Startups & Entrepreneurship

The Three Jars: Visitors, Members, Customers

The Three Jars: Visitors, Members, Customers

2024-05-02Be effective in your marketing by grouping your users into Visitors, Members, and Customers. Read more

Naming things

Naming things

2022-12-31Some ideas and principles for name generation; how to create a name for new products and companies. Read more

Landing Page Product (LAPP)

Landing Page Product (LAPP)

2021-01-12Immediate value, no signup needed, no purchase needed. Also known as Immediate Value Product (IVP). Read more

The Napkin Business Canvas

The Napkin Business Canvas

2016-11-25I’m a big fan of both Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas and Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas, but sometimes both can be a bit unwieldy. At Weld we’re constantly refining our business model, and Read more

Why non-technical entrepreneurs should prototype more

Why non-technical entrepreneurs should prototype more

2016-02-07I meet a lot of non-technical entrepreneurs that have a great app idea, they’ve worked on the marketing but they have nothing in terms of product. Instead, they wait for a technical co-founder to m Read more

EU has 8% early-stage entrepreneurs, USA has 14%

EU has 8% early-stage entrepreneurs, USA has 14%

2015-11-26Europe needs to catch up Read more

Commitment

Commitment

2015-06-13Commitment Commitment Lately, I’ve been thinking about why projects in my past have succeeded or failed. Was it the idea? The team? The market? Access to funding? Yes… and no. For the projects that Read more

The outside-in approach to building products

The outside-in approach to building products

2015-03-11Start with the user experience and work your way in. So, you are a product owner or entrepreneur, and you have an idea for product or business. You have identified a target group, a central problem th Read more

Starting a startup: step-by-step

Starting a startup: step-by-step

2015-02-25Here’s my own checklist on how to start a company. This list is work-in-progress and I will add to it as I learn. Find an area where you can be passionate. What community (people, meetups) do you w Read more

6 reasons why you should be prototyping more

6 reasons why you should be prototyping more

2015-02-06Companies would save time and money by doing less coding and more prototyping. In the first phase of starting our company, Weld, we interviewed almost 100 companies — both product companies and digita Read more

SaaS Segments that Makes Sense

SaaS Segments that Makes Sense

2014-09-28Have you ever signed up for a web app, and in their communication you get the feeling that they’re treating every customer in the same way? I have. I keep getting email from web products that promot Read more

Defining Activation

Defining Activation

2014-09-27I’m a big fan of Dave McClure’s “Pirate Metrics” model, it’s both incredibly simple to understand and fundamentally relevant to almost any kind of business. Pirate Metrics Most properties in the mo Read more

Energy, mass, and direction

Energy, mass, and direction

2014-08-23I love being part of a tiny team at Weld. We can turn on a dime, no bureaucracy or rigid processes we must follow. Breaking (or at least, bending) the rules is almost expected of us. We’re like a tin Read more

Using Meetup.com as a recruitment tool

Using Meetup.com as a recruitment tool

2014-08-23Here’s my hack for using Meetup.com to recruit developers and designers. Join a local Meetup.com group with a matching skill profile, e.g. JavaScript developers if that’s what you’re looking for. G Read more

Build a great product and make our customers happy

Build a great product and make our customers happy

2014-04-29Never forget Read more

To me these funhouse stairs is the perfect

To me these funhouse stairs is the perfect

2014-03-28To me, these funhouse stairs is the perfect metaphor for building a startup. When you start, most things are out of reach: customers, talent, investors. So you work a bit more, building on your pr Read more

Tips on finding outsourced talent

Tips on finding outsourced talent

2014-03-04I’ve used outsourcing sites (oDesk, Elance*) and crowdsourcing sites (Designcrowd, Hatchwise) for both design and programming talent on a number of projects. Here’s my tips: Write a good specificati Read more

Expo organizational structure for small product

Expo organizational structure for small product

2013-11-26ExPO: an organizational structure for lean startups I recently worked with Ola at Goo Technologies on organizing the team. I could make parallel references to the Weld team and organization, althoug Read more

Even a snowball starts with a snowflake

Even a snowball starts with a snowflake

2013-11-24Even a snowball starts with a snowflake. Read more

You either build or you sell

You either build or you sell

2013-11-21I recently met an entrepreneur, and I asked “What do you do?”. He responded “Do? Well… I’m the CEO Read more

Are you focusing on what’s important?

Are you focusing on what’s important?

2013-07-07A reminder. Read more