science

The Greatest Start-up Book Ever?

I’ve read dozens, maybe almost a hundred books on start-ups.  I’ve loved many of them, but none of them really seemed like ‘science’ to me, more like opinion.  After reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, I now understand what I’ve been missing!  I really do feel like The Lean Startup is the greatest start-up book ever.. and here is why you MUST READ THIS BOOK NOW!

  1. It teaches entrepreneurs the “Scientific Method” for building a startup.
  2. It teaches entrepreneurs the proper ORDER of building a startup.
  3. It teaches INVESTORS the propper criteria to evaluate a startup.
  4. It explains in detail the right time to ‘get funding’ and more importantly ‘spend funding’.
  5. It explains very clearly why so many startups fail.
  6. It has dozens of examples of the process being used successfully.
  7. It truly teaches you about scale-able business models.
  8. It builds a great foundation for managing people and teams in a startup.
  9. It even applies to big organizations that want to be more startup-y.

DO NOT WAIT, get this book now.

Measuring Marketing: An Engineering Challenge.

Engagement is quite the word.  It means getting in touch, getting together, and the promise of a union.  To Marketers, this means getting attention.  In 2010, Marketers find Engagement to be their #1 priority.  But what will they do with this engagement?  How can we measure its effect.  Show me the money!

Engineers and Scientists have striven for hundreds of years to go about measuring things.  Measurement and observation are the keys to enlightenment.  Modeling comes next, followed by theory, and then sometimes law.  So why then do Marketers have so many theories, and so few models?  Where are the measurements?  The answer is troubling and disheartening.  Marketing, alas, is no science, yet science shall be its salvation.

My journey into Marketing through my new company Karmaback and beyond, is leading to answers we engineer-type business folks have sought for decades.  The struggle between marketing science and art WILL come to a head in our lifetimes, and maybe Karmaback will bring it there.

The $600 Billion question: does engagement lead to marriage?
E.g. can marketing lead to sales?