The Startup Toolkit

I'm going to take a guess because I'm obviously not part of your core team so I have no inside knowledge to how or what your doing. As other have posted in classic purple cow speak [1], you build a better product and remember "your product is not THE product"[2]. Part of Ash's lean canvas[3] even has a spot for alternatives which may even include competitors. The focal point is you need to start testing everything so you can: create a customer feedback loop of _learning_[4][4b]. Ash's model is a variant of the original "Business Model Canvas" which is also very good. I would urge you and everyone to LOOK at the examples and iterations of these models on the main site[5]. Some of the questions you start asking in this exercise are: - What is the problem your solving, and what are the possible solutions? - How will you reach customers, who are the early adopters? Its never too late, and like I said actually the beginning of the exercise. Even if you 'know this already', I would urge you to re-test and re-focus on your previous lean canvases/models. Success is in the finer details. Remember, you never stop learning about the customer. You want a 'specific' customer? You develop a strategy - focused on the problem. So there you go, a 'teaser' on building a better product. Now go read Eric Ries's[6] book[7], Steve Blank's book[8] for overall strategy. See the business model generation book and site[9] (there is an ipad app!) for more finer details. There is also a…

I agree with this. http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/2012/12/how-to-screw-up-your-life-by… Maybe not quite the same thing as OP, but I've always been weary of chasing the money in this tech world. You manage to get some crazy good salary and now you're kinda stuck with "golden handcuffs". I personally am aware of 2 people who had comfy corp jobs, steady "mandatory" raises. Everything seems great. Then the year 2008 real-estate-bubble-burst happened and wiped them out. If the OP is very disciplined; living below his salary & keeping his skills sharp then I guess he'd be fine, but that's not how most people handle getting more money. I like to think I can handle it myself, but I have to admit that as the raises come, I find new concerns to make me buy yet another organic food/pillow/blanket/bottle/etc.

Welcome to London! Check out Google campus - http://www.campuslondon.com/ . The cafe is a great place to meet London startup people and there are always events going on (http://www.campuslondon.com/events/). If you're here till Monday night, check out Burger night - http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/burger-night/ It's just a casual dinner for local founders. I might not be around this weekend, but email me some time if you want to meet. I'm a solo founder - no office (yet) but happy to meet for coffee/beer. My details are in my profile. Edit: totally forgot about Silicon Milk roundabout, thanks ig1! You couldn't be visiting at a better time, knes.

I try to avoid self-referencing, but since it does answer your question, here's my idea creation/testing thought process[1] and a walkthrough of an example I'm currently working on[2]. Joel (of Buffer) also did an awesome write-up of how he validated that idea[3], which is probably the best practice for freemium or subscription ideas. [1] http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/2011/12/how-i-come-up-with-new-start… [2] http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/2012/02/an-example-of-how-im-current… [3] http://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-weeks-how-we-d…

I found this interesting: http://thestartuptoolkit.com/ It's template for developing a startup idea.

@robfitz built a really cool startup tool kit: http://thestartuptoolkit.com/ I'm pretty sure that if you can complete most of these boxes you'll have found a startup.

Bad link - it's to the blog, and what's on top will change as more things are posted. Here's a perma-link: http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/How_Ill_manage_my_next_founding_team… Having said that, it's an interesting read. Thanks.