Who "Gets" Marketing?
A CEO of a high-tech start-up recently lamented to me: I was told I needed marketing, so I hired a PR firm and after 6 months and a lot of money, I got nothing. Paraphrasing, a local venture capitalist...
View ArticleMarket Segments
As with most marketing terms, the phrase “market segment” is often tossed about carelessly by entrepreneurs, technologists, and yes, even by some marketers. To my mind, however, segments are a...
View ArticleLean Start-up: Part 1
I have a great opportunity to test out some theories and to follow the principles advocated by the likes of Eric Ries, Andrew Chen, Sean O’Malley, Dave McClure and Sean Ellis. I thought I’d keep a...
View ArticleMumford's Law and Vision vs. Customer
Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) was an American Architecture and Literary critic, as well as Sociologist and Philosopher. I often attribute a particular quote to Mumford, though I can’t seem to locate the...
View ArticleCustomer Development Gut Checks
Through the evolution of their start-ups, entrepreneurs will face many inflection points, at which decisions made or not made will determine their future. The painful truth is that a wrong turn may...
View ArticleMarket Segmentation Exercise
Here's an example of a market segmentation exercise in "opportunity matrix" form. Even if you do this on the "back of a napkin," using educated guesses and no weighting it will help you think through...
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