There is a lot of conventional wisdom about startups and side projects that is just plain bad advice. “How do you know it is bad advice?” you may ask. Well, for over eight years I’ve co-hosted a tech startup podcast where we’ve interviewed many successful entrepreneurs. With each interview I’ve ‘unlearned’ a little bit more. Here are some of […]

Did you know wild deer are free to roam the forest, yet they seldom roam “free”? Instead, they walk the same route day after day. So much so, they create a visible deer path on the forest floor! We do that same thing with our thought patterns. The technical term is cognitive bias. When someone […]

When first starting out, at the idea-picking stage, I try to advise people to pick at least three ideas to run validation tests on to see if customers are willing to pay. Here’s a little example of why that is an optimal strategy: Let’s say you were drilling for oil. You didn’t know exactly “where” […]

UPDATE: The beginning of this post used to have a section that outed a competitor for perhaps being a little too inspired by Nugget. I have removed that, because, it had data which enabled a reader to identify the competitor. — Firstly, I want to say congratulations to this competitor for doing something. The fact that he […]

It’s Raining Mobile Out of 20m global software developers, very few have built a profitable SaaS business. To give some context, consider “software developers” as a group, have built 4m mobile apps, but only 15k SaaS businesses. This is especially odd, given the amazingly commoditized and fickle nature of app marketplaces, with low price points and […]

At Nugget, we talk to 100’s of entrepreneurs, both new and experienced, about problems they face while growing their businesses. One of the biggest concerns we hear from potential founders is this: “I would love to build my startup, but I don’t want to quit my day job.” Well, of course, you don’t. You’re likely […]

Your friends are lying to you. I hate to start off so bluntly, but every entrepreneur must remember this: If your friends say they will buy your product idea, that does not mean they actually will buy your product. We have an entire blog written about why you can’t always trust your feedback loop, but […]

Something that comes up a lot during my conversations with founders is – Competition – with a capital C. Often times, they steer clear of really interesting projects because they feel there is too much competition in that market. It’s a common cognitive bias because that’s how we’re taught to think about competition in the “normal” business world. However, […]

In early November of 2013, I was sitting at my desk at one of the largest financial firms in the world thinking about the conversation I was about to have. I kept playing and replaying over and over again how I was going to tell my boss that my startup had just received a seed […]

Product/founder fit We hear the term Product/market fit all the time, but few talk about Product/founder fit. Ironically, it may be a great deal more important for your individual success. So what exactly is it? Product/founder fit is a measure of how well your startup fits YOU. The better it fits, the more likely you are […]