Startups and early stage businesses

Effectively building and managing a startup or early stage business, and working with them as an outside consultant.

1. Startups and structure.
2. Creating a unique value proposition – looking past the cliché and the hype.
3. Internet companies, the new-old economy and the mainstreaming of innovation.
4. Internet companies, the new-old economy and the mainstreaming of innovation (cont.)
5. Building a startup – staying focused in the midst of change and uncertainty.
6. Maintaining a vision while loosening our grip.
7. Startups and more developed organizations – making sure the right people are in the right chairs.
8. Startups – building for growth and success, and getting past ad hoc to do that.
9. Startups – good structure and process are there to support innovation and individual achievement.
10. Startups – dealing with unexpected agendas and staying on the same page.
11. Startups and a word that divides them – investment.
12. Startups and reality checks – startups as viewed by consultants.
13. Startups and creating a unique value proposition with a focus on addressing chokepoints.
14. Innovation oriented and access oriented startup strategies.
15. Nonprofits and mission centered business plans.
16. Startups, risk aversion, risk acceptance and risk management.
17. Boards of directors and startups.
18. Startups and conflict resolution.
19. What’s in a name? Naming and branding your startup.
20. Online store, online market space – part 1 of a new series exploring new and emerging opportunity.
21. Online store, online market space – part 2 and bringing your products and services into focus.
22. Online store, online market space – part 3 and adding financials to the mix.
23. Online store, online market space – part 4 and going live and online – 1.
24. Online store, online market space – part 5 and going live and online – 2.
25. Online store, online market space – part 6 and marketing your new online store.
26. Online store, online market space – part 7 and search engine marketing your new online store – 1.
27. Online store, online market space – part 8 and search engine marketing your new online store – 2.
28. Online store, online market space – part 9: business plans and filing in the gaps.
29. Online store, online market space – part 10: audits and reality checks.
30. Online store, online market space – part 11: breaking away from the competitive crowd.
31. Online store, online market space – part 12: the Green and environmentally conscious business. See also Social Networking and Business postings 49-58, 60, 65 and 70 for more on Green and sustainability.
32. Online store, online market space – part 13: personal information and online privacy policies.
33. Online store, online market space – part 14: business ethics and good business citizenship.
34. Building a client base – part 1: identifying potential clients and your intended marketplace.
35. Online store, online market space – part 15 and online security – 1: setting good standards.
36. Building a client base – part 2: connecting to your potential clients to create value.
37. Online store, online market space – part 16 and online security – 2 and performing a basic risk and vulnerability assessment.
38. Building a client base – part 3: determining what data fields to populate and what data not to collect.
39. Bringing the job market and marketplace into focus – Part 3: looking for new options and paths forward.
40. Online store, online market space – part 17 and online security – 3 and performing a more detailed needs assessment and follow through.
41. Online store, online market space – part 18: exit strategies and long term planning.
42. Building a client base – part 4: selecting a database solution.
43. Building a client base – part 5: CRM and populating your client database with the right data.
44. Building a client base – part 6: the due diligence of privacy protection in a competitive marketplace.
45. Building a client base – part 7: products and services, client base and business infrastructure.
46. Are you passionate enough to be an entrepreneur? – Are you focused enough in this?.
47. The startup as a career path – Part 1: financial analysis and the stand-alone business versus franchise decision.
48. The startup as a career path – Part 2: joining a startup team.
49. Thinking startup as a core business strategy.
50. Leveraging Startups with social media -1: building from a sound foundation.
51. Leveraging Startups with social media -2: building from a startup marketing campaign.
52. Leveraging Startups with social media -3: building social media marketing into core business infrastructure.
53. Nine tips for success in a new online business.
54. Open marketplaces, closed markets and exit strategies – an emerging lesson.
55. Online store, online market space – part 19: balancing an inventory.
56. Virtualizing and outsourcing infrastructure – 2: identifying where lean makes sense in a business.
57. Virtualizing and outsourcing infrastructure – 3: the online store as test case.
58. Startups and the compressed learning curve imperative.
59. Balancing resources and needs in the startup and early stage business – 1.
60. Balancing resources and needs in the startup and early stage business – 2.
61. Balancing resources and needs in the startup and early stage business – 3.
62. Effective change management as pursuit of a startup mentality, and vice versa.
63. Transitioning into senior management – Part 17: leadership in startups – 1: see my Guide to Effective Job Search and Career Development postings 158-173 for parts 1-16 of this series.
64. Transitioning into senior management – Part 18: leadership in startups – 2.
65. Transitioning into senior management – Part 19: leadership in startups – 3.
66. Startups and death by “me too” – a tale of a hamburger restaurant bubble.
67. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 1.
68. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 2: core products and services.
69. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 3: market and industry analyses.
70. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 4: building for strength and business viability.
71. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 5: navigating potential conflicts of priority and need.
72. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 6: understanding resources and the strings attached.
73. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 7: sweat equity and other non-liquid resources.
74. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 8: developing stakeholder buy-in.
75. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 9: the cash-flow implications of having outside investors – 1.
76. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 10: the cash-flow implications of having outside investors – 2.
77. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 11: exit strategies and their implications and consequences – 1.
