Understanding “BETA”

Posted on January 11, 2013 by lzunzunegui under Uncategorized

First thing to get out of the way… your users “don’t” understand BETA. This means that when they visit your business, if it doesn’t solve their problem they won’t come back. They don’t care if its Beta or Gamma. That is why BETA must not be approached as a way to get some feedback while work is in progress, but as a way of having a controlled situation where your objective is to learn as much as possible about the not-so-obvious motivations of your clients.

We have been “in Beta” since May and now we approach BETA in a different way. Mainly dividing it in two phases. This is what we’ve learned:

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Managing Your Attention Span

Posted on February 21, 2012 by lzunzunegui under Getting help, Getting things done, Starting, Tips

I have relatively short attention span. Let me explain myself… I love solving problems, in fact, I always say that I haven’t found a challenge that I couldn’t solve (and I mean daily challenges not age long mathematical problems). If I find a challenge I will focus on it like a mad man and learn about it, turn it apart and become an expert as quick as possible. I think there is a medical name for that, OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder… or something.

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My take on Amazon rumors and lessons to be learned

Posted on February 10, 2012 by lzunzunegui under Strategy, Tips, User experience

Amazon has been a lot on the news lately, mostly on the matter of revenues and their statements that the market just doesn’t get their “long-term” strategy. I have my personal opinion that I will share at some point, but this last days there has been some other matters about Amazon that have caught my attention. These are the rumors (more or less confirmed) about Amazon opening brick-and-mortar stores and if it’s a good or bad idea.

My first take on that rumor was of complete shock and denial. It couldn’t be, by doing so they were completely messing up the core of its business. They where fumbling with their very own values! But then after giving it some thought I started thinking that if they did it right maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea.

So, am I in favor or against? It depends, and here it is why:

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Tips on building your tech company for non-tech guys

Posted on January 31, 2012 by lzunzunegui under Getting things done, new business idea, Tips

First of all, as I have said many times, I haven’t got a technical profile… I’ve majored in Business Administration and have always worked in Business Development and Product Management during my “short” working life.

One common advice to all of us non-technical profiles that decide to start a new internet business is to “learn to program”… So that is what I did… And after some days of Python and Ruby-on-Rails I can tell you one thing: I am sorry to say but if you take into consideration all the implications and the time needed, that advice is… nonsense.

After attending some developer meetup and telling my story almost every advice I got was in fact the contrary… “Want to learn to program? don’t even try. Go find a CTO co-founder”. And that is what I did, and after a month doing that, I had a big breakthrough. That advice is, also… nonsense.

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Changing your source of motivation

Posted on January 12, 2012 by lzunzunegui under Getting things done, new business idea

When working at a big company there is always a focus on daily tasks. You have got a full inbox, 3 or 4 meetings and a trickling stream of people approaching your table to discuss this and that. The little time you have got left is focused in getting something done of that project with a dangerously close deadline. Day after day. Not much time for creative work then…

Then you decide to start your own business and suddenly your “daily” world turns upside down.

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The 4th step

Posted on November 15, 2011 by lzunzunegui under mind, new business idea, Starting, Tips

Recently I was asked a very good question by @jaltucher. After reading my “three and a half steps” he wandered if there was a fourth one that really wrapped up my arguments…

I found it a great question, and after giving it some thought I decided that I needed a little bit more than 140 characters to explain myself. So here it is…

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Starting Entrepreneurs: How to keep your momentum going

Posted on October 5, 2011 by lzunzunegui under Getting help, new business idea, Tips

Usually, ideas, if not nourished, end up crippling and dying. Even the most interesting and visionary. Without momentum, ideas that once had grown and developed in our head into the “next Google” end up loosing their vivid color and fall into oblivion. For startups, momentum lives and breathes in Silicon Valley, but for many of us, California is a bit out of hand… So you have to look for “momentum” in other places…

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Three and a half steps to start building your business idea

Posted on September 12, 2011 by lzunzunegui under new business idea, Starting

By adopting a new habit and focusing on three steps I’ve been able to come up with many new business ideas in a consistent manner, and even better, I have understood that entrepreneurship actually is a viable way of “earning a living”.