observations from the startup frontlines
As a founder, building a startup feels like pushing a rock uphill. Frustrating, exhausting, relentless, uncertain. If you don’t give up (and you get lucky), at some point you’ll finally start to show some signs of product-market fit. Great! It’s finally working. At this point, you’re probably pretty tired, so it’s natural to want to … Continue reading The Local vs Global Optimum Problem in…
Have you ever tried to start an old lawnmower? If you haven’t, I bet you’ve at least watched someone struggle with it. You yank on the starter cord with all your might and…nothing happens. You try it again…still nothing. After a few more tries, you’re sweaty and frustrated. But the grass still needs cutting. You … Continue reading Starting the Lawnmower →
This is Part 2 of “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Unit Economics but were Afraid to Ask”. This part covers the Unit Economics of Two-sided Marketplaces. If you need an introduction (or refresher) on Unit Economics, please read Part 1 first. Definition Firstly, let’s define two-sided marketplaces: these are businesses that make money … Continue reading Everything You Always Wanted to…
Unit economics are critical to successful business growth. Without positive unit economics, spending more money means you simply lose more money. However, when it comes to two-sided marketplaces, It’s Complicated™. I’ve seen experienced analysts admit defeat when trying to get to grips with our unit economics at Wonolo. Here I aim to walk you through … Continue reading Everything You Always Wanted…
Recently, I’ve been hearing about more and more companies building “Product Operations” functions. This appears to be especially true of startups with high operational-complexity; particularly marketplaces. So, what is Product Operations? Do you need it? Or, is it just another fad? I spoke with several founders/leaders at a number of high-growth and operationally complex startups … Continue…
There are many things that make building and scaling marketplace businesses hard: for example, there’s the quintessential chicken-and-egg problem of building and balancing supply and demand, and there’s the need to build two or more products in parallel to serve the needs of the different participants in your marketplace. There is also the question of … Continue reading Marketplaces: Scaling with…
In a startup, there are always many things that aren’t working as efficiently as they could be – acquisition funnel conversion, manual processes, customer acquisition costs, etc. This may be incredibly frustrating, especially for the team members who have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis. It’s very tempting to direct precious money, time, … Continue reading Are you confusing Optimization with…
You’re sitting in a quiet meeting when a stranger suddenly bursts into the room, screaming and ranting – what is your immediate reaction? Your answer might say something about your personality. If your first instinct is to act – perhaps to tackle the person, or run and hide – you’re likely a “doer”. If your … Continue reading Are You Hiring in Your Own Image? Avoid Your Blindside →
Wouldn’t life would be great if nothing ever went wrong and technology never broke? Unfortunately, the reality is that things break all the time. Your product probably breaks a little bit all the time and sometimes breaks big time (hopefully, much more occasionally). Perhaps your website goes down for 4 hours during your busiest season … Continue reading Conducting an Effective Postmortem →
If you asked me to choose the 3 most important things that determine success or failure of a startup, I would say: company culture – it has a profound and pervasive effect and it’s essential to consciously and deliberately nurture it. focus – doing many things badly rather than a few things well is surefire startup … Continue reading 12 Cognitive Biases that Will Kill your Startup →