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?


September 7, 2009 Seems like a big deal

When the going looks difficult because I focus on the bark of the tree, it seems all is chaos. But then standing up and looking at the big picture, it really is harmless.
Photo: [Flickr]
flickr

I wonder how many times in my life has this happened.  Anxiety has caused many sleepless nights, but have kept me out of trouble too. My buddy Scott from Glue said “God cares about our character” as suffering and joy comes. I feel the more I have perspective the more at peace I am, thus big deals are not so big.

Want to comment? Comments: 2

Posted by Kendall in Leadership

2 comments so far

  1. Have you ever noticed that the further away you get, the more of the big picture you can see and the more clearly you can focus on it?

    September 7th, 2009

  2. “Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests made known unto God. And the peace that passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:6,7.”

    I try and live by those verses.. I’m not always successful. Nothing means nothing. Not illness, not terrorist attacks, not making mortgage payments, “nothing” is all encompassing. It means NO THING. No thing, no event, no unforseen circumstances. We’re s’posed to turn it all over with prayer and supplication (which means to humbly ask) and thanksgiving, which implies that the thing we’re supplicating for / or something even better will be supplied to us. And then God promises a peace that we can’t understand will guard our hearts and minds.

    How awesome is that??

    Love you, brother.

    September 12th, 2009

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