are

September 25, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
Trying to appear bigger than you are

A challenge in the early days of every business, particularly those selling to other businesses larger than they are, is that nobody likes to be someone’s biggest customer, or take a risky bet. When I started in the consulting field, we were insanely high risk for a client to choose over an incumbent (big agency,… Continue reading →

Startups Technology

Customers don’t give a shit about how your technology works

September 23, 2017 1 Comment Hugh Stephens read
Customers don’t give a shit about how your technology works

Every now and then I see this weird confusion about why people buy stuff. People buy stuff to solve problems. They buy stuff for a “job to be done”. Startups are no different – people choose to buy (or not buy) their products based on whether they (a) experience the problem the startup aims to solve,… Continue reading →

Startups

Distractions

September 20, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
Distractions

In the early days, startups are all about focus. You need to focus on who your customers are, their problems, your technology problems, your marketing problems, and your hiring problems. Your job as a startup, and particularly a founder, is to build shit people want. It will be very hard, because if it was easy,… Continue reading →

Startups

You probably aren’t charging enough.

September 7, 2017 1 Comment Hugh Stephens read
You probably aren’t charging enough.

One of the most important lessons I ever learned was that people almost always underprice their products and services. I learned the lesson first in services running a consulting company, which was an extremely painful mistake to make. We initially appallingly undercharged, and while it had the effect of letting us pick up some early… Continue reading →

Me Startups

You can’t build a business out of icing

September 4, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
You can’t build a business out of icing

As I’ve mentioned in the past, being a founder is a shitty, often thankless job. There is a lot of rhetoric in the press about how great and fun it is to be a founder – captain of your own ship1Self-employment is not nearly as fun as others would make it seem, having been on… Continue reading →

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Recent Posts

  • Startups should get some perspective, and how governments should support business in the age of COVID-19
  • ‘How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bootstrapping’ – IndieConf talk 28 June 2019
  • How I make (double opt-in) intros, and how to accept one
  • Inspirors, mentors, commiserators and idiots: finding the right mix of supporters
  • Startups, lifestyle businesses, bootrapping, indie businesses and small businesses: What are they and how you fund them

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