Bootstrappers need to proceed in a stepwise fashion to make progress. Like nature, they cannot make leaps (Natura non facit saltus) Here is the Silicon Valley roundup of events in April 2018 for bootstrappers.
Silicon Valley Roundup of Events in April 2018 for Bootstrappers
Theme for April: Proceeding in Stepwise fashion
“Do the things that you can see; they will show you those that you cannot see. By doing what you can you will gradually get to know what it is that you want to do and cannot do, and so to be able to do it.”
Samuel Butler in The Note-Books of Samuel Butler
Bootstrapper Breakfast Meetings in April
- Fri-Apr-6 7:30am Bootstrapper Breakfast at Hobees in Palo Alto
- Tue-Apr-17 7:30am Bootstrapper Breakfast at Specialty’s in Sunnyvale
- Fri-Apr-27 9am Bootstrapper Breakfast at Red Rock in Mountain View
“Estimation and order-of-magnitude analysis are the hallmarks of the engineer. Even in complex situations, simple equivalents are found and estimated as preliminary information guides or as checks on other computations.”
Thomas T. Woodson “Introduction to Engineering Design” (1966)
Order-of-magnitude analysis is also referred to as Fermi estimation and is useful for entrepreneurs constructing an initial business model to frame further exploration, using high-medium-low estimates for each factor that span one or two orders of magnitude (e.g. 1-3-10 or 1-10-100) and allow you to generate initial high-medium-low estimates for key parameters (e.g. number of potential customers, price points, cost factors, etc…)
Great Demo! Workshop April 18 & 19
- Offered by Peter Cohan, Author of “Great Demo!“
- Domain Hotel, 1085 E El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
- Wed-Apr-18 8am to 5pm, Thu-Apr-19 8am to 4pm
- Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/great-demo-workshop-on-april-18-19-2018-registration-41285731735
- Note we can offer one team of bootstrappers working on a common demo a substantial discount.
“We had to debug the Gerber plotter. So here we were, making a VLSI chip, sitting on the floor with our scope and so forth, with cards on the extender, and the cards have discrete transistors on them. So we were using three-generations-old technology to do next-generation technology. And that’s the lesson you learn all the time, that if you’re doing something new, you’re always doing it with the old tools, or the old thought processes, or the old languages, or whatever. And that persists, no matter what you’re doing.”
Carver Mead in remarks after Dave Johannsen’s talk on “VLSI Synthesis: Silicon Compilation” August 8, 2014 (starts at 25:13)
There is a positive implication: improving your toolkit creates a natural continuing stepwise increase in capability because these new tools will allow you to build even better ones. It’s a series of stepwise improvements through “adjacent possible” or “zone of proximal development.” You cannot make leaps but you can take steps.
We are fortunate to have CJ Lipe of Adminologist.com as our coordinator for South Bay Bootstrapper Breakfasts, she provides contract administrative support for startups and executives, she can be reached at 510-410-5285
Warm Regards
Sean Murphy, SKMurphy, Inc.
Recent Blog Post: Quotes for Entrepreneurs Collected in March 2018