

We Don't Encourage Individuals to Form a Startup - skmurphy
http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2008/12/04/we-dont-encourage-individuals-to-form-a-startup/

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petercooper
This article has no insight and says little. Just a warning if you're strapped
for time.

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tptacek
Why would any bootstrapping startup drop cash on a marketing consultant? At
what point in your first 6-9 months is a dollar ever well-spent on a workshop
or "strategy session"?

~~~
skmurphy
We are customer development experts for bootstrapping software firms. We work
with a number of very talented technical teams who are trying to manage their
market risk and minimize product-market mismatch. The article was not intended
as a sales pitch but a warning to potential new startup founders that many of
the folks encouraging them into the water have a vested interest in seeing new
startups no matter what the economic climate (in the same way that car dealers
will always find a good reason to buy a new car and realtors to buy a new
house).

We facilitate the Bootstrappers Breakfasts
(<http://www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com/>) where you can meet and compare
notes with other bootstrapping entrepreneur just for the price of your own
breakfast. Those are peer to peer strategy sessions that many attendees find
quite valuable.

~~~
tptacek
We're in the information security field, and we facilitate monthly CitySec
meetups in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Boston; each draws ~40
people, and all are free and totally unbranded. But that has nothing to do
with our service offerings.

I guess I'm asking, why do early-stage startups pay you, and what specifically
do you provide them? "Managing market risk and minimizing product-market
mismatch" is pretty vague. Do you do market research? Do you conduct surveys?

I'm very familiar with marketing consultants in later-stage startups, where,
in my experience, they are largely used by the management team as a tool to
reinforce consensus or sell the CEO. No viable early-stage startup has those
problems.

~~~
skmurphy
I am responding with more detail at your request, offered as a clarification,
not as a solicitation.

They pay us because they want early customers, both for revenue and for
references, and their efforts to date have either not worked or only worked
selling to friends. We have been doing this for more than 5 years: we started
in early 2003. We are hired by founders/owners.

We work with startup teams that are primarily composed of engineers. We follow
Steve Blank's customer development paradigm which merges sales, marketing, and
business development into a scientific model based on forming and testing
hypotheses about your product, your customers, etc.. Part of the customer
development paradigm is that the founders must sell, we help them as virtual
team members with tools, methodology, and advice. Our focus is business to
business software.

The founders must sell because it's not clear when you are first starting out
if prospects are not buying because the product has missing or misfeatures, is
priced incorrectly, is being described incorrectly, or the startup is talking
to the wrong prospects for the product that they have. Only the founders have
the perspective to address all of these issues.

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vlad
I'm not sure what I just read.

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noonespecial
_For the most part they are written by folks who in some way make their living
off of entrepreneurs, either preying upon them as investors or service
providers._

Says the company who does _just that_.

BZZZT. Thanks for playing anyway.

~~~
bestes
The article is perspicuous with this disclosure.

 _We certainly provide services to bootstrapping entrepreneurs and I suppose
it would be in my personal best interest to encourage more folks to start
bootstrapping a startup. I don’t think for the most part it’s a reasoned
decision._

~~~
skmurphy
I decided that I was seeing too many folks who were starting businesses for
the wrong reason. I didn't want to join the bandwagon of encouraging folks
onto the rocks. Many people are naturally entrepreneurial or will be forced by
events to become more entrepreneurs, they need real advice on how to
bootstrap.

~~~
noonespecial
I get that. Sorry, maybe too strong a response but I'm not sure that "preying"
was exactly the right word to use there. I guess that what got my dander up.

