asmartbear.com@ASmartBear – Startups + Marketing + Geekery

Skip to primary navigation Skip to content @ASmartBear Startups + Marketing + Geekery Home Bio Archives Work with me! Show Search Hide Search Main Content What’s The Important Thing, that is powerful enough to override all your deficiencies? November 4, 2019 By Jason Do you feel the crushing weight of the disadvantages facing every new company? No brand, no features, no customers, no money, no distribution, no search engine rankings, no efficient advertising, no incredible executive team, no NPS, no strategy. How do the successful startups rise above all that? Do they solve all those problems at once, or at least quickly? No. I apologize in advance for using the dang iPhone as an example but... The … Read More about What’s The Important Thing, that is powerful enough to override all your deficiencies? Capturing Luck with “or” instead of “and” October 8, 2019 By Jason There’s always a lot of luck in startups, but there’s ways to better capture upside, and better mitigate downside. Kung Fu February 26, 2019 By Jason A summary of nearly everything I think about building companies. When “fits and starts” is the most efficient path September 19, 2018 By Jason When you go full-speed in one direction for a hot minute, then slam on the brakes and do something else, and keep doing that, and it’s actually the correct course of action. A Scorecard: Should a decision be fast, or slow? September 5, 2018 By Jason We’re constantly told to make decisions quickly, because that speeds up the production and learning loop. But some decisions really should be made slowly. How do you know which way to go, with a given decision? Here’s a framework to answer that question. How repositioning a product allows you to 8x its price June 5, 2018 By Jason Pricing is often more about positioning and perceived value than it is about cost-analysis and ROI calculators that no one believes. As a result, positioning can allow you to charge many times more than you think you can. Here’s how. WP Engine passes $100M in revenue and secures $250M investment from Silver Lake January 4, 2018 By Jason WP Engine just announced passing $100M in annual recurring revenue and a $250M investment from Silver Lake. We’ve never been in a stronger position! Brittleness comes from “One Thing” November 7, 2017 By Jason We’re tired of hearing how small software companies usually fails. The data show that the two most common causes are (1) the product just isn’t useful to enough people and (2) problems with the team. But what about the cohort that dies even though it did sell some copies of software to a few people, and where the founding team isn’t dysfunctional? I don’t have data for that cohort (tell me if you do!), but informally I see things like the following, which is useful to list because there’s a pattern common to each of them, which furthermore is possible to counteract You can have two Big Things, but not three October 17, 2017 By Jason No you can’t “have it all.” You can have two things, but not three. The fundamental lesson of the forces governing scaling startups October 4, 2017 By Jason Idealistic founders believe they will break the mold when they scale, and not turn into a “typical big company.” By which they mean: Without stupid rules that assume employees are dumb or evil, without everything taking ten times longer than it should, without wall-to-wall meetings, without resorting to hiring anything less than the top 1% of the talent pool, and so on. Why do they never succeed? What are the fundamental forces that transform organizations at scale? Strategic Activities for a Company Retreat September 25, 2017 By Jason I happened to be sitting on the tarmac, delayed, when a tweet came in asking for some ideas for what to do on a company retreat that would be strategic. In the confines of six square feet of personal space, I sent a few answers. These are useful exercises any time! Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 … Page 71 Next Page » © 2007 - 2019 Jason Cohen. All rights reserved. A digital experience hosted by WP Engine and built on StudioPress....