I was with a friend who was going through some pretty significant challenges with his company the other day. I asked him, naturally, how he's dealing with it all. How does he manage to keep his head above water and find the will to fight, day after day? He gave an interesting response: "I always … Continue reading “Pain Is the Best Teacher” →

Ask any early stage investor and they'd say that the three most important factors they look at when deciding on whether a startup is worth their time are team, product, and market. Usually, in that order too. It makes sense if you really think about why that's the case. Most investors look at the team … Continue reading Team vs. Product vs. Market →

One of the most common questions I get is: which startup idea should I work on now? Interestingly enough, it's one of those questions where having experience seem to not be relevant to the eventual answer; I've heard the question from everyone, from dorm room first-time college student founders to experienced startup operators who have … Continue reading Market vs. Execution Risk in Startups →

“We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.” — Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop Over the last few years, as the lean startup methodology gained traction amongst the Silicon Valley and startup types, an interesting idea that runs contrary to how things have been done in the past took root — because the lean startup methodology … Continue reading In Defense Of Secrecy →

TL;DR:  Spend enough time in Silicon Valley and you will hear the phrase (or some variation thereof) "ideas are cheap, execution is the only thing that matters" hundreds, if not thousands, of times. It's one of those phrases easy enough to throw around while still sounding somewhat sophisticated and intelligent. Most of the time, the person … Continue reading On Ideas And Execution: Ignore Silicon Valley’s Advice →