usability Archives - Michael Taus - 4X Founder, CMO, Startup Advisor

Avoiding Startup Death

For about 15 years, I have had the pleasure of working with startup entrepreneurs in a number of technology sectors and in various capacities. I'm amazed at how much the startup landscape has changed and, more importantly, how the processes that are used by tech...

Why I’m scared to send email from my Nexus One

Technology

I picked up my Nexus One pretty soon after it was release earlier this year. I knew going in that there was a good chance that the device would have bugs. But I figured after several commercial distributions through other handset makers that the risk was pretty small....

Beyond Assumptions: Why Customer Discovery is Non-Negotiable for B2B Tech Founders

As a serial B2B tech founder, I can tell you that customer discovery is absolutely essential. It's the foundation upon which successful products, effective marketing, efficient sales, and ultimately, satisfied customers are built. Customer discovery is the process of...

How to Derisk a Startup Moonshot: Building a Killer Product One Step at a Time

Startups often dream of building "moonshot" products – solutions so innovative and impactful they revolutionize an industry and solve massive customer problems. The challenge, however, lies in bridging the gap between this ambitious vision and the practical reality of...

The Persona-Value Matrix: Crafting a Lean, Mean GTM Machine for B2B Startups

I do a ton of meetings with B2B founders - most have a strong product management, marketing, sales or subject matter expertise - some even have a strong background in marketing at scale. But most have no idea how to standup a V1 Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy. And it's...

MyEdAdvisor

Happy to announce that we just launched a new website for Dayna's new education consultant business, MyEdAdvisor. Dayna has been working with high school and college students for more than 20 years, providing a combination of mental health and educational advisory...

MFE Magazine Article on Millennial Marketing

I just published a piece about the importance of having a conversation with Millenials, rather than directing traditional "top down" advertising at them. The article includes 10 ideas that can help you connect with them on their terms. Read the complete post here.

Joining ABODO

It's been more than a dozen years since I left Rent.com. Needless to say, I didn't expect to jump back in to the multifamily space. But after working pretty closely as an advisor with the team at ABODO, I'm excited to be joining their team as the VP, Marketing. The...

Launching CrowdStreet

After a almost a year of product development, marketing and customer development, I'm excited to be launching CrowdStreet, a commercial real estate crowdfunding platform. The $254 billion commercial real estate financing market is ripe for disruption. CrowdStreet is a...

Launching Cinephiled

Last month, we quietly launched Cinephiled.com, a new film and pop culture site that delivers a mixture of commentary, community, creativity and conversation for people who love film and pop culture. Cinephiled features a staff of writers who have previously...

Congrats to Abodo

Congrats to the team at Abodo for closing their seed round! After so many years away from the apartment listing realm, it's impressive to see a group of founders innovating in this space. It's a real pleasure to work with them and I'm looking forward to watching them...

How to Build a Startup Steve Blank Style

Udacity recently released a series of videos led by Steve Blank, entitled How to Build a Startup: The Lean Launchpad. This is far and away the most accessible and approachable way to to dig into Customer Development. The class summary says it all: Learn the key tools...