Ideas are a Dime a Dozen
I know: ideas are a dime a dozen (or perhaps cheaper with inflation these days). Yet the process of creating, nurturing, and executing on ideas is one of the most critical tasks we do. Getting ideas from start to finish…
How to Build a Great Customer Success Team
When you are building a great business (particularly a Saas business), you need to devote extra time to taking care of your customers so that they not only are satisfied at the sale, but also on an ongoing basis. A customer may…
Why every app needs a “mark all as read” function
Every app and every web site has notifications. Whether they are push notifications, email notifications, phone call notifications, voice mail notifications, in-app notifications, or smoke signals, you are competing for a valuable and scarce commodity: the customer’s undivided attention. There…
How to Hire an Awesome Community Manager for your Startup
photo by Who will be successful as a community manager? I love coming across new community managers who say, “I guess I’ve been doing this my whole life.” It’s a light bulb that goes off in them and they’re excited…
5 Steps to Surviving and Thriving in Startup Life
On Climbing the Startup Mountain Life in a startup is a non-stop business. Whether you are aware of it or not, your work-life balance suffers, your relationships are strained, and your personal health and motivation may waver. Yet it’s…
Getting to the next big small thing
Startups are a constant tug between hyperbole and reality. One day you might be wearing many hats and completing a series of tasks that you didn’t know were on your plate that morning. Another day you might be thinking of…
Entrepreneurship Starts with Asking Someone to Buy
Remember to ask for the sale. You’ve probably heard these words of advice many times – whether in the context of a prospective deal, a request for a favor, or in an interview prep – and the first time you…
We do startups because we can’t not do startups.
This essay is written in collaboration with Startup Edition – find this week’s essays here. The startup life seems glamorous from afar, and sometimes from up close. There are rebels, pirates, and ninjas here. There are rags-to-riches stories and others who fall from…
Starting from the empty page.
A blank page is a prison and the ultimate freedom. When the paper is blank there are no constraints. Anything can happen and a masterpiece feels (tantalizingly) within reach. Yet making the first line is the most important line because…
