The Benefits of Trouble

February 6, 2013

Most startups invariably hit troubled times. The lucky/good ones can turn that trouble into a benefit. Over time, most startups accrue some waste: equity distributions in their ownership structure (e.g. non-contributing founders, investors, or strategic partners) employees that aren’t working out and need to be let go When things are humming along, or even stagnate, there […]

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Lean, Effective Sales Building for Startups

February 5, 2013

Yesterday, I talked about a counter-intuitive outcome we experienced in hiring a heavy-hitter salesperson as our first sales hire. It did not work out. After that experience, we regrouped with another plan more suitable to our startup’s needs. Here are some of the elements: Hire a Sales Assistant as the first sales hire (as recommended […]

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Counter-intuitive Outcome of our First Sales Hire

February 4, 2013

Suppose you have a startup with a launched product and some cash in the bank. You can hire 1 or more salespeople and start to build more revenue. Who should you hire? A rock star salesperson, right? Someone with incredible connections in your industry, right? Someone comfortable with startup craziness, preferably having done previous startups, […]

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TAG Business Launch Competition

February 3, 2013

The application deadline for the 2013 TAG Business Launch Competition is coming up on Feb 15. This is a great experience for any Georgia startups, especially those with a little bit of traction. AccelerEyes won the Business Launch Competition in 2009. Here are the ways it helped us: Benefits of Winning $100,000 cash prize. It […]

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How We Built our Website

February 2, 2013

In 2008, we were ready to launch our first beta product and desperately needed a website, including customer registration, license maintenance, and ecommerce. We started exploring our options: Web Development Firms:  We were strapped for cash and the $10k minimum quotes from web development firms were unthinkable. Off-shore:  We considered sending the work off-shore, but […]

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Lifelong Learning as a Substitute for School

February 1, 2013

Continuing the thoughts about how schooling interplays with starting companies, I share a story of an awesome entrepreneur, Josh James. This is a story of successfully substituting lifelong learning for school. It’s not something everyone can do, but it’s interesting to see. Josh James, a college dropout, sold his company Omniture to Adobe for $1.8B. […]

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When to Drop Out of School?

January 31, 2013

Everyone drops out of school at some point. Some drop out with more sunk costs than others, and we tend to glorify those (e.g. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg). But all of us have to answer the question: “When should I stop attending school?” Do you go to college? Do you do a master’s degree? Do […]

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Marketing Artists vs Marketing Scientists [Domino Idea]

January 30, 2013

This is a “domino idea.” Sam Woods coined the term, Pardot made the infographic, and I’m just reblogging to spread the love. Before you read further, check out this infographic that Pardot has freely shared for embedding: At AccelerEyes, we’ve struggled with balancing the artist (or hunch-based) side of our business with the scientist (or […]

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Nightly Releases for Installed Software

January 29, 2013

Yesterday, I wrote about establishing a software release cadence for startups. Today I want to discuss some ways in which installed software can emulate some of the good characteristics of SaaS software (including hosted or cloud software). A big advantage of SaaS software is the ability to push updates to the customer on a rolling basis. […]

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Software Release Cadence for Startups

January 28, 2013

What is the right release cadence for startups? Answer:  Release early, release often Lack of product releases and updates means death to a startup.  The fastest iterations should occur during the beta phase of the software product.  This is the time when the code base is the leanest, the features are the fewest, the enterprise […]

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