April, 2010. The party bus was rolling down the highway from Dublin to Kilkenny; it was upholstered in sparkly red and orange vinyl and full of my favorite kind of nerd, and I was perched on the stool in front with a mic clutched in my hand. I had just finished an impromptu little story… Read more »
Posted on March 19, 2015, 12:22 am, by Amy Hoy, under
Bootstrapping.
Scene: A fancy tapas restaurant. Dark wood tables and candle lighting. Me and my business partner, Alex. As the ham croquettes arrive, I whip out my iPhone and tell Alex, “Just a sec, I need to bid on an auction.” He laughs at me. He calls me a crazy chair lady. I laugh too, because… Read more »
Posted on March 10, 2015, 5:40 pm, by Amy Hoy, under
Bootstrapping.
Are you going to spend $10,000 on the new Apple Watch Edition? No, right? Me either. Maybe you can’t afford it. Maybe you could drop $10k on a device but it seems repugnant or simply ridiculous. Maybe you don’t wear a watch at all; I sure don’t, and at this stage I don’t intend to… Read more »
Posted on March 9, 2015, 5:25 pm, by Amy Hoy, under
Bootstrapping.
“The idea that, oh well, I shouldn’t charge money for this because… some reason. Justin Weiss spent years noodling on side projects. He made every excuse in the book for not charging for them, including some we haven’t often heard: At the time, it seemed like, ‘Why should I charge money for this? This is… Read more »
Posted on March 5, 2015, 5:17 pm, by Amy Hoy, under
Bootstrapping.
ebomb, n – our special 30×500 term for actionable educational content marketing. Yeah, cuz that’s a mouthful. So drop a knowledge bomb on ‘em. Ebomb ‘em. “So, I took the 30×500 Bootcamp in November of 2013 and learned a lot. The main thing that stuck out in my mind as this Giant To-Do was the… Read more »
“I just need someone to hold me accountable.” “If only there was a community where I could get advice…” “Let me tell you my plan…” Have these phrases ever passed your lips? And then you failed to execute your plan take action on the advice you received, or be accountable? I’m going to assume the… Read more »
Newsflash: Lean Startup and Customer Development are inherently broken. If you ask me, the whole process is functionally bankrupt. Why? Let me answer your question with a pair of questions: Why do you create good things… but nobody buys? Worse: Why do you feel the thrill of a great idea, then get stuck before you… Read more »
Posted on March 1, 2015, 7:57 pm, by Amy Hoy, under
30x500,
Bootstrapping,
Customers,
Hard Work,
interviews,
Launching,
Marketing,
Stories.
Jim Gay is a busy dad. A REALLY busy dad, with 4 kids. He started thinking about switching from consulting to a product business so he could spend more time with his family…because he was tired of working endless, stressful hours to pay the bills. He built a product – the obvious next step for… Read more »