Big Dave’s Blog

I normally wouldn’t do this, but this looks too good.

Definitely be checking this out over the summer.

I’ve been a little lax lately with posts, but there is a good reason.  Yesterday afternoon, Inquisix launched Private Beta.  It’s been a very busy few months building the site and getting everything rolling.  Being a very early startup, we operate without a lot of resources, but that makes it fun.  There is nothing like taking a site live and seeing dozens of users jump in and start using the product within minutes of sending an invitation email.

If you are a sales or business development person, check it out and request an invitation.

Now back to the regular posts - I have a lot of new material now.

Chris Herot’s post on Zingdom Communications, formally Convoq, closing its doors recently is a must read for anyone in a startup. While the news is bad, the lessons learned should be posted on every wall. The same mistakes get made too often - especially iterating in the conference room instead of the marketplace. Don’t ever forget the customer! Too often we forget that.

Lessons according to Chris:

• Just because you are using agile methods doesn’t mean you don’t have to plan. Write your stories before you begin an iteration, but don’t waste a lot of time on the details that aren’t needed until later.
• Don’t spend a lot of time and money naming the company until you have the product and positioning figured out.
• If you are depending on paid search to generate traffic then your marketing is broken.
• Raising too much money is almost as dangerous as raising too little - it sets high expectations which then drive high expenditures to deliver the results on time.
• If you want to do a consumer-facing product on the East Coast, stay engaged with the community in Silicon Valley. By the time you read about something in TechCrunch it’s too late.
• Remember the three stages of building a web property: 1. Attract, 2. Engage, 3. Monetize. Don’t skip a step.

Print it. Post it. Remember it.