Remember this guy? The guy on the right… 👉

This is Russ Hanneman from the HBO’s acclaimed Silicon Valley show.

According to the story, he made nearly a billion dollars “putting Radio on the internet”. The guy became so rich that he doesn’t have to work another day in his life, spending most of his days driving around in orange McLaren and being an asshole to people. (isn’t that the exit strategy we all hope for? 😏)

It’s a parody on Mark Cuban who became filthy rich by putting the broadcast video service on the web back in 1998 and selling it to Yahoo for $5.7 …

It’s December 1922, and Vladimir Lenin just raised the communist flag over Moscow, proclaiming the formation of Soviet Union. Over the next 70 years, it would unite nearly 300 million people across 11 different time-zones, forming one of the strongest factions in the world’s political history, and promising stability and prosperity to all.

Now, before you leave, let me assure you that this piece is indeed about corporate innovation. In the next paragraph, I’ll explain why all this is relevant.

One of the first changes made by the Soviet leadership was to implement Five-year plans. Under this new economic regime, state planning committee would cascade production priorities down to state leaders, who in turn would supervise its implementation on the region-by-region basis. …

There has been a lot of hype surrounding venture capital in the last decade. Inspired by the successes of the unicorns around the globe, entrepreneurs follow in the footsteps of companies like WeWork and Uber, that raised billions of dollars in venture funding to forever redefine the industries they operate in.

And you know what — I would have been a liar if I said that venture capital doesn’t create the kind of impact that transforms niche players into multi-billion dollar unicorns.

But venture capital is not a silver bullet. And while some companies can benefit greatly from having that kind of access to capital, its use-cases are limited. …

So, you want to start a new business in 2019? Congrats, you’re about to join 25 million other businesses that compete in the US alone.

Oh, and did I mention that 95% of small businesses fail within their first 5 years in existence?

With this gloomy statistics in mind, you should have a pretty darn good reason to challenge the odds and embark on the entrepreneurial journey.

So you’re developing a software that helps enterprise companies save on costs, make more money, or improve efficiencies.

Perhaps it’s a new kind of recruiting app, a marketplace for specialty real estate, or an IoT solution that optimizes conveyer efficiency in the factory.

Each year, the number of niche software solutions mode for a particular industry gets larger and larger. Started by former industry veterans, these companies solve large-scale problems in industries like construction, garbage collection, and wealth management. 💰

So how do you pick the industry of focus for your product? Below I’m going to outline my 3-step framework for choosing a target industry for an Enterprise SaaS solution. …

Are you an entrepreneur building consumer or enterprise solutions? Then you definitely considered creating a mobile version of your product. And I don’t blame you.

Today, 95% of Americans own a cell phone of some sort. With smartphone penetration rising exponentially since 2012, more and more of your customers go “mobile” every year.

Today, 95% of Americans own a cell phone of some sort.

With that statistic in mind, it’s dangerous for a business these days not to have a mobile presence. …

So you want to build a SaaS product for your Enterprise customer. That is great news. 👍

Building complete enterprise products from scratch, however, is hard: they are bulky, demanding from both security and functionality standpoint, and require a deep understanding of industry workflows.

Thus you need a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), to validate the value proposition of your product with a minimal development effort.

Below, I’m going to show you how you can apply Lean methodologies to build an initial version of your Enterprise SaaS product. 👇

Step 1: Identify The Problem

In order to sketch out your MVP, you’ll need to narrow down your focus to one important problem purveying the industry. …

So you decided to go ahead and commit to an entrepreneurial venture. 👏 Brave move! You can tap yourself on the shoulder and prepare for a storm, because one of the hardest things to do in entrepreneurship, is to validate, launch and scale a business all by yourself.

Running a company is stressful enough, but running a company by yourself will certainly put you on the path of emotional distress and eventual burnout.

No, you need a trusted partner, during both peacetime and at war. Below I’ve put together a list of potential avenues for finding your startup soulmate. Let’s dig right in. …