As my cofounder and I were just about to board a flight back to London from Toronto, we were told to wait aside at the desk after our boarding passes were scanned. Something had gone wrong with our check-in process and we were left to stand there awkwardly while our

Let’s turn back the clock to 1941. In Nebraska, US, there’s a boy who’s eleven years old. His father owns a stockbrokerage, which he frequently visits to chalk on prices on the office blackboard. Whilst very young to be making any sort of investment, this young boy

We’ve always been skeptical of cold email. It seems spammy, unreliable, and depressing at times. And let’s be honest—nobody loves doing startup outbound sales. The difficult truth is that it sucks a lot of the time, and when it doesn’t you still have to grind away.

Photo credit: coachlibrary.tv [http://www.coachlibrary.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jim_Rohn_Coach_Library.jpg] What can make a good product manager great? Sometimes the answer is as common as ever: interpersonal skills, efficient frameworks, and a clear product vision. Other times a competitive advantage of a product

When we launched HelpDocs earlier this year there were just the two of us. We ran everything. Product, sales, marketing, support, legal. You name it, we ran it. That’s pretty much the norm for self-funded startups like ours. If you’ve run one, you’ll know exactly how it

I’ve met a ton of startup founders this year, and I’ve learned a few things about how they tick. One interesting trait that they’ve all had in common is obsession. All founders are obsessed with something. The worst are obsessed with material things. Money. Fame. Stuff. To

In the past, I’ve found myself signing up for a product trials based on the software’s website. I love buying software. 🙊 In most cases, the website explains the benefits, and when you get onboard you totally understand why you need the product. It’s clear. The product is

If you run a startup, I’m guessing you have a public knowledge base. Maybe you call it a support site, or self-service helpdesk, but some way of letting your customers help themselves. But do you remember why you have it? And do you care? If you don’t, you’