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Which should take priority with the startup CEO: The team or the cash? In various discussions and blogs and forums, I see two different answers. I can see arguments for either or both. However, if you are a startup CEO, you have to choose daily - maybe even hourly - … Keep reading >>>
Month: July 2017
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Get out of your comfort zone and try something new!
In an earlier post, I ended with the questions, "What’s the worst that can happen? Can you live with that?" My parents have always been well traveled - I was born in Bukavu, a small village on the Rwandan border of the Republic of the Congo - but they had … Keep reading >>>
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Customer Discovery and Online Surveys: What’s the difference?
I caught a little flack for my recent posts about a customer discovery project we're working on here at The Combine. Day one of the customer discovery process, I went totally social and posted a question on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and this blog. That ruffled some feathers among customer discovery … Keep reading >>>
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As the Founder of anything, the first of everything is all on you
I had lunch yesterday with a very successful business owner who wants to start a new venture. Other than deciding whether or not it should be a nonprofit, ministry, or for-profit business, the next steps and his venture are pretty clear. However, one thing that he and every other founder … Keep reading >>>
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Do You Track Your Home Energy Usage?
In my work for The Combine, we are in the midst of doing early stage customer discovery for a project in the home energy space. That's a really big space, so there are a lot of questions to ask, and a lot of room for responses. For example, did you … Keep reading >>>
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Who was Amazon’s first customer? Who is their customer now?
If you're running a startup, one of the most important questions you must be able to answer at any and all stages of your business is "who is my customer?" If you don't know who that is, you cannot find them, attract them, engage them, and ultimately do business with … Keep reading >>>