Customer Zero

You know how pandemics spread? They all start with the infamous “Patient Zero” — the unfortunate person who contracted a disease first and then happen to infect the rest of the world. Patient Zero is often someone who travels and is connected to other people who themselves are connected and travel…

The Price of Joining an Incubator

It’s funny to see how hot & hip incubators are these days. Everybody and their dog either wants to join or run one.

It’s kinda sad to realize that most startups don’t seem to do the math.

Don’t Die in Beauty

Ship.

Don’t wait.

Don’t be the one who wants to get it just right. The roads are littered with the corpses of perfectionists.

Don’t die in beauty.

Don’t follow the trend

Following a trend is most often a losing proposition (especially when we are talking about trends from the viewpoint of an investor). The moment you identify something as a “trend” it’s most likely too late for you to jump on and benefit from it. What happens is that you end up delivering…

Quick and Dirty User Feedback

Here’s a quick way to get user feedback (and getting user feedback early and often is top of mind for you, right?). We use this at Mozilla all the time.

Take your prototype (or whatever you want to test), walk into the next Starbucks and pick a random…

First Mover Advantage

The fabled “First Mover Advantage”. The thing we all clamor for, the stuff legends are made of and your worst nightmare if you’re late to the party.

Bullshit.

Seldom does it really matter. History is full of companies which were not the…