It’s not easy to sell into an industry being disrupted
Looking to sell into an industry that’s currently undergoing disruption? At first glance, it sounds like a great idea. After all, companies getting disrupted are experiencing some very real challenges and pain points; they need to adapt quickly and could be looking for that silver bullet to save them. During my time at AbeBooks, I […]
The engagement threshold: transforming one-time customers into repeat business
Are you focused on new sales or bringing in loyal, repeat customers? Whenever a business is completely dependent on new customers, it’s vulnerable. Not only are customer acquisition costs high, but new customers are just as likely to turn to any new competitor that enters the market. The better a company is at turning one-time […]
Don’t listen to most of the advice you are getting
Getting good advice is critical for any entrepreneur and fortunately there’s plenty of advice to go around. Unfortunately, not all advice is worth listening to. Angel investor Allen Morgan (@allenmorgan) summed it up in a recent Tweet: “It’s a power law relationship: for entrepreneurs, >90% of the advice worth heeding comes from <10% of the […]
Does your product pass the toothbrush test?
Repeat usage is one of the most important success factors for building a large, stand-alone company. It’s hard to grab people’s mindshare and create a loyal user base when people only need to use your product or service occasionally. One of the best metaphors I’ve come across to describe this reality is Google’s “toothbrush test” […]
Breaking into the Valley? Use the “Canadian mafia”
There is a PayPal mafia, a Facebook mafia and a Twitter mafia, all powerful networks of entrepreneurs and investors based in the Valley. And now there is a really strong “Canadian mafia” emerging. It started to formalize with the launch of the C100 a few years ago. The organization is comprised of a select group of mostly Silicon Valley-based Canadian […]