Startup Systems

Marketing strategy: This is the work of positioning, story telling, status and affiliation. It’s understanding network effects, the user experience and the change we seek to make. Good marketing strategy overcomes just about everything else. Some of my books are about this.

Promotion : This is more tactical. It’s coupons and PR and perhaps advertisi... See more

And what you see internally is what I'll say is razor-sharp focus on reducing cycle time and bias to action and how do we reduce cycle time. I think it's basically the core of it culturally to me is getting people to think about smaller units of time for decision making. It seems obvious but I think you really have to reinforce it culturally. So on... See more

Founders are striving to do something more innovative, uncertain, and psychologically demanding than most of us ever try to do—many with potentially large impacts on the world—and yet their distinct psychological needs have gone largely unstudied and unaddressed. And despite the many headlines signaling a “mental health crisis in startups,” with se... See more

The reason is the owner doesn’t have the actual skills or knowledge of the tasks that are being delegated. 

They often think…

“I’ll hire someone to handle that for me.”

Which is all well and good if you know what metrics or KPIs to watch for. 

But, if you don’t know how something is done… 

Or you don’t understand the skills involved… 

How can you know if... See more

According to self-determination theory, humans have three basic needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. One reason why nudges toward change often backfire is that they can feel like a violation of autonomy, leading someone to do the opposite as a way to regain a sense of freedom.

As a result, well-intended feedback can actually reinforce the b... See more