What Every Startup Can Learn From Uber [Fortune]

The biggest indicator of a startup’s failure isn’t product-market fit. It is a lack of customers. My startup has already pivoted several times in the past year and eventually narrowed the focus to something that works.

How did we realize we were finally onto the right idea? Customers. Big, important customers suddenly began to show interest in what we were offering. We had a lot of interest early on, but very little follow-through beyond the first few conversations.

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Listen to your customers. As a startup founder, part of the problem that you are trying to solve must instill some sense of urgency on the customer’s behalf. Why should your customer start using your product right now instead of tomorrow or next year? What value can you offer this very second that a competitor cannot? Demonstrating this in black and white to your customer base will set you up for success.

If a customer cannot immediately determine what you can do for them, they will be unlikely to use your services, or will delay using them long enough to forget about them completely. Without the support of your user base, your startup will likely run into long-term trouble. Every successful startup has been able to quickly solve a clear problem for their customers.

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How The Subscription Economy Is Disrupting The Traditional Business Model [Forbes] – Recently, I heard the CEO of Zuora, Tien Tzuo, suggest that there is a significant shift happening that will impact business leaders. That shift is away from a pay-per-product model to a subscription-based model.

Top 5 Blogging Platforms for Business Bloggers [CEOpress] – Business Blogging is a niche blogging category that focuses on entrepreneurs and business owners that blog for their businesses and those that leverage blogging to target the Business-2-Business (B2B) market. There are numerous platforms that have strengths and weaknesses. I decided to list some of them.

Do These 50 Things Regularly and You'll Become a Better Entrepreneur [Entrepreneur] – Instead, the best lessons come from experience, and only by adopting beneficial habits on a daily basis can you gradually attain the excellent leadership, decision-making and adaptability necessary to assure you're success as a startup founder. Those lessons? To get you started, here are 50 of the best.