Tag: Lee Martin

“To acquire good judgement, you need experience. To gain experience, you need bad judgement.” – Lee Martin

You will make bad decisions.

You may try hard not to by making sure you have all the data and have analyzed all the potential outcomes. But you can’t control all the variables and you can’t foresee all the potential outcome.

And sometimes you just screw up.

You need some failures in order to learn better. You need some failures to avoid arrogance and hubris. And you some some failures, if for no other reason, to know that they can;t kill you and eat you.

Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from moving forward.

Blogging Gazelle is published daily by Shawn Carson

“‘Ease of Use’ isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing.” – Lee Martin

Once you get past your early adopters, the main stream market is looking for solutions to their problems. The value proposition has to be very clear and the basic functionality must be obvious.

This means that you souldn’t try to solve all problems, just the most important. The balance between benefits and ease of use can be tricky but generally, it’s best to err toward ease of use. A focus on the Minimally Viable Product provide a framework to achieve this balance.

“Do more and more with less and less until you can do almost anything with almost nothing.” – Lee Martin

Live frugally so you can invest in your dream. Treat your investor’s money like it’s yours.

Don’t buy the $2,000 office chair. Get the cheap one from the used office furniture store. Stay at the Hampton Inn, not the Downtown Hilton. Fly coach. Focus on the things that add value like R&D and marketing. Outsource the rest like payroll and accounting.

Cash is king. If you run out of it, they turn the lights off. Marketing is as important as R&D. Save some cash for both.

If you need to raise $2 million what could you do with only $1 million? Or $500,000? Or $25,000? The most expensive money you will raise is the first money. Have a plan for every dollar.