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canvas Business Anatomy – Canvas Part 1 January 7, 2012 by startupengineering . Business Model Generation by Osterwalder and Pigneur, with its nine-bucket “business model canvas,” sits on the work tables at virtually every startup working at Flashpoint, and at desks and worktables and night tables around the globe, wherever people are dreaming up or implementing startups. The
canvas Startup Discontinuity – Canvas Part 2 January 7, 2012 by startupengineering. The business model canvas has become ubiquitous in startup environments, but has yet to develop much traction as an analytical tool in larger organizations.[1] That’s ironic, because using the canvas at a large organization is much more straightforward. To use it productively in
canvas Asking the Right Questions – Canvas Part 3 January 11, 2012 by startupengineering . As discussed in previous posts, the business model canvas works differently for existing businesses than it does for startups. For an existing business, the contents of each box need to be a clear description of how business is actually conducted. It doesn’t follow, though,
canvas It’s just made of canvas February 1, 2012 by startupengineering . The last few posts point to ways of thinking about and using the business model canvas. Follow those instructions, and what are you still missing? Here are five answsers: You don’t get the transition. If you’ve built a working caterpillar (that is, designed
theoriesandtesting How to Tell When You’re Lying April 7, 2013 by startupengineering . I’ve avoided reading anything by Robert Caro for years now. He’s the guy who wrote a Pulitzer Prize -winning book about Robert Moses (published in 1974) and since then, has been writing a multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. Thirty years writing about Johnson?
theoriesandtesting Retention and Testing – misleading signposts and deadly slow speed limits April 9, 2013 by startupengineering . Here’s a comment to an entrepreneur. He was getting signups but not good retention, and was worried that the process of testing new features to fix the problem would take forever. Thought we’d share it: Well, retention is the right question – a lot
theoriesandtesting Motorcycle Theory April 30, 2013 by startupengineering . [image movie replica] When I had a motorcycle, I also had, inevitably, a theory about motorcycle safety. The theory went like this: Motorcycle’s are about as safe as cars. On the plus side, you sit higher than in a car seat, so you can
startuplifecycle The Pothole October 5, 2012 by startupengineering . Geoffrey Moore work on the “chasm” was one of the first, and still most insightful peeks into the mechanics of startups. Moore’s key point was that startups face a lull in activity when they’ve saturated the early adopter market, but can’t get
startuplifecycle Being an Angel for Fun and Profit: Three Ways to put “Profit” back in the Equation October 22, 2012 by startupengineering . Who wouldn’t want to be an angel? Apart from the ridiculously loaded word, investing in startups offers a direct line to many of the comforts of the human soul. If you’re an angel, you get to share your hard earned wisdom, give back
startuplifecycle What to Kill October 24, 2012 by startupengineering. One way to think of companies is that they fall into three phases depending on what it is they need to kill. To be successful, a large company needs to kill what the customers don’t want. Clayton Christensen mentions this in The Innovator’s
startuplifecycle The Five Clocks Startups Live By October 26, 2012 by startupengineering . In physics, time moves in one direction. The times of our lives are marked by cycles, but also beginnings and endings. Lots of people believe that god exists outside of time. But for startups, there are five different clocks: Leaking time. Many professional investors look
problemfirst Value Propositions aren’t Feature Sets October 5, 2012 by startupengineering. [NB: Merrick and Matt have collaborated on all the posts in this blog up till now. We don't agree on everything, though, and this piece is a case in point. From now on, any piece where there's significant breathing room between our opinions will be
problemfirst One Stupid Trick to Make your Startup Successful October 15, 2012 by startupengineering . Throw out your science fiction and start reading mysteries. A good science fiction novel is the very model of the failed startup, but a good mystery shows how startups succeed. Why? Science fiction moves from vision (space colonies, genetically engineered children…) to a world incorporating
problemfirst The Problem Problem June 13, 2013 by startupengineering . [Image] There are a lot of people saying that the best way to create a Startup is “problem first.” Some examples: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2009/08/your-solution-is-not-my-problem.html http://jmarbach.com/solve-problems-dont-build-ideas http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2013/04/08/how-to-kill-your-startup-idea/ http:
problemfirst How can you get to a better place when you don’t know where you’re coming from? More on the problem problem June 14, 2013 by startupengineering . [Image] Since the bankruptcy last month, it’s easy to second-guess Shai Agassi about Better Place– the Webvan-sized fiasco of the electric car world. A total of $850 million was invested in the company since it was founded in 2007, most of which is now
metrics Screwy Metrics January 16, 2013 by startupengineering . Less like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdpf-MQM9vY. And more like this: In retrospect, creating a company looks like instantiating an idea. So it’s easy and seductive to imagine that a “metrics based” approach to startups involves breaking the business down into
marketanalysis Can Customer Discovery be a Dead End? November 17, 2011 by startupengineering . It seems to us that startups face four categories or risk: customer/product match business model, protagonist/team, money, and implementation/technology. These things interact. So for example, getting traction on the customer/product match can enable you to bring in money that can enable
marketanalysis Glossary for Startup Engineers December 4, 2011 by startupengineering . “Wipe your glosses with what you know.” James Joyce, Finnegan’s Wake “To be a good diagnostician, a physician needs to acquire a large set of labels for diseases, each of which binds an idea of the illness and its symptoms, possible antecedents and causes,
immunitytochange Yes, We Have No Blue Cars October 6, 2011 by startupengineering . After the last post you may be wondering if there’s any way for startups, which have very little ability to influence customers, to overcome immunity to change? Well, there’s got to be. Startups do start up. People do change, both personally and in
immunitytochange What Nail? June 3, 2013 by startupengineering . Watch this first: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg] This hilarious video is a bit of a Rorschach. Lots of people see it as a gender comment – men are practical, women are all about feelings – that sort of thing. Another view concerns our
Why is Your Customer Carrying An Umbrella? November 23, 2011 by startupengineering . Yesterday was the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, and Errol Morris marked the occasion by releasing a six-minute documentary about the umbrella man. The umbrella man was a guy who was standing along the route that John F. Kennedy’s motorcade took in Dallas, holding
cognitiveillusions Lemon Tree Very Pretty December 24, 2011 by startupengineering . One of the catchphrases from the last post, “make sure the lemons ripen early” is usually meant to warn investors against putting more money into failing companies. Entrepreneurs do better too, when they keep it in mind. Both entrepreneurs and their investors are usually optimists.
cognitiveillusions Stuck in the Building October 16, 2012 by startupengineering . This is a long piece, examining biases and heuristics that undermine customer discovery. More like an essay than a blog post, but, I hope, useful for people who are trying to get the most out of talking with potential customers. “There are no facts inside
