Celebration time: on 14th November DC hit 3,000 views. It’s worth noting (as always) that in internet terms, this is the tiniest number. It’s also worth noting that it’s signficant to me, and I’m happy about it – and thank…
Author: Stuart Patience
Y Combinator’s Sam Altman has put together a “playbook” of the advice and insight commonly shared with founders of the startups they fund. You can view it in HTML and epub here and listen to it online here (but not,…
It’s well accepted that great organisations focus on delighting their customers. But we talk less about managing the sometimes conflicting needs of multiple customers (see yesterday’s post). A good way to manage this tension is to draw up a customer…
It’s good to keep your products – and I include services as part of product – as focused as possible on the needs of your customers. One catch is that you are almost certainly serving multiple costumers: The people you…
It’s possible that in the early stages of your project or organisation you have no clear idea about how to make progress towards your vision. This is fine. In these cases you can choose to: delay officially launching and sharing…
Once you’ve got a clear vision (the “why” of what you do) and a clear mission (how you think you’re going to do it), we’re almost ready to move on to the “what” – the things your team is going…
Of course, efficiency is a virtue. Waste is… wasteful, makes everyone worse at their jobs, and reduces the number of possibilities open to you and your team. Knowing where it goes Good financial management is essential for this, of course:…
Given the formula [available cash / (income – expenditure), there are two obvious ways to extend your organisation’s life: you can increase income (revenue) or reduce expenditure. Revenue First You need to think about revenue first because without income it…
Startups with huge burn rates – building leases, staff, PR and advertising – ran out of money. Most startups born in the bubble died in the bubble. Steve Blank – Is the Lean Startup Dead? If you can get your…
Your organisation’s burn rate is the amount of money you “burn” each month to do what you do. It’s a simple sum, but few organisations seem to keep a close eye on it. Expenses How much are you spending each…