“Animal migration is a phenomenon far grander and more patterned than animal movement. It represents collective travel with long-deferred rewards. It suggests pre-meditation and epic willfulness, codified as inherited instinct. They are prolonged movements that carry animals outside familiar habitats; they tend to be linear, not zigzaggy; they involve special behaviors of preparation (such as [...]
Tagged: entrepreneurship
The approach is tricky… money and friends and family combined gets sensitive. Maybe your brother asked to borrow money last month and was told no… Maybe you think your friend is loaded but he/she doesn’t feel that way.
So, initially, just keep everyone in the loop. Talk about how excited you are and how huge you [...]
Categories: Startups
When I was in Boston, this was always a popular question at the VC panels.
Innocent student trying to impress – “To start a successful startup, do I need to go to Silicon Valley, or should I stay in Boston?”
Defensive Boston VC – “You should definitely stay in Boston. Many great companies are started here. For [...]
Categories: Startups
Tagged: NYC, Silicon Valley
The show “How I met your mother” always bothered me.
This show tries to define our generation. College educated young adults. Non-descript white-collar careers. A good group of friends having fun and figuring out life through mildly entertaining situations. Meeting for happy hour (seemingly every day) to catch up.
There’s a sentiment among young adults today that [...]
Tagged: How I Met Your Mother, How to Make It In America, Startup
I am a bit concerned that today’s startup culture equates being a good entrepreneur with the ability to raise funding. Entrepreneurs that have raised large amounts of capital seem particularly idolized.
But raising money isn’t winning the game – it’s just – getting you in the stadium.
Business plan and pitch competitions feed into this. Don’t worry [...]
Categories: Startups
Tagged: Fundraising
I predict bad things for AOL. I realize Tim Armstrong is a really successful guy and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he has a way of talking for a long time without saying anything.
Example: Q: “What does creativity mean to you?” A: “Well, I think, um, I think [...]
Categories: Startups
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 [...]