One of my all time favorite business quotes is from Drucker and goes, “The purpose of the business is to have a customer.”  This is the direct follow up in sort of an “if, then” setup.

Innovation is the fun, exciting and invigorating part of entrepreneurship, especially for the technology based startup.  It’s temping to believe that if the app is cool enough, it will sell itself.  Business history is littered with examples of where the best technology did not win.  Xerox never realized the benefits of success of many of its stellar innovations because they chose not to market them.

Marketing is the communication of your value proposition to your customers.  It should commence early, long before the product is ready for beta.  The feedback you get will help you not only develop a cool technology, but it will also help you develop the product people will buy.

The marketing/innovation balance should be at least 50/50.

• Marketing
• Value Proposition