“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” – Steve Jobs,...
Volunteering: It Doesn’t Pay (In the Currenc...
posted by stevenmilstein
In general terms, volunteering is the practice of people working on behalf of others or a particular cause without payment for their time and services. Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be considered self-serving. - Volunteering – Wikipedia Seemed Like a Good Deal OK, I admit it! I didn’t volunteer for altruistic reasons. I volunteered because I’m a Starving Startup...
Aren’t We All ...
posted by stevenmilstein
Maybe you should stop introducing yourself as a Startup and simply say what you’re business is successful at delivering. - John Kobel Background In my last post - Start Hanging Out With People Who May Have Your Solutions, I reiterated the value of Steve Blank’s “Get Out Of...
Start Hanging Out Wi...
posted by stevenmilstein
Stop staying around people who have your problems and start staying around ones who have your solutions. - Jeffrey G. Allen, Instant Interviews Background About a month ago, I was at local Startup Drink night and met Mohd Shahnawaz. Crying in my beer about my inability to get traction for my...
Pivoting for Profit
posted by stevenmilstein
Just build a _____ profitable business! – David Heinemeier Hansson, This Week in Startups #46 (1:10:45) Reflection In the spirit of Agile, here’s my retrospective on when we realized the primary objective is to build a business & not to get funded. Inflating Our Own Bubble Back in June 2009, I read about the TechCrunch50 2009 contest & while we barely had any running code, submitted an entry. My collaborators thought it was a bit of a stretch, but we all agreed it’s nice to set goals. So while trying to get a grip on what was required of us, I immersed myself in TechCrunch stuff. From what I understood, there was a...
Staying The Course W...
posted by stevenmilstein
Bezos at shareholders mtg: “To do disruptive innovation, you have to be willing to be misunderstood for a very long time.” @bingfish bing gordon Background Not too long ago I posted about the To Pivot, or, Not To Pivot dilemma. In the end, I rationalized plotting a course...
Meet Greg Meyer: A M...
posted by stevenmilstein
I learned this when reading Guy Kawasaki’s Reality Check: Leo Rosten, the Yiddish maven and author of The Joys of Yiddish, defines mensch this way: Someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being “a real mensch” is nothing less than character,...