I recently answered a LinkedIn question about sales forecasting for a mobile startup. The question: “Mobile Start-ups are not as easy to forecast, at least in my opinion, as some other types of businesses. Obviously VCs and investors understand your projections are essentially fabricated and pure guesses, but how would you go about forecasting salesContinue reading “Sales Forecasting For a Mobile Startup”
Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship: Full-time or Part-time?
Someone asked the following question on LinkedIn: “Is it possible to successfully start-up a company while working on a full-time job?” Here’s what I said – what do you think? “Although we have this mythology built up about “all in” startups that raise venture capital and work 20+ hour days, most “successful” startups (that is,Continue reading “Entrepreneurship: Full-time or Part-time?”
Financing Your Big Idea
Someone asked a question on LinkedIn about the best way to finance a new venture. What do you think of my response? “By far the best way to finance a new venture is by customers paying in advance for your products that may or may not truly exist yet. Each dollar you bring in withContinue reading “Financing Your Big Idea”
Recommended Entrepreneurship Books
I made the following entrepreneurship book recommendations on Quora, so thought I’d share them here as well: I use the following two books as course texts in my entrepreneurship course: Effectual Entrepreneurship – Real data and evidence-based research on successful entrepreneurs The Startup Owner’s Manual – Steve Blank’s step-by-step guide to launching a venture (annoyinglyContinue reading “Recommended Entrepreneurship Books”
Entrepreneurship Advice: Growing a Consumer Web Business
A friend of mine who recently took the entrepreneurial plunge and launched a consumer web business recently asked me for some advice. Aiming to serve more people than just him with what is hopefully useful advice, I am posting my response here. This was my friend’s request: “I believe the greatest challenge my company willContinue reading “Entrepreneurship Advice: Growing a Consumer Web Business”
Keys for US Job Creation
Last week I was honored to be asked to advise the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness about what we are doing here in Houston that has led to so much job creation while the rest of the country has been so economically stagnant. The meeting was held at Rice and was an informal roundtableContinue reading “Keys for US Job Creation”
Selling Your Entrepreneurial Venture
In response to the news of Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer, I was asked for my opinion on whether this kind of “selling out” is good thing. The asker of the question cited concerns that the “big, grey corporation” might stifle the product, slow innovation, or in other ways ruin a good thing. Following is myContinue reading “Selling Your Entrepreneurial Venture”
A Life of Significance
In my last post I mused about my pattern of chronic overcommitment and speculated that a contributing factor might have been my father’s early death contributing to a sense of urgency to get something done before it’s too late. This is probably a bit simplistic as it neglects the motivation to do something significant in the firstContinue reading “A Life of Significance”
US Cleantech Energy Policy => #fail
A recent post by Battery Ventures VP Mike Dauber on the Obama administration’s challenge to cleantech entrepreneurs generated some discussion among my friends and colleagues. One point of focus was whether or not this really is our “Sputnik moment” and, if so, whether the race to the Moon was really worthwhile anyway. Responding to thisContinue reading “US Cleantech Energy Policy => #fail”
Starting a Company Is Hard
Today isn’t quite the one-year anniversary of me beginning my full-time focus on Smart Office Energy Solutions but it is about the one-year anniversary of my departure from Poken, and that gives me pause to think about what has–and hasn’t–been accomplished since then. When I look back at it, the clear conclusion is that startingContinue reading “Starting a Company Is Hard”