Since the Tech Ranch is hosting StartUp Lessons Learned Conference Simulcast this Friday, let's take a very brief look at how lean start-up practices have the power to generate your first customers without requiring any investment at all.
Besides being able to control the jukebox and drink yerba mate all day, the thing that I love most about managing the community at Tech Ranch Austin is all the folks who come in the door. They all have stuff to teach me, even about our own business model. Lesson #1: always be prepared to let people teach you what they want to teach you.
Structure your communication correctly, and your content will sink in effortlessly. As we’ve heard it before, it’s not so much what you say, but how you say it. Let’s go ahead and talk about a HUGE exception to that rule: The Investor Pitch. Structure is hugely important here, but if you don’t answer the question, “How will your business make the investor money,” then structure doesn’t matter. Neglect to answer that question overtly and specifically, and you’re going home.
When Cristi Jakubik writes something, everyone around the Ranch pays attention. This goes double for me. Few others have the experience she does in the trenches of marketing. Cristi speaks from this experience, having earned her stripes on the Silicon Valley Battlefields.
Have you checked in with the Pioneer Program recently? The new year has marked lots of change and maturity in the program. In response to lots of demand post Venture Forth, the Pioneer Program has grown into a “dojo” for entrepreneurship where entrepreneurs come to practice entrepreneurship with each other and with Tech Ranch Partners.
Around the Tech Ranch Campfires, we like to pop a bottle of vino and swap tales of the entrepreneurial trail. This often involves legends of resilient entrepreneurs on epic business drives through recession and boom. Some of these stories focus on success and revenue, and others focus on lessons learned. Each tale is valuable in its own way.
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