Earlier this week we upgraded changed our Sign-in or Create Account interface at Proper Cloth.
This is what it used to look like:
This functionally worked fine, but a couple things always bothered me about it.
During usability testing, we often saw users that were creating accounts first put their email address in the field on [...]
Categories: Startups
Next time you’re feeling stuck, without being prompted, pretend you have a boss that wants an update on how you’re doing. Put together a powerpoint outlining your current state of affairs, goals, concerns, recent things you learned, etc… Try to get your thoughts as organized as possible.
Then read the deck as if it was someone [...]
Categories: Startups
I’ve been thinking about customer acquisition cost a lot lately. From an economics standpoint, most startups seeking explosive growth (including Proper Cloth) are seeking one thing: customer acquisition cost < customer value.
(Theoretically) when this is realized, the startup can quickly scale by “buying” more customers, making a profit on each one.
Proving that you’ve achieved this [...]
An entrepreneur describes his idea and then asks “Do you think people would pay for it?”. It’s practically implied in the question that “people” is a single homogeneous entity. The answer they are looking for is “yes – people would pay for that”, or “no – people won’t pay for that”. The entrepreneur might ask [...]
Categories: Startups
Tagged: Startup
Everyone pays attention to the direction things are going, but as an entrepreneur you need to pay very close attention to how fast they are moving.
Your startup has a shorter runway than any company you’ve ever worked for.
Maybe you are getting new leads – but how many per week? Maybe your revenue is growing – [...]
Categories: Startups
Sometimes I lose focus and start to feel like I’m not getting anything done. This frustration usually leads to the following dialogue:
What do I want?
The next business goal or objective.
How do I think I can get there?
Take a step back and look at the original business plan.
Why am I not already there?
What is preventing [...]
Categories: Startups
Tagged: focus, leadership, productivity, Startup
It’s a really, really tough question that I can’t hope to answer in a short essay. Nonetheless, something I get asked about and think about a lot – so here goes.
Research
You need to know who the competitors are, what their products look like, who the customers are, what their buying processes are, what the [...]
Categories: Startups
Tagged: business, entrepreneurship, Startup
I’m not negative about entrepreneurship. I am not naive to the downside of working for a large company. I am definitely not naive to the potential upside of starting your own business. I mostly hang out with entrepreneurs. I closely follow the blogs of several entrepreneurs/investors. I’ve read pretty much every well-known book about entrepreneurship [...]
Categories: Startups
1.) Find your passion. Or at least an industry you’re genuinely interested in. If you’re not sure, you need to put in time and try out new things. Research an industry in detail, interview people in the space, maybe even work for your future competitor. Make sure you enjoy being around the types of people [...]
Categories: Startups
Tagged: entrepreneurship