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In the startup world, we like to think of customer experience as this mystical, ineffable thing: a magical alchemy that happens at the intersection of our product and our audience.

And the thing is – it is. When the right product finds the right audience with the right problem at the right time, the result really is magical.

Some people will try to tell you can’t systematize magic. But those people have never been to Hogwarts. Or Startups.co.

To quote the old business idiom, “People make processes. Processes make a business.” Putting a process around your customer journey doesn’t destroy the magic of customer experience – it makes it better. When you systematize your customer experience, you turn customer delight into a process you can rep...

The customer experience. The task of any business is to shape the experience – to decide what it should looks like, figure out how it can be improved, and to listen to your customers. And, as Lara Crystal speaking about her company Minibar Delivery reveals, who you partner with, tech, company culture and more can play both direct and indirect roles in determining the quality of the customer experience that you provide.

…even when the outcome is something as universally appreciated as having wine brought to your doorstep, there’s so much that could go wrong. Or, if you wise up as to how things are done at Minibar Delivery, so much that can go right…

This morning’s Startups Live chat began with Lara Crystal introducing herself: “I’m the co-f...

"Is 60 hours of work per week enough? 80? 100? Do I just work ALL of them?"

In startup culture, we've developed a pretty broken mantra that "more hours equals more growth". We believe we can kill ourselves to success, and if we're being fair, there's a bit of that requirement in building something from nothing, but the real question is — how many hours should we devote to our startup per week?

Before we get into the number of hours we work, let's first focus on the quality of hours we work.

Remember the 40-hour baseline was established at the turn of the 19th century, popularized by the Ford Motor Company in an era where the number of hours that were worked directly drove the growth of the company.

Nowadays, the correlations are rarely t...

A long time ago I was talking to the owner of a huge automotive dealership chain about how he manages so many dealerships at once. I assumed there was some sort of interesting management scheme he was applying, but what he told me shocked me.

"I drive to every dealership throughout the week, walk around, and look for little things. Cars that aren't fully detailed, salespeople in back taking a smoke break when they should be on the floor, or a lower amount of foot traffic in the showroom."

He went on to say "Where there's smoke, there's fire. Every little detail that's missed means someone isn't on the job, and that's how I find out where I'm needed." In a world of OKRs, KPIs, and endless operational meetings, this guy ran a billion-dollar c...

If we all had the opportunity to go back to where we were at just a few years ago, I imagine we would have at least one piece of advice to share with our past selves that would eliminate unnecessary mistakes and wasted time. When you’re in the moment, you don’t really think about how certain actions (or a lack of actions) are really impacting you. Hindsight is always 20/20, though.

I recently had an opportunity to talk with Rob Walling about Drip, an email marketing automation platform launched in 2013 in an increasingly-competitive space, and how his productivity has increased over the years as he grew and learned from his errors.

Staying Productive With a Remote Workforce

Sujan: How about a quick introduction, Rob?

Rob: Sure. I’ve starte...

Back in the spring and summer of 2014, I carefully documented my journey and perspective as an entrepreneur trying to lose weight. I ended up losing over sixty pounds, going from 220 lbs that March to only 155 lbs that November. The first portion of this article focuses on the original blog post in this entirely; though I have updated the bottom half to reflect what I’ve been up to since, how I’ve not only maintained my body fat percentage but have gained muscle mass too.

I’ve decided to give this post an update since a lot has happened in three years!

This was me back on March 19th, 2014. The beginning of my new health and fitness journey!

It’s not about just losing weight. It’s about being in tune with your personal health.

A warning to...

“The problem here: a) making a business that didn’t give us money early on, and b) not giving up; we kept putting money into the business without knowing we were already dead.”

The special guest of this Startups Live session, Caya, has some great stories to tell. “Started my first business in 2011 (I was 22) and it failed terribly. I ended up with $15K in credit card debt that I just finished paying up last year. The problem here: a) making a business that didn’t give us money early on, and b) not giving up; we kept putting money into the business without knowing we were already dead.”

Well, this may not sound ‘great’, but even this painful experience, which Caya freely shares, comes with silver linings. You might say that he has a knack fo...

People are constantly bombarded with ads in their day-to-day lives, and as a result, they’ve learned to tune them out. The same is true of sales pitches. Even when we’re forced to sit through them, we’re naturally on the defensive, which is why it’s important to replace the traditional sales pitch with a more personal, client-focused experience.

For any business development strategy to reach its full potential, you need to put yourself in the shoes of the customer or company you’re selling to and understand their goals and objectives. What are their needs, and can you adeptly provide a solution without causing friction? Instead of taking the approach of a hammer seeking a nail, look at the problem your customer is facing and tailor your sol...

Most consumers discover products and services on the internet, and this has leveled the playing field for all kinds of vendors. A two-person startup with an eye-grabbing web presence can attract customers just as well as a big corporation.

But there’s a catch: With so many options available, the target audience is going to size up a company in an instant. The first impression a company makes will determine whether a potential customer passes or gives it a closer look. And design is largely responsible for that first impression.

But let’s face it: Design is subjective. As with fashion, people tend to be pretty complimentary of their own design tastes. If they think something looks good to them, it must look good to everybody, right? And bec...

Owning 100% of an asset is the same as owning 0% if it's never liquid.

Too often we get hung up on what percentage of a company we own, only to overlook the fact that our equity actually doesn't matter at all unless it's liquidated at some point.

In this case, we're specifically talking about ownership that requires a sale to have value, not two gals in a room splitting annual profits 50/50 (that percentage does matter in that case!).

Optimize For Probability Not Percentage

Part of where we get distracted is focusing so heavily on how much of the company we have instead of the probability that our ownership will even matter. The broken assumption here is that all probabilities of exit are constant, and the only variable is how much of the ...