Kendall's "Internet startup checklist":

1. Idea:

  1. Would YOU write a check for your idea?
  2. Don't spill your candy in the lobby.
  3. Is your idea refining or revolutionizing?

2. Funding:

  1. Are your financials realistic if nothing goes right?
  2. Could you see your investors with a 10X, 20X return in 3 years?
  3. Do you have back-up plans b,c,d before quitting your day job?
  4. Do you have a great answer for the most cynical of investors?

3. team:

  1. Can you build your idea or will it take a team of pros?
  2. Is a specific person on your team essential or can he/she be replaced?
  3. Dont give up the farm to recruit talent.
  4. Hire brave & passionate smart people.

4. Product:

  1. Does your product SOLVE a problem?
  2. Beware of feature creep! Customers & prospects add features, not developers.
  3. Stay focused on money earning features, not cool ones.

5. Marketing:

  1. Is it costly (time/resources) to get branded in your target market?
  2. Make a goal of closing a core group of customers the first year. (traction)
  3. Adjust marketing resources to get traction (don't need much).
  4. Be sure to test your "seo / ad-words / ad-sense" properly before banking on them
  5. Nothing is better than "boots on the street." Start knocking on doors.

6. Customer:

  1. How many "loss leaders" do you have?
  2. Does your idea help your customer or is it just a "nice to have"?
  3. Make each customer feel like they are the only customer you have.
  4. Can your customers be up-sold? Do they have peers they could refer?


March 6, 2009 651,000 bear traps

When you feel the day is longer than usual and your computer is slow or a :shudder: PC ;) …  frustration starts to kick in,…stop…and imagine somewhere in the US there are thousands of men and women standing in a timeless line of over-qualified strangers with their best face & nicest shoes fighting over a very few low paying jobs.

jobless

Today we found out 651,000 folks filed for unemployment during Feb ’09 in the US.  Who are these people?  Are these bad people that cheated the system?  Or are they people who have been cut in a terrible bear trap of company greed or as Greenspan labeled “irrational exhuberance” ?  Whatever the reason, most of these people have families who love them, count on them, or just want them to find a job.

There are a few bright points of this jobless mess:

1. College enrollment has skyrocketed
2. People have got out of their comfort-zones and have tried a more challenging career
3. The numbers could have been much worse (Today: 8.1%, 1933: 25.2%)

If you know someone who lost their job, don’t just pray for them, remove an obstacle to make their life a little easier.

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