Hugh Stephens

  • HOME
  • ABOUT ME
  • BLOG
  • CONTACT
Startups

Supporting startup founders you meet: buy their shit

November 23, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
Supporting startup founders you meet: buy their shit

When I was in Boston, I got a really good piece of advice, almost by accident. We were at a dinner held by JP Morgan to watch the recording of an episode of a webseries they do with sports stars talking about money. It was actually slightly more interesting than you might think, but nothing… Continue reading →

Startups

Customers hate change

October 22, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
Customers hate change

In the early days of a product, you spend you life trying to keep everything alive. You continuously fight fires, whether technical or business related. Eventually, you get to the point that things are stable, and your plates are all spinning – customers are continuing to register and stay around, you service is keeping an… Continue reading →

Me Thoughts

37 Observations / Lessons from the US and Forbes 30 Under 30 Conference

October 11, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
37 Observations / Lessons from the US and Forbes 30 Under 30 Conference

This last week I’ve been in Boston for the Forbes 30 Under 30 conference. I went to the regional Asia version a few months back, and had a great time so figured I’d head to the ‘global’ edition, which attracts some 3-4,000 people. Below are some of my observations, both from the conference itself and… Continue reading →

Startups

Staying close to customers: why most founders are the first employees in product and support

October 9, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
Staying close to customers: why most founders are the first employees in product and support

When you’re building technology, you need to stay close to your customers. You need to understand how those customers experience the problems you’re trying to solve, and how they use your product to solve that problem. You need to be there to hear about what they don’t like about it, so you can fix it…. Continue reading →

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 →

Startups Technology

Never outsource core competencies

August 28, 2017 0 Comment Hugh Stephens read
Never outsource core competencies

One of the sayings I feel I have to tell young founders over and over again is that you should never outsource core competencies. I’m a bit of a weird case. I am a solo founder, but I’m also not fully “tech” nor am I fully “not”. It’s tempting for a person who becomes passionate… Continue reading →

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Follow me

Follow me on Twitter @hughstephens.

You can also receive my new blog posts via email.

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

Archives

  • April 2020
  • July 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • April 2017
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013

Categories

  • Enterprise
  • Government
  • Innovation
  • Inspiration
  • Me
  • Social media
  • Startups
  • Technology
  • Thoughts
  • Uncategorized

© Hugh Stephens, 2015.