Why Tech WON'T Fix Your Business A while back, a friend asked me what I thought about him taking a job offer at MIX. “They’re the reboot of StumbledUpon,” he’d told me. “They want me to improve their recommendation engine, to keep the users they have with better recs, and to get new users by … Continue reading What Happened at MIX
The Competitive Analysis process, step-by-step… I want to find competitors for my fantastic AI SaaS application. Well, let me be clear. I don’t want to find competitors already producing my brilliant offering, but I know it’s smart to look for them before investing a lot of time (and time is money in business), in developing … Continue reading How to Find Startup Competitors
Need an IDEA [that will likely SELL] to Startup? Many want to be entrepreneurs, but most people lack product ideas, or can’t think of a service (or app) that isn’t already available. For over a decade, I taught entrepreneurship at Stanford and Cal Berkeley/Haas. I designed a course to teach the process of turning an IDEA (or … Continue reading How to Generate Product IDEAS
What motivates people to RESPOND (click, like, share, comment), and CONVERT (buy, try, sign-up, subscribe) from your marketing efforts? This is a very important question, because the point of marketing is to get people to [think or] do what our campaigns [suggest or] direct them to do. At the foundation of all marketing is Psychology. … Continue reading Marketing Data Science
Your phone is a tool you're using, or a tool that's using you... I’m watching The Politician on Netflix while working out. The scene is on a teen and mom in their kitchen, arguing about which state senator to vote for in the upcoming New York election. Teen is a first-time voter, just 18. She’s … Continue reading R.I.P. Information Hwy
What it means to be a 'successful' writer... There are bookstores around the country that will put an author on a bestsellers list if the store decides to carry their book, regardless of sales. One of these was Rakeshaw Books in Danville, CA. I’d finished my first novel, REVERB, and got a small publisher to pick it up, … Continue reading Writing for a Living
Marketing 101: How to motivate people to DO what you want them to do… An entrepreneur recently asked me: “What specific skills or knowledge do you believe will be most crucial for aspiring entrepreneurs in 2025 to navigate this complex and dynamic environment?” My response: “The greater understanding one has of what motivates people, individually … Continue reading Engage in Learning About People
I hate running. It hurts my legs, my lungs, my back, my tits. I run between 3 and 4+ miles, five days a week. And I'll continue to run as long as the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. I hate feeling fat, and running is the quickest calorie burn I know of (my me-time is hugely … Continue reading Marketing 101
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6P4XfxWPS2TMHbfHxmJK2d?si=1PIvWMFiQimW1wMIByISdQ I teach my students at Berkeley and Stanford that the foundation of marketing is psychology. Marketing is manipulating people to do what we want, so to get people to do what we want, we have to understand how they think, what they feel, and why. I also teach that the foundation of psychology, what … Continue reading The Psychology of Marketing
Had an interview for a Copywriting contract that required a 'test.' Here's the 'test:' Create five (5) YouTube Channels that can “go viral,” which, according to this 'digital marketing agency' was “20 million views in one week,” with these prompts: Create a “Seek and Find” YouTube channel.Create a “Mouse Maze” YouTube channel.Create a [tween] YouTube … Continue reading Copywriting “Test”
