Archive for September, 2009
September 23rd, 2009
The MIT Club of Northern California (MITNC) has a great program scheduled for tomorrow night on Bootstrapping called “Startups On A Shoe String” with the following panel:
Location: Cooley Godward, 3175 Hanover Street Palo Alto, CA, 94306
Schedule: 6:30 Appetizers & drinks; 7pm Panel discussion, followed by Q&A
Cost: $20 until 9/23 $30 after. Open to the public
Registration here
Join us Friday morning Sep 25 9am at Red Rock Coffee and share some insights from the event.
September 14th, 2009
Another double breakfast week after a double breakfast Friday (it will be a while before we do that again). We have are regular “Third Tuesday” meeting at 7:30am at Cocos’ in Sunnyvale which looks to draw a larger crowd than usual, it’s a “normal breakfast” in our roundtable format. I will be facilitating, but if that’s too damn early you can stop by the SFBAY ACM meeting on Wednesday in Cupertino and listen to a talk on “The Limits of I’ll Know it When I See It.” The original blog post that started this is here.
Then on “Third Friday” we are back at Boudin Bakery in Embarcadero 4. But due to popular demand we have pushed the time back to 9am so same day but later time. Brendon Farrell will be facilitating the roundtable.
September 13th, 2009
The strength of a testimonial is highest with others who can directly identify with the firm or person offering it. A market niche is defined by a set of firms who will be guided by a purchase decision.
The challenge in “targeting everyone” is that different niches may find very different uses and need very different messaging. Look at the way aspirin is marketed for headaches, for arthritis, for children/infant pain, and to prevent heart attacks. It’s four different messages.
However, if you can resist the temptation to tell unanticipated customers “this is not meant for you” or customers finding novel uses “you are doing it wrong” you may very well discover another market.
Bootstrappers have to have a clear theory of value and target customer that informs their:
- product design and feature set,
- messaging,
- and sales strategy.
This way they can create explicit and testable hypotheses (and replace them when they fail). If you are going after everyone what do you change? How do you message? How do you decide to change sales strategy or re-design the product.
This was inspired by “Niche Marketing & Startups” by Steve Sammartino, an Australian blogger I always find thought provoking even when I reach different conclusions.
September 10th, 2009
In Milpitas at 7:30am at the Omega Restaurant, 90 S. Park Victoria Drive Milpitas CA 95035, Lenny Greenberg of Assityx will talk about “Taking the Long Term View in Your Business.”
In San Francisco at 9:00am at the Sandbox Suites Annex, 1385 Mission St Suite #300, San Francisco, CA 94103 we are exploring a 9am start time in San Francisco with the help of the folks at Sandbox suites, this event will be facilitated by Brendon Farrell.
It will make for a busy morning, we hope to see you at one of them.
September 7th, 2009
Mark your calendars on Friday Oct. 9, 2009, Lenny Greenberg, a serial entrepreneur and frequent Bootstrappers Breakfast attendee will lead our morning discussion about taking a long term view in business. All too often high-tech companies don’t take a long term view of their product. In the initial rush to get something to someone, companies may make tactical product choices that may hurt their long term viability. Lenny will provide a strategic framework for making decisions about product direction. Lenny is currently CEO at Assistyx.
Leonard (Lenny) Greenberg is Founder and CTO of Assistyx LLC, a software company specializing in products for non-verbal autistic children. Prior to that, he was co-founder and CTO of Pathlore Software Corporation. Lenny led technology direction and development at a variety of enterprise software start ups including HxManagement, Sigma Imaging Systems, Document Automation Corporation and Instinet. He started his career in the Cleveland, OH office of Accenture with a specialty in banking and law firm Automation.
Event: Friday Oct. 9, 2009 7:30 am, Milpitas, CA
Click to Register
