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?


February 22, 2009 Overrated fear

As the wonderful media, George Soros, Glenn Beck, and Citibank’s stock tell us lately that “we are all doomed! The sky is falling!”… I would like to answer back with the famous “fear” scene from War Games summed up by an airbase on the radio to NORAD “…Yeah, we are still here!”

wargames

I was thinking back to the major events this country has been through and it puzzles me that our current economic fears do not learn from the resolve of our ancestors.   Lets go back and group by historical events: Revolution, Civil War, Great Depression, WW1, WW2, Cold War, Terrorism, etc.   Remember the Cold War training videos showing how kids must crawl under desk?  That is fear!  But, the US got through it.  What about the fear our ancestors had with the Great Depression?  That must have been paralyzing.  Again, this country got through it. And so on…

The Chicken Littles of our time probably dont fully grasp what this country is capable of.  How can you believe we cannot get through the frustrating sub-prime market meltdown but could get through a Civil War?

Moral of story…turbulance, but scheduled to land soon.

Want to comment? Comments: 1

Posted by Kendall in economy

1 comment so far

  1. To me, the fear mongering that’s going on is a power-grab by those in government. When the population is afraid of “X”, they turn to governement to protect them. However, with that protection comes intrusion into our lives, and our freedoms are whittled away until there’s nothing left. The thing we’re turning to to protect us from all the evils that we’re afraid of is the very thing that’s going to do us the most harm.

    We will make it through this mess, but at what cost to our liberty?

    February 23rd, 2009

Add a comment

RSS Flickr Wordpress