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?


January 16, 2009 Stillness

Bad results usually come from quick reacting emotion.  Most bad results are from bad ideas driven by fear or the immediate reaction of a trigger.  Sometimes I react too fast to bad ideas and go down a tangent that absorbs time / money yielding jack squat thus bad results!

Photo: [flickr]

still

Like many entreprenuers that MUST respond fast to preserve a prospect or budget, a good session of stillness before responding helps more than it hurts.  A trick that I learned was to anticipate circumstances.  Take a moment of stillness knowing that within hours you might be challenged with 3-5 specific circumstances that require fast decisions. (especially tough questions from investors or prospects.)  In that stillness, dont really think about how to respond or what to say (which can consume you, and frankly you will eventually make the right decision) which defeats the power of being still.  But rather pull the plane up and ask yourself “why did God give me air today?”  In that moment, tensions subside and the power of a balanced/ focus leader appears.

Want to comment? Comments: 0

Posted by Kendall in closingdeals

0 comments so far

Add a comment

RSS Flickr Wordpress