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What is product strategy?

Product strategy is the combination of a high-level vision of what your company is going to accomplish and the steps you’re going to take to get there. Basically, you’re turning your product vision into your product roadmap. It’s something of a transitional step in the top-down process of transforming your grand vision for your startup into an actual, product design.

Most companies have more than one product strategy. In addition to an overarching product strategy that applies to the direction the whole company is headed, if your company has more than more product, then each one is going to need its own product strategy.

For many startups, the overarching product strategy and the specific product strategy overlap,...

Today’s Favorite Find: Jukedeck

Elevator Pitch:

Jukedeck lets you create unique music for your online video.

Why We Love It:

I have watched more startup explainer videos in my life than anyone should ever be subjected to. I mean, it’s a hazard of the job, right? When you write about startups, you inevitably end up watching startup explainer videos. As a result, I’ve seen the full gamut — the good, the bad, the hilarious, and the trying really hard to be hilarious but totally failing. I’ve also seen so many trends come and go. And, of course, I’ve witnessed the ones that just won’t die.

One of those trends with nine lives is, unfortunately, what I call “tinkly” music. (I’m sure it has an official name, but this is my column so I’m allowed t...

Boris Wertz is the founder of VersionOne Ventures, an early-stage fund that has made over 35 investments in consumer Internet, SaaS, and mobile companies across North America. Clarity sat down with Boris to discuss how to find funding sources, how (and how much) to ask, and crafting the perfect pitch.

In order to raise money, most startups go through the same process: create a pitch deck, and then pitch it to investors.There are many types of investors, such as institutional investors who invest other people’s money, angel investors who invest their own money, and venture capitalists who privately or publicly provide total capital for a new venture.

Where can you find funding?
First, you should think about what the right funding is. Everyon...

Let’s face it: Media failures happen to the best of us. Sometimes they’re simple mistakes that go unnoticed, and sometimes they’re catastrophic failures that can ruin a business. The vast majority of the time, though, they’re preventable.

At its core, a media failure is when the value exchange between a marketer and a media company breaks down. This can happen because a marketing strategy was poorly planned, the implementation was rushed, or the media company was unable to actually deliver the audience it promised.

That’s why at New Brave World, I always caution the teams we advise to be careful to consider legal timelines and the time and cost exposure that’s connected to custom content creation. It’s also important to ensure you’ve reserv...

When you’re launching a travel business, there are many “what ifs” and “what nows” — especially if you’re a rookie. It’s almost too easy to get caught up in the excitement. Whether you’re trying to build out too many related products before perfecting your core business, struggling to gauge the strength of a potential partnership, or micromanaging your staff, it might be a good idea to take a step back and gain a little perspective from the pros.

After all, those pros started out where you are now, and many are willing and eager to help others get on their feet. So don’t be afraid to reach out within the tight-knit entrepreneurial community to seek advice because almost nothing is more valuable than help from someone who has been in the tre...

We all have heard that "just getting 51% of the company will help us control the board and rule the world!"

But in startup companies, that's often not the case.

A lot of our control actually lies within the agreements that we create within the company, regardless of our percentage of control.

The Difference between Common and Preferred Shares

Startups can have many classes of stock, but the two most often created are "Common" and "Preferred" shares. There are many variants, but the most classic usage is "Preferred" have controlling rights, "Common" does not.

Investors will almost always take Preferred shares, which entitle them to specific types of rights within the company, even if they do not have the majority of those shares.

Those c...

We recently hired someone in our finance department that lasted about a week. He happened to be in his 50’s. During his exit interview he said “I wasn’t prepared to work for a company ran by Millennials”.

Until that moment I have never actually considered myself a “Millennial”. I talked about them as “they”, but never thought I was part of the “them” group. I Googled it — turns out “Millennials” apply to anyone born between 1982 and 2004. I was born in 1984….. I guess I AM a Millennial.

Okay, I’ll own it. If that is the case, what makes working for Millennials “different”?

1. I’ll call you out.

The Baby Boomer generation grew up on Dale Carnegie leadership principles. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve read “How to win friends and influence people”...

Do you want to become a millionaire? Asking doesn’t make much sense—Who wouldn’t want to be? But WHY? WHAT motivates you? And HOW to fulfill that motivation and become a millionaire? Let us get answers to these questions in the next 2 mins.

It is money which drives your expectations, needs and wants. The thing which helps and assists you in fulfilling them. It is a solution to most of your problems. Money can buy you almost anything, be it freedom, power, comfort, pleasure and the list goes on. Recently the most popular cliche that “Money can’t buy you Happiness” was proven wrong by a study conducted by Cambridge University. According to the study people who spent money in line with their personality traits were the happiest. You can judge...

Business strategist and consultant Roberto Candelaria has been in the business for years, and is a pro when it comes to sponsorship. Roberto has experience working with big brands like BMW, DELL, Disney, Hilton, State Farm, Wells Fargo, and Zappos. He sat down to talk us through the ‘RELAT’ model – his top tips for landing a corporate sponsorship for your startup.

Represent

Know who you are as a company and what your mission and values are. Strive to work with companies that share a similar vision and will compliment your company rather than turn it into something it’s not.

Establish

Determine what you want to have sponsored, and plan out your timelines. Look at this as creating your business plan for what the sponsorship will look like. Th...

Update (12/7/17): The previous video lesson is no longer available and we’ve since removed it. However, you can still see more from Morgan Brown including his lesson on Growth From User 0.

If you’re serious about growing your startup, you know that early user acquisition is a crucial moment and going from 0 to 10,000 customers is the hardest part. Morgan Brown, head growth expert at GrowthHackers.com, shares his insider tricks on how to get the early traction you need.

In this video, Brown discusses why growth is absolutely a team sport and must be something that everyone in your company is involved with—it must be fundamentally built into the product.

(Video removed – no longer available)

If you want to learn more about early user acquisi...