How to Choose a Customer Segment to Serve
“The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It’s to look for problems…” – Paul Graham, Y-Combinator This quote from Paul Graham illustrates the importance of looking for problems rather than looking for “startup ideas.” An idea may or …
7 Surprising Benefits of Writing Down 10 Ideas Everyday Like James Altucher
It sounded a little hokey to me at first. Writing down 10 ideas every morning. I mean, what’s so valuable about ideas. It was something James Altucher had recommended doing as part of his daily practice. I’ve benefited from reading about his other experiences so …
14 Ways to Generate Blog Topic Ideas That Get Results
Do a quick search online for any topic under the sun and you’re likely to find at least a dozen blog posts on it. Whether well-written or poorly flung together with keyword stuffing and a clickbait headline, it’ll be up there. The internet has become …
How to Get 100 Customer Development Interviews the Easy Way
In the latest episode of the Building in Public Podcast, I interview Desi Saran of Lean Startup Machine and QuickMVP. We talk about Lean Startup methodology, how to build a minimum viable product and why it’s so important, asking the right customer development questions, and …
Lean Startup Case Study: Idea to Product Market Fit in a Weekend
On the latest episode of The Building in Public Podcast I have Ajay Perumal. I met Ajay a couple of weeks ago at a Lean Startup Machine weekend seminar. And Ajay and his team made some incredible progress on validating their startup idea over the …
The One Customer Development Question You Need to Stop Asking Immediately
“They said they would use it, but then when I built it and showed it to them, they didn’t” an entrepreneur told me. “I’m starting to lose faith in customer development because I don’t know if what people are telling me is true.” It is …
The Truth About Work Life Balance for Entrepreneurs
The past six months have probably been the most productive six months of my life but I had to make a lot of sacrifices. My work life balance suffered. It’s made me think a lot about work life balance, and it will be of increased …
The Ultimate List of Customer Development Questions
I’ve had a few requests for this post. I’ve compiled all of my favorite customer development questions into one place! I’m sure I’ve missed some great questions. Please let me know your favorites in the comments sections and I’ll continually update this post. Included are questions …
On the Viability of the Startup Studio Model
What is a startup studio? The studio approach to company building, otherwise known as parallel entrepreneurship, portfolio entrepreneurship, or a lab, is becoming more and more prevalent. The most recently announced big one is Expa, started by Uber and Stumbleupon Founder, and funded by some …
The Art and Science of The Minimum Viable Product
Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a component of Lean Startup methodology. It can be incredibly valuable to entrepreneurs. Below I provide my definition of what an MVP actually is, why its so valuable, examples of MVPs used by successful companies, and how to …
