How I became Greg Head from Egghead
In 1987, I returned to the Chicago area with a newly minted liberal arts degree in economics, with honors, from the University of Iowa. I had no clue how I was going to enter the adult world and get a real job. During a few interviews, I felt totally uncomfortable and...
read moreStartups should be called “experiments”
My 23-year-old son Ethan is the co-founder of a software startup that has taken him from San Jose, California to Manila, Philippines to New York City. He put his electrical engineering degree on the shelf to start his company, called Groundwork, almost a year ago....
read moreWhy doesn’t Chick-fil-A sell hamburgers? The real reason will surprise you.
Chick-fil-A is one of the most successful fast-food restaurant chains in the United States. They just sell chicken sandwiches. You’ve probably had one. Their average revenue per restaurant is more than 50% higher than McDonald’s. Their restaurants do more than three...
read moreWhat VC investors mean when they say, “We invest in people”
Experienced venture capital investors have been telling us for years how they “invest in big markets and founding teams.” Markets and People. First, there needs to be a new market category that can grow big enough to support a couple market-leading companies that will...
read moreThe biggest myth about marketing
All of us experience marketing all day long, almost everywhere we look. Surprisingly, this causes most people think they understand the marketing game. That’s like eating a nice meal at a restaurant and proclaiming you can cook it yourself and run the restaurant. “I’m...
read moreHard lines create long lines
When I see a movie or a painting, I see the result of what someone created. I don’t think much about how it was made. I don’t understand it like someone who studied art or made a movie. When I see a website, ad, sales pitch or product design, I don’t just see it for...
read moreEntrepreneurs figure it out
I’ve noticed something that all successful entrepreneurs say when they are interviewed about how they grew their crazy startups into big businesses. You also hear it in interviews with Olympic gold medal athletes. And when successful individuals talk about their...
read moreHow I got great PR results on the second try
Public Relations is one of the trickier parts of the marketing game. It’s not like digital advertising or email marketing, where you can push a button and make measurable things happen right away. A year ago, I hired a savvy PR agency to book me for speaking, podcast...
read moreScaling Points are everywhere, yet hidden in plain sight
I have been an observer and student of the Scaling Point for 25 years. It’s the strangest thing. It’s completely obvious on the outside, yet we don’t notice it or understand it. It’s hidden in plain sight. Like the joke about the fish that says to another, “How’s the...
read moreWhat’s the difference between Product-Market Fit and the Scaling Point?
In the startup-to-scale-up growth game, achieving “product-market fit” has become a common indicator of a startup’s potential to grow into a successful company. This term was created and popularized by startup tech founders, investors and advisors in Silicon Valley....
read moreBeware the Startup ADD Trap
Discovering and executing on your Scaling Point is a necessary requirement for growing a little company into a big one. But why is it so rare? There are two reasons why Startup ADD is an almost universal disease that is very hard to cure. First, starting up requires...
read moreGo From Startup ADD to Scale-Up OCD by Finding Your Scaling Point
When starting a new business, you try many things to learn what really works. Your best ideas may look great on your whiteboard or in a slide deck, but they may not work in the real world. So you go forth and build your first product, try your first sales and...
read moreThe first rule of the game is knowing what game you are playing
"I have this problem. What should we do?" a busy CEO asked me. "Well, it depends." The answer depends on your situation and what you are trying to accomplish. It depends on what's working in the world these days for this type of problem that would work for you. The...
read moreStartup founders need to play the category game to grow big
Tech startups and innovative businesses are out to create new industries, or at least put new twists on established industries. This creates a challenge for these entrepreneurs. Most are not prepared to answer the question, "What business are you in?" As consumers and...
read moreSorry, not all startups should be funded
Surprised at how hard it is to raise funds for your startup or growing business? Almost every entrepreneur I know who has tried to raise money is surprised by the incredible amount of time, effort and energy needed to raise equity capital. Some actually do raise money...
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