78. Understanding and navigating burn rate: a startup primer – 12: exit strategies and their implications and consequences – 2.
79. Planning an innovative offering to be turn-key ready – 1: outlining the fundamental challenge.
80. Planning an innovative offering to be turn-key ready – 2: taking a consumer and marketplace-driven perspective.
81. The peril of software that can do everything.
82. Planning an innovative offering to be turn-key ready – 3: crowd sourcing and the permeabilization of corporate walls.
83. Keeping strategy focused and real-world empirically based while maintaining a big picture perspective.
84. Planning an innovative offering to be turn-key ready – 4: startups and usability as a source of marketable value.
85. The perils of not invented here in an age of ubiquitous connectivity and communications.
86. Some thoughts on identifying potential marketplaces and customers in the face of novelty and innovation – 1.
87. Some thoughts on identifying potential marketplaces and customers in the face of novelty and innovation – 2.
88. Synchronizing product, market and vision – an iterative process.
89. Some thoughts on identifying potential marketplaces and customers in the face of novelty and innovation – 3.
90. Online store, online market space – part 20: vetting and brokerage as business expansion -1.
91. Online store, online market space – part 21: vetting and brokerage as business expansion -2.
92. Productivity and abundance, and the paradox of choice – 1.
93. Productivity and abundance, and the paradox of choice – 2.
94. Productivity and abundance, and the paradox of choice – 3.
95. On the importance of gathering marketing insight from unexpected demographic directions.
96. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 1: starting a new series.
97. Facebook and the challenge of initial public offerings and fair market valuation.
98. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 2: what needs to scale?.
99. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 3: some specific standard business models.
100. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 4: business model analytical tools – 1.
101. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 5: business model analytical tools – 2.
102. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 6: business model analytical tools – 3.
103. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 7: business model analytical tools – 4.
104. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 8: web 2.0 business models.
105. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 9: supply chain-ready business models.
106. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 10: building for the larger context of business and marketplace ecologies.
107. Thinking like an investor as you plan and build your business – 1.
108. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 11: negotiating terms of agreement with larger, more established businesses.
109. Thinking like an investor as you plan and build your business – 2.
110. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 12: targeting marketplace scale and diversity.
111. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 13: scaling from niche product or service to more mainstream.
112. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 14: developing and maintaining the will to change and to scale up.
113. Re-Visioning leadership 4 – business stage-specific skills and experience requirements for startups. You can find the rest of this series at Business Strategy and Operations – 2 starting with its posting 345.
114. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 15: developing and scaling up a business past a Dunbar’s limit headcount.
115. Re-Visioning leadership 5 – business stage-specific skills and experience requirements for scalability beyond the simple and linear.
116. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 16: Dunbar’s limit and operational systems scalability.
117. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 17: business scalability, business model scalability and evolution.
118. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 18: taking on and accepting the risk of scaling up.
119. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 19: prototyping for scalability and growth 1.
120. Career changes career transitions 8: startups as a career option. See Guide to Effective Job Search and Career Development – 2, postings 285 and following for other installments in this series.
121. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 20: prototyping for scalability and growth 2.
122. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 21: prototyping for scalability and growth 3.
123. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 1: strategically pursuing a route to sustainable relevance.
124. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 22: prototyping for scalability and growth 4.
125. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 2: matching organizational structure, functional processes and performance metrics.
126. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 23: ubiquitous communications and computation as an enabler of business scalability 1.
127. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 3: integrating innovation and change into an ongoing lean and agile system.
128. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 24: ubiquitous communications and computation as an enabler of business scalability 2.
129. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 4: of reserves and productive capacity.
130. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 25: answering to the innovation imperative.
131. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 5: scaling up and expanding within sound performance-based constraints.
132. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 26: avoiding sclerosis and keeping the organization lean and simple 1.
133. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 6: and the organizationally complex business 1.
134. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 27: avoiding sclerosis and keeping the organization lean and simple 2.
135. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 7: and the organizationally complex business 2.
136. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 28: pursuing a performance based business model approach to improve business scalability capabilities.
137. Moving towards dynamic performance based business models 8: adding in change and uncertainty as complicating factors.
138. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 29: scaling up and expanding the virtual company.
139. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 30: business scalability from the global business perspective 1.
140. Moving past early stage and the challenge of scalability 31: business scalability from the global business perspective 2.
141. Acquisitions and divestitures 6: exit strategies and the sale and acquisition of complete businesses 3. And see Business Strategy and Operations – 2, postings 358 and following for other postings to this series.
142. Opening up the online business model for new and emerging opportunity 1: outlining some of the basic issues and challenges.
143. Acquisitions and divestitures 7: divestitures in a troubled selling-business and change management context.
144. Opening up the online business model for new and emerging opportunity 2: online target demographics oriented marketing.
145. Acquisitions and divestitures 8: the chop shop acquisitions and divestitures business model.
146. Opening up the online business model for new and emerging opportunity 3: blue ocean strategies and business models 1.
147. Acquisitions and divestitures 9: the value added acquisitions and divestitures business model.
148. Opening up the online business model for new and emerging opportunity 4: blue ocean strategies and business models 2.