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Day: December 4, 2021

Srinivasan on Market Research, Wireframing, and Design

by David Cummings

Balaji Srinivasan has an excellent Startup Engineering paper titled Market Research, Wireframing, and Design that serves as a Startup 101 guide for entrepreneurs. The big idea is that starting a startup without deep thought, research, and exploration in advance is a poor way to do it. So much depends on the market, execution, and timing that more intentionality is needed upfront. From startups vs. small business to economies of scale to market sizing, there’s much more to selecting a great idea.

An excellent breakdown of the stages of the entrepreneurial journey:

StageWhat’s required to complete?Min Time
IdeaNapkin drawing of billion dollar concept1 minute
MockupWireframe will all user screens1 day+
PrototypeUgly hack that works for single major use case1 weekend+
ProgramClean code that works for all use cases, with tests2-4 weeks+
ProductDesign, copywriting, pricing, physical components3-6 months+
BusinessIncorporation, regulatory filings, payroll, …6-12 months+
ProfitsSell product for more than it costs you to make it1 year+++
Table 1 from the article

Srinivasan then takes the reader through ways to do market research using Google’s Keyword Planner and Facebook’s Advertiser Tools combined with landing pages, ads, and SEO. So much of what previously was guessing and gut checks can now be assessed and analyzed fairly quickly. Again, entrepreneurs should do the work before choosing an idea haphazardly.

Finally, the author goes through how to think about pricing and packaging, wireframing, copywriting, and design — all critical elements (Read more...)

Srinivasan on Market Research, Wireframing, and Design

by David Cummings

Balaji Srinivasan has an excellent Startup Engineering paper titled Market Research, Wireframing, and Design that serves as a Startup 101 guide for entrepreneurs. The big idea is that starting a startup without deep thought, research, and exploration in advance is a poor way to do it. So much depends on the market, execution, and timing that more intentionality is needed upfront. From startups vs. small business to economies of scale to market sizing, there’s much more to selecting a great idea.

An excellent breakdown of the stages of the entrepreneurial journey:

StageWhat’s required to complete?Min Time
IdeaNapkin drawing of billion dollar concept1 minute
MockupWireframe will all user screens1 day+
PrototypeUgly hack that works for single major use case1 weekend+
ProgramClean code that works for all use cases, with tests2-4 weeks+
ProductDesign, copywriting, pricing, physical components3-6 months+
BusinessIncorporation, regulatory filings, payroll, …6-12 months+
ProfitsSell product for more than it costs you to make it1 year+++
Table 1 from the article

Srinivasan then takes the reader through ways to do market research using Google’s Keyword Planner and Facebook’s Advertiser Tools combined with landing pages, ads, and SEO. So much of what previously was guessing and gut checks can now be assessed and analyzed fairly quickly. Again, entrepreneurs should do the work before choosing an idea haphazardly.

Finally, the author goes through how to think about pricing and packaging, wireframing, copywriting, and design — all critical elements (Read more...)

Stablecoins…A Major Moment in Money and Finance

by Howard Lindzon
This post is by Howard Lindzon from Howard Lindzon

Stablecoins were a big topic of discussion at the Multicoin conference this week.

They are an amazing innovation in crypto and they hold a LOT of promise.

Here is Investopedia on Stablecoins.

Of course, the government is getting involved as they proliferate.

My friend Ben Milne who started Dwolla in the payments space sent me this link which is a great read on the perils of Biden’s proposals:

The Big Miss in the Biden Administration’s Stablecoin Report – We know that banks will not continue to rule the payments landscape. So why give them control over stablecoins?

Have a great weekend.

UYBJ

by Seth Godin
This post is by Seth Godin from Seth's Blog

This is an absolutely terrible acronym for a really important idea.

Use Your Best Judgment.

Don’t wait for someone else to take responsibility. Don’t wait for perfect. Don’t wait to find this exact situation in the manual or in history.

Use your best judgment.

My preferred abbreviation is: Go go go.

Not with a guarantee.

Not with someone to blame.

Simply because we need you to lead us.

What are NFTs? Mapping the NFT Ecosystem

by Sponsored Content

The following content is sponsored by Next Decentrum

What are NFTs? The NFT Ecosystem, Explained

Mapping the NFT Ecosystem

NFTs have been the hottest topic and frothiest market of 2021, with sales volumes increasing by 100x while also becoming a topic of discussion on evening talk shows.

It took crypto nearly a decade to really penetrate the mainstream, but NFTs only needed a couple of years to capture people’s attention. As brands like Budweiser, Visa, and Adidas have purchased NFTs and entered the space, it’s clear that NFTs are more than just another hot new trend.

This infographic sponsored by Next Decentrum defines NFTs and explores the flourishing ecosystem that has quickly grown around them. Discover what non-fungible means, where NFTs are being minted and traded, and what the future holds for this asset class.

What are NFTs, and What is Fungibility?

NFTs are non-fungible tokens that have their history of ownership and current ownership cryptographically secured on a blockchain. These tokens can represent anything, whether it’s a piece of digital art in the form of a jpeg or a song as an mp3 file.

By storing transactions of these tokens on a blockchain, we can have digital proof of ownership and markets for these digital goods without the fear of double spending or the tampering of past transactions and ownership.

Figuring out Fungibility

This all sounds pretty similar to cryptocurrencies, so what makes NFTs so special? Their non-fungibility. Unlike cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or ethereum, non-fungible tokens represent goods or assets with unique properties and attributes, (Read more...)