MVT before MVP: Founders should do Minimum Viable Testing before building any Minimum Viable Product, whenever possible. Someone said his biggest regret was to build an app right out of the gate, while he could have tested some of the key product concepts easily using existing software tools. Alex Kwon is the master of MVT. … Continue reading MVT before MVP
Companies often ask their employees to refer best talents they know, but they don’t provide them with the right “ammo”, i.e. nice handy information packet they can use to explain what the company does and why anyone needs to bother working there. Think of your employees as marketers and empower them with nice sales collaterals. … Continue reading For Better Recruiting
Things I hear from founders who recently got (or about to get) acqu-hired, on a fairly consistent basis: Continue reading Acqu-hired Founders Say…
In my previous startup journey, one thing I feel like was a good decision was to make a conscious effort to hang out more with other startup entrepreneurs, especially as a family. We were living in the Silicon Valley, and most of our family friends worked at big tech companies — the Googles and the … Continue reading Keeping Up With the Kim’s
Overheard: I guess the lesson is, when you have a highly engaged audience and a strong brand, you can find various ways to monetize, including surprising, non-conventional profit generators. Continue reading Audience and Branding
Solopreneurs. Honestly I wasn’t a big fan of them. Why? To me it seemed like solopreneurs mainly had inward focus, i.e. their own income stream and financial freedom. FIRE – financial independence, retire early. Shouldn’t entrepreneurship be all about making the world a better place and solving humanity’s problems? Solopreneurs didn’t seem to care about … Continue reading On Solopreneurship
Hungry judge effect (from Wikipedia): “Judges were more inclined to be lenient after a meal but more severe before the break.” I guess being hangry is a real thing. Humans are spiritual, but we’re also mammals. Founders and leaders – don’t let the hungry judge effect get to you in a bad way. Before important … Continue reading Hungry Judge Effect
Do VCs need to explain why they passed on a deal? No, they don’t – and I’m saying this as a founder. VC is a “default no” game. They’re not in charity. They pass on most deals by default and only invest in small # of companies they can be excited for the next 10 … Continue reading The “Default No” VC Game
Between idea and incorporation, founders should spend as much time as possible on talking to potential users to understand their real needs and doing experiments (without building any product) to test the initial assumptions. They shouldn’t spend too much time on things like interviewing 3 CPAs to find the best CPA in town or looking … Continue reading Do The Work
If there’s one thing I’m recommending ~all founders I meet, it’s running. (I actually converted a few founders around me into lifelong endurance runners which I’m super proud of.) Running is good for everybody but IMO it’s particularly great for startup founders. Why? Because their head is always full of thoughts. There are always a … Continue reading Running