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JUMPSTART
JUMPSTART
I recommend that as you ground yourself in
general frameworks like lean startup and
customer development, you start to practice.
You will learn better when you have to act
and live with results rather than just read
about ideas and think about results.
The
$1000
Challenge
WEALTH OF OPTIONS,
POVERTY OF ACTION
S
tartups often start with limited
resources, but they never face
a shortage of theory on how to
operate. Tools abound. Talks, seminars,
videos and classes are plentiful.
Advice is thrown around. Want to
learn about building mobile apps, or
crowdfunding, or e-commerce, or
design, or marketing to millennials?
There are thousands of places to go.
Unfortunately, for a resource-
GOODBYE THEORY, HELLO PRACTICE
strapped startup, attempting to try
out every new tool can lead you
down a death spiral of scattered
directions.
Don’t combine this wealth of
options with a poverty of action.
Experts
I recommend that as you ground
yourself in general frameworks
like lean startup and customer
development, you start to practice.
You will learn better when you have
to act and live with results rather
than just read about ideas and
think about results. Here are some
examples of times startups I advised
took action and how it impacted
them.
One founder I know had a
personal love of supporting young
authors and built a site for them to
list their work. He kept thinking of
ways to improve the site but with
limited time from his developers
he delayed iterations until he was
more confident that they were the
right move. Instead, he started
to interview authors as a way to
gain subscribers. This took no tech
resources and moved him forward
to the point that he had the start
of an affiliate business -- a different
outcome than he expected.
Another founder I worked with
discovered that while his education
product worked and made sense for
his target market, he couldn’t close
deals. That is, his target customers
were a closed group and not that
open to people from outside. If
he hadn’t first figured this out by
trying to close deals, then he might
have wasted time trying to scale
up before getting an insider to help
him sell.
In another startup I advise, the
founders love collecting sneakers. As
a side project they hacked together
a quick and high-priced sneaker
collecting app. While the market
for this is limited, they also only
gave themselves one week to put it
all together. Dependent on moving
forward was that the app had to
make money almost immediately
with minimal marketing effort. They
had fun building it regardless of
outcome. But they did pretty well
with sales from that side project.
THINKING SMALL
Building a company that requires
millions in investment before any
returns, or even a product, of
course remains a way hu