The above quote is one of my favorite, because it is so true. Ambition is one of the most powerful motivators. The determination to succeed and win can drive you to great heights. Some of the most successful people in the world did not crush it right out of the gate. Vincent Van Gogh only sold […]
I believe that in many situations, quantity is more beneficial than quality. About a year and a half ago, I wrote an article titled “Quality vs. Quantity – which should you focus on?“, where I questioned whether quantity or quality is more important in marketing and startups. This argument clearly struck a chord, as that […]
I recently listened to an episode of The Growth Show podcast and the guest was Noah Kagan, CEO of Sumo.com and AppSumo. The episode was primarily about how Noah was continually learning new skills and how he went about doing so. A lot of that learning advice was valuable, but the one thing that stuck […]
I interviewed David Cancel, Co-founder and CEO of Drift, for my podcast a while ago. Drift just raised $32 million from top-tier investors, and he has started 5 companies. The guy knows what he’s doing. One of the things he always talks about is “reps and sets.” Reps & Sets. The simple secret that most avoid. […]
I keep telling myself that. AirBNB is a massive success, and it feels like they got there overnight. But according to CEO Brian Chesky, their “overnight” success took a little longer than that. Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this all the time. The guy is absolutely everywhere today, but it has taken him over a decade […]
A couple of weeks ago, a story about a woman who took a couple of days off from work to focus on her mental health went viral. In summary, Madalyn Parker, an engineer who works for live chat company Olark, wrote an email to her team that said she was taking the next couple of […]
Some of the biggest breakthroughs have come from people doing things that they didn’t have to do. Though it’s largely gone now, Google didn’t have to implement their famous 20% time program, where their employees could spend 20% of their hours working on side projects that might help the company. And their engineers didn’t have […]
Back in the day, the only way to gain credibility in your career was to go to a top-tier college, work for some brand-name, behemoth organization, climb the corporate ladder, and obtain some powerful title like “VP of Corporate Development” or “Senior Managing General Partner.” Now, with LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Medium, and other blogging and […]
A couple of years ago, the folks at startup accelerator Y Combinator put on a series of lectures called “How to Start a Startup” at Stanford University. My favorite lecture was lecture 7, “How to Build Products Users Love“, which was presented by Kevin Hale, Founder of online form company Wufoo and now Partner at […]
This is the fifth post I’ve written about some of the mistakes I’ve made with past startups. You can find the other four here: Alignment with Idea – Lessons Learned from Past Startups Alignment with Co-Founders – Lessons Learned From Past Startups Pt. 2 Real Customer Development – Lessons Learned from Past Startups Pt. 3 […]