When we think about technologies that change the world and help the humanity, we think about things like curing cancer, solving the climate crisis, or sending people to other planets. Those are great, but what’s massively underrated is Technology That Just Works – as anyone who has been frustrated with tech failure would know. Just … Continue reading Technology That Just Works
There’s a reason why only 1% of the population is rich. The formula to rich is, and has always been, there in plain sight: That’s what Warren Buffett did; That’s what Masayoshi Son did; That’s what Nvidia is currently doing on a corporate level. The list goes on and on. But only 10% of people … Continue reading Cashflow + Investing
Yes, early stage startups must go super narrow and deep, and solve one problem only. Absolutely true. But sometimes I see founders misunderstanding this as skimping on critical features, without which the product cannot deliver its proper value. Consider Uber v1. It was a narrow service – all it did was hailing limousines in SF. … Continue reading Don’t Skimp
I started using Pilot.com recently and was blown away by their product (simple yet super intuitive) and their service (from onboarding to the customer success journey). Turns out, Pilot is built on top of Quickbook Online. They didn’t reinvent the SMB accounting software. They provide a nice “wrapper app” experience to the existing software. There … Continue reading SaaS on Existing Platforms
“Look, if you had one shot or one opportunityTo seize everything you ever wanted in one momentWould you capture it or just let it slip?” (Lose yourself, Eminem) All startups have one shot, one opportunity. If you don’t come out with a bang when you officially launch, you’re dead on arrival. That’s why your first … Continue reading You Have One Shot
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