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
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
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
I found myself writing to a great young founder the other day with a perspective. They’d had some tough times recently, having to reduce the size of the team and getting feelings that traction and product/market fit were more difficult than initially anticipated. This is a bit of a copy/pasta and paraphrase of the advice… Continue reading
Twice now over the last couple of weeks I’ve found myself talking about the concept of synchronicity and modern communications (social/digital etc), and what that means when choosing what should go where. Ultimately every network is either asynchronous or synchronous. Some may have elements of both, but almost all fall one way or the other. Synchronous networks are when ‘stuff’… Continue reading
There’s been a bit of discussion lately about influencer marketing – which is essentially the equivalent of celebrity endorsements, except the people involved usually aren’t popular enough to be considered celebrities. The core premise is this: Brand wants to sell stuff Some people have big follower or subscriber numbers Brand contacts person, asks the person… Continue reading