In the entrepreneurial world, there’s often too much of a focus on intellectual property. In some areas, specifically life science, protecting your intellectual property (IP) is hugely important. However, in other areas (and sometimes even in life sciences), an inordinate amount of time and money are spent by companies on their IP. Just as an insurance salesman …
Articles: Read more about the Yeti story in Inc magazine’s “How 2 Brothers Turned a $300 Cooler Into a $450 Million Cult Brand” Videos: “Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing” by Adora Cheung, Founder of Homejoy.
Often, the impulse is to just get started. You don’t know what you don’t know. A business plan is only as good as the paper it’s written on, and everyone, according to Mike Tyson, has a plan until they are hit in the face. However, planning is essential. Abraham Lincoln is wrongly attributed as saying, …
Now that you have your story, how do you propose going forward? What is your next step? How are you going to get your first dollar? “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.” ― Barack Obama A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Now that …
Books: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins Storynomics: Story-Driven Marketing in the Post-Advertising World by Robert McKee and Thomas Gerace
Established companies with years of experience have advantages in branding. Corporations have the ability to simultaneously call upon their history (their founder story) or develop a narrative fit for the modern day — or both. Corporate brands can use their founder when it suits them or their employees or their customers (or whatever else a …
What is the narrative arc that has led you to this point? How did you get to your why, which is embodied in your brand? “The good to great companies did not say, ‘Okay, folks, let’s get passionate about what we do.’ Sensibly, they went the other way entirely: ‘We should only do those things …
Books: Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen
What is unique about your company within the broader market context? “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ― Lao Tzu “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” ― Henry Ford Good markets can help make bad entrepreneurs better, but bad markets can make …
Module 3: Market Sizing, Go-to-Market Strategy, and Defensibility Read More »
Books: Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup by Bill Aulet Articles and Websites: “How to Write a Great Value Proposition” “4 Steps to Building a Compelling Value Proposition” “How to Develop a Value Proposition for Your Business” Videos: “How to Build Products Users Love” by Kevin Hale, Founder of Wufoo and Partner at …
