Thursday, July 7, 2011

Lean Coffee - Entries and Exits

Today we discussed various Lean ways to enter and exit business ventures.

A few points that came up:

  • Three main entry methods:
    • Seek financial investment/partners
    • "Scratch own itch" and finance internally
    • Sell a custom solution as a product to first customer, then market to others
  • Developing internally:
    • Benefits: Strong engineering expertise, Can work on it during "downtime"
    • Drawbacks: Tough to focus and allocate enough time, Lack of sales/marketing expertise
  • When bootstrapped, makes you highly focused on revenue generation and reaching profitability
  • Big difference in attitude in Canada vs. United States with regards to VCs and financing


Thanks to Jeremy at JAR Creative for hosting!