Entrepreneurship
Build a Product-Focused Audience
We did it wrong too. Most founders do what Jeremy and I did at Tortuga [http://www.tortugabackpacks.com]. They experience a problem, build a solution, then try to sell it to other people. This formula is a great way to find yourself sitting on inventory or, in our case,
The 4 Stages from Idea to Company
When talking about Tortuga [http://www.tortugabackpacks.com], I often break our history up into four stages: idea, product, business, and company. We needed a long time to move from one stage to the next, so they are easy to delineate in our case. Regardless of your velocity, each step
The Middle Class Mindset is the Opposite of Lifestyle Design
> [T]he middle class in recent history has been defined by its ability to both earn and spend money in very predictable ways. —Venkatesh Rao Whether you call it the middle class mindset or a financial script, the point is the same. Those who adhere to it are following
Metrics That Don't Matter
> [Company] raises $X, now valued at $Y That's probably the most common headline for startup coverage. That coverage focuses on the wrong numbers. Startup founders and employees have already chosen to play the VC game. That's their call. Good luck. I worry about bootstrapped founders
The 4-Hour Workweek: 10 Years Later
Last week, a writer who was doing a story on direct-to-consumer brands [https://www.fredperrotta.com/v-commerce/] raising venture capital, asked why Tortuga [http://www.tortugabackpacks.com] didn't raise any money. In 2009 and 2010 when Jeremy and I were starting the company, I was living in San
The Intersection of "Helpful to Others" and "Interesting to You"
Solving for the Wrong Problem When responding to tweets about my post, If Your Business is a Secret, It's Probably Bullshit [https://www.fredperrotta.com/bullshit-businesses/], I realized a core problem of these businesses: founders start them to solve their own problems. Problems like hating their jobs or
Forget Creating Jobs; Create Entrepreneurs
The focus on jobs during the election [https://www.fredperrotta.com/remote-work-small-towns/] was woefully misguided. The discussion reflected an industrial-era mindset, which isn't surprising since both Democratic finalists and the Republican nominee were all over 65. Talking about creating jobs as a goal is wrong. Jobs are an
If Your Business is a Secret, It's Probably Bullshit
A rule of thumb, particularly for digital nomads: > If you can't tell a stranger what you do, you may not have a real business. I've found this secrecy prevalent in dropshipping, Amazon sellers, and Amazon affiliates. Warren Buffet often talks about building defensible "moats&