Selling Snake Oil and Genome Sequencing

January 20, 2014

Two months ago, I wrote about 23andme in the context of the FDA shutting down their service. If you visit their site today, you’ll find their notice:  “At this time we do not offer health-related genetic reports.” In my post, I had assumed that 23andme was offering an innovative service. Since then, I have learned that […]

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Working with Software Suppliers

January 19, 2014

Most startups do not have software suppliers contributing to their product, other than freely available open source software. In our business, due to the best technical computing software existing as closed source, we have made a fair number of attempts at striking supplier relationships with other software companies. Of the half dozen we have explored, […]

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The Pig Test

January 18, 2014

In long meetings, it is sometimes fun to break out an ice breaker to help the team laugh and cut through the edginess of the day’s meetings. One ice breaker I’ve used a couple of times recently is the Pig Test. The test involves having everyone draw a pig for 2-minutes on a blank sheet […]

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Super Successful Companies in Technical Computing Tools

January 17, 2014

A few days ago, Sam Altman put up another powerful post on super successful companies. I have talked about his ideas on this blog several times in the past, and he is one of my favorite startup bloggers. In this post, I take his points and talk about how they apply to technical computing: They […]

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Monetizing Open Source Products

January 16, 2014

Most open source projects never make money and die. However, some become very successful monetarily. Here are ways businesses monetize open source products: Government grants Sponsorship from benefactors Support contracts License sales for variants of the open source work, or particular customer types or usage classes Services sold, using the open source product as a lead […]

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Working with VARs

January 15, 2014

As a cash-strapped startup, it sometimes makes sense to leverage value-added resellers to move product. In our first year of product sales, we spent a lot of time building relationships with value-added resellers in our market. Here are some thoughts about working with VARs: Discount to the VARs for installed software is between 10% and […]

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Despite Being A Cash-Strapped Startup, Never Skimp On This

January 13, 2014

I’ve written before about how to handle startup advice. One of the more common pieces of advice is anecdotal evidence from someone’s previous startup in one of two forms: The Causal Statement:  Despite all our cash challenges, we never skimped on <fill-in-the-blank>. The Regretful Statement:  If only we hadn’t skimped on <fill-in-the-blank>, things would have […]

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Dreamy Startup Ideas

January 10, 2014

I have an investment banker friend who is toying with exiting his well-paying job to enter the startup world. Occasionally, he runs startup ideas by me. Here is a conversation we had yesterday that illustrates the difficulty talented people in well-paying jobs face when considering an exit into the startup world. Let me start by […]

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Stock Market Detachment for Bootstrapped Startups

January 9, 2014

Recently I have noticed an uptick in predictions pointing towards another potential decline in the stock market. Having started our business in 2007, we have already seen what it is like to be a startup in a stock market decline. Here are some thoughts: Seeking financing when the market is down is horrendous. I’m glad we […]

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The Georgia Tech Startup Competition

January 8, 2014

This semester I have the opportunity to work with the guys at Venture Lab to mentor the Georgia Tech Startup Competition. I’m super excited about the competition. This is not a business plan competition. Back in 2008 and 2009, my startup won several business plan competitions (KSU Georgia Bowl, Georgia Tech BPC, GRA/TAG Business Launch). […]

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