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	<title>Growth Times &#187; Develop</title>
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	<link>http://www.growthtimes.com</link>
	<description>Growing Successful Businesses in Emerging Technologies</description>
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		<title>Just Published on ReadWriteWeb: 10 Principles For Not Killing Your Startup</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2010/03/just-published-on-readwriteweb-10-principles-for-not-killing-your-startup/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2010/03/just-published-on-readwriteweb-10-principles-for-not-killing-your-startup/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:37:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lead]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commercialization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entrepreneur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entrepreneurship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[managing a startup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[product management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Start Up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[start up mortality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[start-ups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[starting a business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech ventures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.growthtimes.com/?p=288</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ReadWriteStart, the entrepreneur's channel of ReadWriteWeb, nicely published an article I wrote for them on Principles For Not Killing Your Startup.

With the new wave of entrepreneurs brought about by the financial crisis, I suspect the mortality rate of startups is at an all-time high. I didn't find robust data to back my observation yet, but I did come across a page that points out that, before the financial crisis, the chances were six in a million that an idea for a high-tech business eventually would become a successful company that goes public, that a venture capitalist financed only six out of every 1,000 business plans received each year, and that bankruptcies occured for 60% of the high-tech startup companies that succeeded in getting venture capital. Wow. Persistence is paramount.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2010/03/just-published-on-readwriteweb-10-principles-for-not-killing-your-startup/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Have a Product Manager and Not a Sales Process Manager?</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/10/why-have-a-product-manager-and-not-a-sales-process-manager/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/10/why-have-a-product-manager-and-not-a-sales-process-manager/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:36:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer relationship management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lead conversion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lead generation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing and Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales funnel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales lifecycle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales process]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.growthtimes.com/?p=207</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Funneling prospects and clients is nothing new. But the web has taken it to a whole new level, making the entire process cheaper and more precise. And with the bar being constantly raised, a focus on the “whole sales process” is increasingly decisive: established companies must further invest in updating and refining theirs, and early-stage ventures in nailing it through deliberate design and rapid testing.

The sales process needs as much attention as your product – and sometimes more. History abounds of dead companies that got their product right but their sales process wrong. Poorly managing the sales process is a sure recipe for disaster. Think of it this way: the sales process really is about creating a "product" around the product. 

What we call the product, ultimately, is just a mechanism enticing customers to give us money in exchange for value. But there is generally much more to delivering this value than the product. ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/10/why-have-a-product-manager-and-not-a-sales-process-manager/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Step-by-Step Instructions by Mint&#8217;s Founder on Growing a Start-up</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/10/step-by-step-instructions-by-mints-founder-on-growing-a-start-up/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/10/step-by-step-instructions-by-mints-founder-on-growing-a-start-up/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaron Patzer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entrepreneurship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fundraising links]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[growth stages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mint.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Start Up]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.growthtimes.com/?p=187</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[To any current or would-be entrepreneur, I highly recommend the following video of a presentation this month by Aaron Patzer, CEO of Mint, which was recently sold to Intuit for $170 million.

At first I thought it was a bit long, at 22 minutes, and so I figured I'd only watch the first few minutes. 23 minutes later, I am writing this blog post. Aaron goes over the start-up creation and growth process in practical details, even presenting slides from his own original pitch. ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/10/step-by-step-instructions-by-mints-founder-on-growing-a-start-up/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Should You Focus on Revenue or on Raising Money? (and the Case for a VC-Management Consultant Hybrid)</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/09/should-you-focus-on-revenue-or-on-raising-money-and-the-case-for-a-vc-management-consultant-hybrid/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/09/should-you-focus-on-revenue-or-on-raising-money-and-the-case-for-a-vc-management-consultant-hybrid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:46:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[37signals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Capital Access - Financing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Initial public offering]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[monetization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[revenue generation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Revenue model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Silicon Valley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech venture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[valuation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[valuation model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture capital]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.growthtimes.com/?p=163</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Varun Mathur, the Techvibes Community Manager, who I just learnt is based in Toronto (I look forward to meeting you, Varun), made an excellent point yesterday in his Techvibes post on What Separates 37signals And Twitter ? 

