Shared Learnings
It’s Our Third Birthday!
Hip hip hooray! Happy Birthday To Us It's been three years since Pollenizer began (well kind of, we were incorporated on the 29th of February). What an amazing journey it's been for not only us, but our clients, co-founders and partners, friends, family and the whole...
read moreUniversal Startup Pitch Deck
Here is a set of slides we use at Bootcamp, Startmate and other forums when we're working with new startups. The idea is to be able to quickly and succinctly tell the full story of the business without thinking about it too much. You get 5 seconds per slide. Just...
read moreQuick things you can learn from Google – product variations
What product variations should you offer? You plan to sell t-shirts online but you're not sure what colours other than black people might be interested in. Just plug a couple of different colours into Google Sets: Then simply select whether you want a large or small...
read moreWe are Hiring!
I suspect that this is just the beginning for 2011, but there are already open positions on our job board. If you apply, please take the time to read our website and ask around a bit before submitting your application. We respond well to people who put some effort...
read moreThe Truth Helps
It's great to have friends, colleagues and mentors encourage you and tell you 'you can do it'. It's crucial to have people who give you brutally honest feedback. Look for it, cultivate it, and make sure you're getting it in a healthy dose. We even go so far as to...
read moreQuick things you can learn from Google – demand
Is there any demand for your product? You plan to sell baby headphones online but you don’t know if anyone will be interested. Plug the terms you think people would use to look for the product into Google’s Keyword tool and you’ll quickly know how many people search...
read moreThe many ‘ands’ of a startup founder
As founders ourselves and working with hundreds of other entrepreneurs, we've found there are a lot of conflicting skills, principles and characteristics that it helps to have. Here are a few, add your own. Big vision and brutal focus. Deep empathy and benevolent...
read moreBook Review – Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Book: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Author: Steven Johnson Rating: 4/5 Video: Brilliant book that should excite the minds of anyone interested in new ideas and innovation. Johnson approaches the topic by analysing the history of famous...
read moreHow I plan out my week
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a 'seat of my pants' kind of guy in a 'rocket powered rollercoaster' kind of job. Because of that, and often in spite of that, I have to work very hard to make sure that I'm driving the direction I want. It doesn't work every day,...
read moreShould I become an entrepreneur?
When it comes to the quintessential entrepreneur, there is no magic set of skills or perfect list of traits. However, Jeffrey Bussgang recommends that these are the kinds of questions you should ask yourself: Do you have an idea that no one can talk you out of? Do you...
read moreWhat’s Next for Pollenizer?
This morning I caught up with a lot of the team about what we're working on. I was very happy to hear that following the Spreets acquisition by Yahoo our team was proud but focused on the work at hand. It's interesting for Pollenizer since we are co-founders, but we...
read moreStartup Founder, you don’t have a brand!
I hear lots of startup founders get worried when I talk about testing things fast, moving quickly, trying different target micro-segments and failing constantly on the way to finding a working model. "Yeah, but won't we be burning people? Won't they not come back ever...
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