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?


July 5, 2009 Take up and read

Finding a story that moves your life isn’t easy. But reading St. Augustine of Hippo’s Confessions, a person starts to realize how tangible the experience of a man in 400 AD can relate. The story goes as St. Augustine was chasing after the wind with pride and selfishness, his mother was worried sick over his fruitless life.
Credits: [ FLICKR | Saint Augustin et sa mère sainte Monique, 1846, Ary Scheffer ]
augustine
In the book Confessions, his pivot point was when he heard a nursery rhyme “take up and read, take up and read.” He picked up the bible and said it was a knife to his soul.” Allistair Begg, outlines it best with his “You are in charge of nothing. Anything you think you are in charge of is an illusion.” Click below to hear his rant.

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