This week's Curated captures topics from startup failures to unspoken lessons on raising a Series A and changing company culture to acquiring your first 100 customers. And - Steve Blank calls this one of the leading causes of death of startups - has your company ever failed because you couldn't meet the expectations in the revenue plan?
Enjoy reading,
Culture
Flirting with ideas
"These ‘pain points’ gave birth to Netflix, disposable nappies and foldable baby buggies and there are thousands of other examples like them." - On crowdsourcing innovation lessons.
How to get what you want from difficult people?
We all encounter them sometimes: 'difficult' people. How to handle such situations?
Do entrepreneurs need mentors?
A plea for finding and surrounding yourself with people that help you grow.
Modern Entrepreneurship
Death by Revenue Plan
Steve Blank on why not all startups grow and scale by executing the 'Revenue Plan'.
Lessons from closing down our 5yo startup
Know when to quit and test your ideas beyond family and friends: a founder reflecting on and sharing valuable lessons learned about running a startup.
Four types of failure you can and should avoid
Failure is a great teacher, but to minimize the risk of failure this article present your a few core elements and questions to consider.
Want to read more? Read here about the four deadly mistakes that most startups make.
Growth
Growing a bootstrapped side project from $20,000 to $250,000 a month
A practical story about discovering the best growth hacks for your company.
Acquiring your first 100 customers
Get away from that monitor: those first 100 customers are a result of you talking to potential customers and selling your idea.
Promoted
Automate your AdWords & Facebook Ads based on weather, CRM, website activity and more
Show different ads on rainy days or completely pause all your campaigns when you run out of inventory. Increase your spending for great performing campaigns and pause all the other ones. Now you can automate it all with just few clicks.
Design
Our online behavior is a design problem
Apps or websites always strive for a design that is easy - for all - to use. Could making it more difficult to use then avoid or at least help combat online harassment?
Team
How to change your company culture: a four-step framework
"If changing your own behavior is that hard, imagine changing a collective behavior of multiple individuals."
Finance
How changing the power dynamics of venture capital can change the outcomes
On peer-selectment investment as a means to help investors make decisions.
Unspoken lessons for raising your series A
A note on common pitfalls and unspoken rules of investor and entrepreneur relations when it comes to Series A fundraising.
One question VCs don’t get asked enough
Startup founders ask your VCs: are you the tortoise or the hare?
Thank you
Thank you for finishing issue #177 & credits
Thank you for reading Startup Curated, and special thanks go out to Raymond from DigiGurus, Ayush from PostmastR, Vartika from Stackraft, and Alessandro from Difitek for curating!
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