Recently I presented at the Guelph Technology Economy Conference on the subject of recruitment. I put together the presentation built off of two posts I had written – The Future of Recruiting is Inbound and The Key to Startup Hiring: Build a Magnet. It went well (I think!) and was fun to do. Public speaking […]
How To Implement a Proactive Customer Support Strategy
I’ve said before that great customer support has to be proactive. But what exactly does that mean? The goal of proactive support is to identify and resolve issues before they become problems. In some cases you can be so successful with proactive customer service that you can solve problems before customers even realize they exist. […]
Creating Customer Touchpoints
When was the last time you played Red Rover? The game is quite simple. You create a chain of people who hold hands (roughly at arm’s length from each other) and the other team tries to break the chain of people. Breaking through the chain is usually quite easy. The connections just aren’t that strong. […]
Great Customer Service Drives Revenue and Profitability
Too many people look at customer service as a cost center, when it really should be a profit center. I recently read B-A-M!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World and it’s an important refresher and reminder of the importance of great customer service. Customer support is something I’ve obsessed over for many years. The […]
7 Key Points for Brainstorming Startup Ideas
One of my favorite exercises is brainstorming startup ideas with other entrepreneurs. You can gain a lot of value from a fresh perspective. When “pitched an idea” for brainstorming or feedback I tend to go through the same 7 key points and questions each time. That tends to spur strong discussion, new ideas and new […]
Startup Children: Introducing Talker
One indication of a strengthening startup ecosystem is when past founders start new companies. Even if those previous companies weren’t successful (although that certainly helps!), it’s a good sign when entrepreneurs keep trying. Another good sign is when startup employees decide to make the leap into startup founders. In fact, I think this is even […]
My Focus for 2010: Freedom
For me, 2010 is all about Freedom. Not necessarily the type of freedom that requires you to crash through the proverbial wall of doom, or bang your head against it so many times that you’re lying unconscious in a pool of your own blood; but the type of freedom that’s built on top of that […]
Startup CEOs Need To Do Sales
Doing sales isn’t typically one of the favorite things of most startup CEOs (and by extension, startup founding teams). Certainly they want sales (because sales = $$), but they don’t want to actually do the sales. This is a huge problem for startups. Startup CEOs need to be very close to their prospects and customers […]
Startup CEOs Make Millions of Decisions
The job of startup CEO is all about making decisions. Lots and lots of decisions. We tend to focus on and remember big decisions — over-emphasizing their importance in the grand scheme of things. But the trick to being a successful startup CEO is mastering the art of micro-decision making. Micro-decisions are small decisions — […]
Freedom
A very wise man once told me (OK, it was recently): There’s a certain freedom in being completely fucked. He was quite right. Just to be clear: He was speaking in the context of running a startup. A lot of startups get very close to crashing directly into the wall and exploding. A lot more […]
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