Save the big announcements for big deals — If you want to give your new business a decent shot at success, you need to build traction — clear, measurable evidence that people are interested in what your company is offering. And that won’t happen on Day One. So why do startups make big, splashy announcements the day they…

The more revenue you have coming in, the better the chances you can raise (and not waste) investor funds — At startups, the difference between survival and running out of runway always comes down to taking our eyes off revenue. We don’t want to do this, and we certainly don’t do it on purpose. But when we’re in the middle of the startup run, it’s pretty easy to fall into…

That “Hockey Stick” Revenue Chart Might Be Setting You Up For Failure — I know. I sound like a total wet blanket, but I often see lofty goals cause all kinds of trouble for startups. To prove my point, let me open this post with a little visual exercise that you easily can do in your head. Think about your last paycheck —…

Somehow this turned into capitalism versus socialism — The Silicon Valley Bank collapse was likely the last nail in the coffin for one of my investor friends. He’s had it with startups — even down on the concept of business in general. I think he’s going socialist. Maybe. The problem is… some of what he says makes a…

How to avoid the death spiral before it sneaks up on you — If you get a chance to talk to a startup founder who has failed (raises hand), and ask them when they saw that failure coming, they’ll probably tell you a similar story: The writing was on the wall long before the money ran out. So why didn’t they catch it? …

Take these extra steps to promote adoption, engagement, and success — If you’re releasing a new product to a market, and you want it to be successful with it, one rule of product theory is more critical than the rest: The more innovative the product, the more onboarding is necessary. Onboarding is, to put it simply, the introduction of a product…

Stop stressing about your imperfections and work around them instead — You’d be shocked at how much money is made by people telling other people how much they suck. Not only is it easy work, it’s also a career path with built-in longevity, because when your methods don’t produce results, all you have to do is move the bar higher. So…

When you hear that you should “fire your worst customers,” this is how you do it — Here goes one more nail in the coffin. I’m gonna be honest with you. I’m a born pleaser. I try to make everyone around me happy. This is not a genetic trait, and it’s not a natural part of my personality. My motivation for pleasing people comes down to this…

You’ll Never Get What You Want Until You Know What You Want — To be successful at anything, you have to define success first. I used to think I always did that until I was recently reminded that I didn’t. A few weeks back, a colleague and I were talking about working on a project together — something between a fun little time-waster…