Business Models Matter for Tech Startups.

Business Models Matter for Tech Startups.

In 2002, Joan Magretta published a fascinating article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) titled “Why Business Models Matter.” 

For years prior, the talk of “business models” was considered sheer poppycock by people in the tech world, but 2002 was right when the internet bubble burst. Investors were keen to stay away from anything and everything that had to do with tech. It was time to discuss business models. 

Magretta made an excellent observation; it was that “good business models begin with the insight into human motivations” – basically a foundational element of what we today call human-centered design. 

(more…)
Founder Advice with Jessica Brondo Davidoff, Managing Partner, Sprezzatura

Founder Advice with Jessica Brondo Davidoff, Managing Partner, Sprezzatura

I’m so incredible excited to be able to present this Founder Advice with Jessica Brondo Davidoff. I’ve now known Jess for close to seven or eight years, and it’s been an incredible journey seeing both our careers and families grow. She’s incredibly talented, tenacious, and has an acute sense of honing in on what a company needs most.

She’s exited a number of companies, among them Admittedly, and GolfMatch, and has recently shifted her skills to helping businesses meet the challenge of COVID19. I’m so excited to share her experiences with you, so let’s begin: Founder Advice with Jessica Brondo Davidoff.

How’d you get started as an entrepreneur? 

Technically my first “business” was a nail salon in my parents basement where I would offer force my mom’s friends to get pedicures from my younger brother. I started my first adult business at 22, when after working for less than a year at an SAT prep company, I had a hypothesis that the ACT was about to take off, and so I quit my job, got a bartending job at night to pay the bills and spent 6 months writing ACT prep curriculum for my first company, The Edge. Fortuitously, the ACT started to become extremely popular and my company essentially blew up without any sort of marketing.

(more…)
5 Ideas to Help You Start a Business in the COVID Quarantine.

5 Ideas to Help You Start a Business in the COVID Quarantine.

Despite the mental toll, cabin feverishness, and all the other problems that come with the Quarantine, the Pandemic has presented a unique opportunity to skill up and start your own business. While many of us are stuck at home with nothing to do except watch TV, read books, or vegetate, think of this as an opportunity to start a new business and secure some income for yourself and the future. Here are 5 Ideas to Help You Start a Business in the COVID Quarantine.

First thing’s first: Skill up.

Many of you have been meaning to start a business. Let this social isolation be the sign to get up and start going. Use this time to get your licensing, insurance, and research done so by the time all of this chaos is over you can hit the ground running with your new enterprise.

(more…)
Opportunities for Startups in the Post COVID World.

Opportunities for Startups in the Post COVID World.

As the world shifts towards working from home and our governments mount responses to the SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) pandemic, we may feel that our fundamental way of life is being uprooted. Now more than ever, we must be malleable and adjust to what people are calling this new reality. Still, it’s inherently essential also to look inward and see how the skills we’ve acquired can become attributed to today’s world, and applied to identify opportunities that can and will grow in post COVID world.

(more…)
Collecting and Using Competitive Intelligence | For Startups, New Ventures, and Entrepreneurs

Collecting and Using Competitive Intelligence | For Startups, New Ventures, and Entrepreneurs

Competitive Intelligence? What’s competitive intelligence? According to Wikipedia, “Competitive intelligence (CI) is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.

For the day to day, it means understanding what your competitors, direct and indirect are doing, how big their war chest is, whom they’re hiring, and then trying to figure out how you can outcompete them based on your realities. Competitive intelligence is an ongoing process. It is about accumulating relevant knowledge that your entire executive team can implement into the overall company strategy. 

(more…)

Pin It on Pinterest