Why do smart, driven founders fail, despite having great ideas and execution? This model offers an answer, and a path to increase the chance of success.| A Smart Bear
You redesign your entire website, customers and employees say it's better, but none of the metrics change… Does design even matter?| A Smart Bear
This is the reason that startups succeed despite their many weaknesses. And it's a reason to build a startup in the first place.| A Smart Bear
How do you find potential customers to interview before you have a product, a website, or even a name?| A Smart Bear
Not "enabling constraints", not "weaknesses", not even "strengths". The concept of a "Pivot Point" grapples with the same reality, but more constructive and useful.| A Smart Bear
A simple workshop that evaluates new business ideas relative to your existing strengths -- the key to expanding without overreaching.| A Smart Bear
Why do startups typically fail? It turns out that "avoiding those things" is already a plan for success.| A Smart Bear
Luck always plays a role in startups, but there are ways to better capture upside and mitigate downside.| A Smart Bear
The typical dynamics between startups and incumbents do not apply in AI as they did in previous technology revolutions like mobile and the Internet. Ignore this at your peril.| A Smart Bear
A startup can beat a large, successful incumbent, if it does things the incumbent can not or will not do. Here are those things.| A Smart Bear
Targeting your "Ideal Customer Profile" (ICP) is the best way to differentiate and win sales, but does it limit your target market?| A Smart Bear
Companies that achieve Product/Market Fit -- both self-funded and VC-funded -- exhibit the same prototypical metrics curves and subjective experiences.| A Smart Bear
Most so-called "strategies" are vague, wishful thinking, written once and never seen again. Don't do that. These are the characteristics of great strategy.| A Smart Bear
An objectively "worse" strategy can win, if it leverages something unique or unexpected. Startups can use this concept to beat incumbents.| A Smart Bear
Don't use phrases like "unlikely" or "almost certainly." Here's real-world data showing why not, and what to do instead.| A Smart Bear
Pricing is inextricably linked to brand, product, and purchasing decisions. It cannot be "figured out later," because it determines your business model today.| A Smart Bear
A simple but effective system, used to vet what is now a Unicorn, for generating insights about how your potential customers think, what they need, and what they'll buy.| A Smart Bear