For all the talk about "getting to revenue" as fast as possible, VCs are still valuing companies based on hype and unproven potential for exponential revenues. You can build valuations based on traffic, but if you can't attach a realistic average $ amount to a visitor, and if you are going to hemorrhage your traffic as soon as you offer ads, then your valuation is built on shaky grounds - which in finance means you should likely be extremely conservative or discount it.
]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/09/should-you-focus-on-revenue-or-on-raising-money-and-the-case-for-a-vc-management-consultant-hybrid/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Welcoming Constructive Criticism, a Key Success Driver for Start-Ups</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/09/welcoming-constructive-criticism-a-key-driver-of-start-up-success/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/09/welcoming-constructive-criticism-a-key-driver-of-start-up-success/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:08:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[constructive criticism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entrepreneur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[getsatisfaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[product development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[product review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Start Up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yelp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.torevenue.com/?p=127</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[At Growthroute, we believe that start-up leaders should encourage candid inputs on their company and products, and be open to discussing things that don't work. They should welcome that feedback at least as well as they receive compliments on their successes. Highlighting deficiencies in due time (and offering solutions) gives entrepreneurs an opportunity to address them before they really hurt, while surrounding oneself with yes-sayers is a well-known recipe for failure – and yet still as common today as it was millennia ago. In the age of twitter,  getsatisfaction, yelp and blogs, being able to productively process feedback even perceived as harsh is more important today than ever before.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/09/welcoming-constructive-criticism-a-key-driver-of-start-up-success/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Venture Founder&#8217;s Reading List</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/08/growthroute-suggested-reading-list/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/08/growthroute-suggested-reading-list/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:31:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business classics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business reading list]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entrepreneur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entrepreneurship books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Publications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[start-up books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[top business books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture reading]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.torevenue.com/?p=112</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have just added a reading list on Growthroute's website, to help clients, prospects and would-be entrepreneurs quickly identify some key reference frameworks that drive our actions. If you exclude the all- time classic of Peter Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which deserves its own section, this list is divided in 6 parts, inspired by the Develop/Market/Fund/Scale framework Growthroute uses to classify the type of actions and projects we work on with entrepreneurs.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/08/growthroute-suggested-reading-list/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Slides of Communitech Presentation on Overcoming the Tech vs. Business Type Divide</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/07/slides-of-communitech-presentation-on-overcoming-the-tech-vs-business-type-divide/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/07/slides-of-communitech-presentation-on-overcoming-the-tech-vs-business-type-divide/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:39:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Canadian entrepreneurs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blockbusters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business plan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commercialization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consultant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digital divide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[divide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fundraising links]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[go-to-market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market hit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mental models]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[monetization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Product manager]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Revenue model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science and Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[techies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.torevenue.com/?p=88</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As previously announced, I was at Communitech last Friday to talk about the key challenges to launching blockbuster tech products with their Product Manager group. I decided  to hone in on the divide between Techies and Biz types, as this has consistently been one of the main hurdles I saw at the ventures I work with. I was a little worried as at first I expected possible controversies over some of the points I brought up, but to my surprise this resonated well and strongly with most people in the room. About half the room were techies and the other biz types, so the distribution was spread nicely in the middle. There were no punch exchanges, mud fights or even light food fights.

I posted my presentation on Slideshare, so you can find it below.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/07/slides-of-communitech-presentation-on-overcoming-the-tech-vs-business-type-divide/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>As Paths to Commercialization Narrow, Canadian Biotech Calls for Help</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/as-the-paths-to-commercialization-are-narrowing-canadian-biotech-calls-for-help/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/as-the-paths-to-commercialization-are-narrowing-canadian-biotech-calls-for-help/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:07:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biotech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biotech industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commercialization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eyes on the prize]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fred Sweeney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government programs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation entrepreneurship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Revenue model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology commercialization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture capital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vg partners]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.torevenue.com/?p=34</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My friend Fred Sweeney of Vanguard Partners pointed me out to this interesting call for help by the biotech industry in Canada, whose start-ups are finding it difficult to raise money to survive, let alone thrive. In these times of hardships, the ventures with the least obvious path to commercialization and revenue are the ones who suffer first and most. Given the lengthy development cycles and uncertain payout, biotech ventures evidently stand at the frontline of the crisis.

What all that shows is that a start-up should at all times be able to articulate the revenue model it is proposing to pursue.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/as-the-paths-to-commercialization-are-narrowing-canadian-biotech-calls-for-help/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Suggested Reading: Why the Chasm Still Exists by Jon Worren</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/suggested-reading-why-the-chasm-still-exists-by-jon-worren/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/suggested-reading-why-the-chasm-still-exists-by-jon-worren/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:39:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chasm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hub]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mars discovery district]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[toronto]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.torevenue.com/?p=22</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Great entry by Jon Worren on Why the chasm still exists, on the blog of Toronto's innovation hub MaRS. Nicely complements the last post on this blog.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/suggested-reading-why-the-chasm-still-exists-by-jon-worren/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Customer Deficit Disorder</title>
		<link>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/customer-deficit-disorder/</link>
		<comments>http://www.growthtimes.com/2009/02/customer-deficit-disorder/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Greg Boutin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Develop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blockbusters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[car sharing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[growthroute ventures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation and entrepreneurship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[peter drucker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rockband]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[successful innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technological breakthrough]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture capital]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[venture capitalists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wii]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.torevenue.com/?p=11</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What do the Wii, iPod, iPhone, netbooks, Facebook, Rockband, and Twitter have in common?

None of these blockbusters required any technological breakthrough. All of the technology they used was available before they came to market. What Apple, Nintendo or Asus did was taking clues from the market and reassembling technological bits into one coherent solution for users. ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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