The beachhead pitfall

Every time I see a startup pitch for funding, the founders include an assessment of the size of the market, they are going after. The more detailed ones also give an assessment of the size of that market, they believe they can make their own and why. It is all well and good. Sometimes I… Continue reading The beachhead pitfall

Have you got a sales quota?

The thing that truly separates a corporate job from a job at the startup is the chance to have an outsized impact on solving a problem for customers. More often than not the distance between problem, potential solution and the ability to get that solution in front of customers to test out is way short… Continue reading Have you got a sales quota?

What excites you?

What intrigues you the most? Going after the same things everybody else is going after? Or going counter and look in places that most other people have abandoned? I am all for the latter. While I recognize that there are indeed major trends out there and obvious opportunities, I personally find those that run counter… Continue reading What excites you?

Join the club

If you're looking for a great business model, look no further than to the subscription model. The idea of having a customer pay for your product or service on a recurring basis over and over again for all eternity is mouthwatering. Of course customers seldom stick around for that long, but I am sure you… Continue reading Join the club

Affecting change hurts

Working at startup takes it toll. Ambitions are running high, ressources are always stretched, a lot of processes are not in place, and getting the right talent to join the mission is super hard. There is absolutely every reason for why days and weeks can feel like an almost eternal struggle. But that's just the… Continue reading Affecting change hurts

Amplification beats disruption

Disrupting markets have for years been a formula for success for startups. Be nimbler, nicer looking and cheaper than the incumbents in your market, grow at a blistering pace whatever the costs associated with it and you will be on to doing great things taking your idea from it's inception into potentially a unicorn scale-up.… Continue reading Amplification beats disruption

Kill your darlings

Imagine if you were as good at killing product features, as you are at coming up with new ones? It's an interesting concept, don't you think? I have often found that one of the major stumbling blocks towards innovation and increased success is parts of what you already have. The more legacy, you build up,… Continue reading Kill your darlings

Avoid hellish bureaucracy

No matter what framework you uphold to justify your decisions, stakeholders will typically acknowledge the logic of it, but in practice ignore it.The Great Silence, Brad Dunn on Product Coalition It is so easy to be lean and mean when you're small and go heavy and lazy when you get bigger. In one of lifes… Continue reading Avoid hellish bureaucracy