These days, most entrepreneurs I talk to understand the importance of speaking with customers before building a full-blown product. But unfortunately, I often speak with entrepreneurs that have only talked to one or two customers. The danger in speaking with too few customers is that you bet too much on too little data. Maybe. MORE >>

Of course, one sale isn’t really enough, so you need to get the first customer to recommend you to a second, and make sure rate of sales ramps up quickly enough to keep the business alive and growing. Customers don’t buy the impossible dream. product, without customer support, is not ready for sale. That should be you. MORE >>

One way to deal with these issues to hire part time executives. Part time execs work when: You hire in non-core areas : Finance is super important to any company, but it is not a core aspect of the company’s mission and vision. Product definition, development and customer acquisition happen every day. MORE >>

And to me there is one place where lean has no place: Hiring. To understand why hiring needs to be fat, not lean, lets first look at the core principles of lean startup. You can’t apply this to hiring. If you did, you would hire fast. And there is a huge difference between a good hire and a great one. MORE >>

Hiring is hard. Not hiring can seem even harder, but often isn't. At my last company we went from entrance to exit without hiring one employee. I'm now three years into DuckDuckGo, and still haven't hired. So don't take what I say about hiring too seriously, but perhaps I have something useful to say on not hiring. MORE >>