Alternate Title: What Can 24’s Jack Bauer Teach a Tech Startup Founder About Strategy? Running a business without a strategy is like breathing air without oxygen. The purpose of this blog post is to attempt to synthesize certain fundamental lessons on strategy that are relevant for anyone trying to build a business. ((Let me know […]
Venture Capital
Notes On Early Stage Technology Investing; Art, Science, or Both?
Often when I have asked other people this question I get a response that leaves me feeling dissatisfied. It seems most investors are compelled to take one side over the other, and, at least as far as the admittedly small sample of investors I have asked this question are concerned, insufficient thought is given to […]
A Note on Developing and Testing Hypotheses
This post is a continuation of the discussion I started in A Note On Startup Business Model Hypotheses. In this post I will describe how one might go about developing and testing a hypothesis about any aspect of a startup’s business model. ((Let me know if you feel I have failed to attribute something appropriately. Tell […]
A Note on Startup Business Model Hypotheses
One of the observations I have arrived at over the course of meeting founders of early stage startups is that often it is not clear during our conversations if they have spent time examining the hypotheses that underlie the business model for the startup they are building. This post ((Any mistakes in quoting from my […]
What Is Your Business Model?
“It is a B2B2C business model.” is generally not what I am hoping to hear when I ask “What is your business model?” #BusinessModelGeneration — Brian Laung Aoaeh (@brianlaungaoaeh) February 2, 2015 Invariably, when I am meeting the founder of a startup for the first time to discuss the possibility that KEC Ventures might invest […]
Case Study: Fab – How Did That Happen?
Recent reports in the press about the problems Fab is facing got me thinking about the lessons one might learn from its meteoric rise and spectacular crash. Professional investors always give this disclaimer; Past performance does not necessarily guarantee or predict future results. Similarly, Fab’s experience is not necessarily a precedent that will always be […]