Introduction During the research period for my dissertation based on startup failures, I realized there are multiple layers of failure factors associated with any given company (or, in reverse, success factors). These are: generic business problems (e.g., cash-flow) individual-level problems (e.g., personal chemistry) company type problems (e.g., lack of funding for startups) business model problems […]
Tag: startups
Belief systems and human action
What people believe, sometimes because real because of that. 1. Introduction. People are driven by beliefs and assumptions. We all make assumptions and use simplified thinking to cope with complexities of daily life. These include stereotypes, heuristical decision-making, and many forms of cognitive biases we’re all subject to. Because information individuals have is inherently limited […]
Why do I love startups?
I’ve dedicated plenty of time for studying and coaching startups. But why do I care? Not only care, but be passionate about them, enough to say I love startups. I got to think about that, and here are the results of that quick reflection. 1. Startups are about technology Novelty, innovation, progress… call it what […]
Startup dilemmas: Feature priority problem
Introduction It is a common issue for startups applying customer development to discover many customer problems and either relating to that or to their vision include many, many features in their product development roadmap. However, as we know, it is not about the number of features but their quality, i.e. usefulness in solving the customer […]
People vs. business models: Warren Buffet’s dilemma
In Quora, somebody asked why Warren Buffet prefers not to invest in startups [1]. One of the answers that resonated with me was this one: “In an interview several years back, Warren Buffet said that he does not like to invest in companies whose success is based on the smartness of its people. His reasoning […]
Why human services are needed for world peace
The bot can be boss, as long as we have jobs. Why are human services the future of our economy? (And, therefore, an absolute requirement for world peace [1].) For three reasons: They do not pollute or waste material resources (or tend to do so with significantly less degree than material consumption) Exponential growth of population […]
Problem/Solution Space: A Startup Perspective
I was inspired to write this post by the following pictures that I’d included in my lecture material a few years. Writing it in a bit of a hurry since the class starts soon! (but it’ll good enough to make the point) (You can find the original source for the pictures by googling.) Okay, a couple […]
Modern Market Research Methods: A Startup Perspective
EDIT: Updated by adding competitive analysis, very important to benchmark competitors. EDIT2: Updated by adding experimentation (14th April, 2016) Introduction Somebody on Quora was asking about ‘tools’ for validating viability and demand for a startup’s products. I replied it’s not a question of tools, but plain old market research (which seems to be all too […]
The Psychological Cost of Answering an Email
You’re not getting as many replies to your messages as you’d like. Why is that? Well, there may be many reasons, but I’m discussing one of them here. It’s the psychological cost of processing an email and acting upon it. My hypothesis is simple: The higher the psychological cost of answering an email, the lower […]
The Vishnu Effect of Startups (creators/destroyers of jobs)
Background In the Hindi scripture there is a famous passage in which the god Vishnu describes himself as death; to Westerners this is mostly known through Oppenheimer’s citation: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” But, there is another god in Hinduism, Brahma, that is the creator of the universe. How does this relate […]