Before ironing product-market fit, there is a more important box to check. At Atlanta Ventures, we call it finding authentic demand. Finding authentic demand puts the entrepreneur in a position of strength. Discovering authentic demand requires imagination, creativity, patience, research, superior listening abilities, and like anything else successful, a little…
One of the most interesting gifts from Christmas this year was a small book, just over 100 pages, on Abraham Lincoln. The miniature, leather-bound book is part of a collection called The Nutshell Library [https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Nutshell-Library-Evening-With-Sherwin-Cody-1st-ed-12-Book-Set-1907-Rare-/264279601111] written by Sherwin Cody [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Last week, I caught up with two different friends. Both are intelligent, well read, and come from similar backgrounds. Politically, they are oil and water. As the Presidential election creeps close, I’m constantly bewildered at the disparity of interpretation with current events. Key examples of how that happens have…
When pitching a vision or a future state of something, there’s a “continuum of belief” the seller or pitcher starts to understand. The current state on the continuum is constantly changing through the progress and momentum of the idea, project, or company on one axis (Y). The other axis…
I recently read Eric Cohen’s profile of Sam “The Banana Man” Zemurray cleverly titled: The Fish That Ate the Whale [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008674FJG/]. The sales hustler, “fruit jobber” turned banana titan went from rags to riches in one generation. He overthrew governments, employed the world’s…
Ten years ago today, I thought my last few seconds in life arrived. Where Arlington Road dead ends into Briarcliff Place, just outside my rented condo at the time, me and two friends were making our way towards Highlands Avenue around 10:00 p.m. I remember it being a…
> “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain Looking back on 2020, I keep saying to myself “if this isn’t the year I get X done, I’ll never get it done.” If this isn’t the year I get in…
I’m a believer in how small decisions lead to significant change. Every day we change a small degree one way or another in a myriad of ways: we get healthier because we didn’t eat the bun on the burger, we became more progressive (or conservative) due to the…