Jason Cohen (A Smart Bear)

The rise of the “successful” unsustainable company

We're funding too many unsustainable companies.

Things I’ve never heard a successful startup founder say

Please stop repeating these ideas! This isn't how successful companies work.

Never say “no,” but rarely say “yes.”

"Focus" requires saying "no" to most things, but there's a way to do it that allows you to say "yes" exactly when it matters most.

Why I feel like a fraud

Most high-performing people experience Impostor Syndrome. I did too. When you understand the cause, you can defeat it.

When you want to quit because it's just not worth it

Are you crying in the shower because you can't handle it anymore? Beyond Impostor Syndrome: Complete melt-down? Well, at least you're in good company.

The unfortunate math behind consulting companies

Hiring even one person creates a lot less profit than you'd think, and launching a product rarely works out. Here are some tips for consulting companies.

You're a little company, now act like one

You're afraid that looking like being a small company means you'll lose sales. It's actually the opposite -- you're alienating your best customers.

Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works

Artists say all colors are a mixture of red, yellow, and blue. But physics and TV screens and printers disagree. How does color really work?

The unprofitable SaaS business model trap

Marketo filed for IPO. They have $60m in revenues and a nice growth rate; unfortunately they're *losing* $35m/year. Why do SaaS business fall into the trap of being forever unprofitable, and what is the secret to the ones who overcome this trap?

If you can't find 10 people who say they'll buy it...

Have a great idea? Prove it by finding ten customers ready to hand over cash. Everything else is avoiding the truth.

Startup Competitive Advantages that Work

It's not a question of if someone copies your business idea, it's when.

A vote for me is a vote for dipshit businesses everywhere

Vote for my SxSW panel! VCs are increasingly unnecessary to get companies started, and I haven't heard cogent arguments for why a founder should elect to go with them for an early round. Until that changes, they'll continue to be useful for growth-stage but less and less useful for early-stage companies.

Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I sold my company

Reflecting on selling Smart Bear in 2007, offering insights for entrepreneurs facing similar decisions.

How cold calling (properly) works better than AdWords

How cold calling succeeded where AdWords failed, producing a 100% conversion rate and all the information needed to create a scalable business.

No, that is not a competitive advantage

Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman's 10-day forecast. Here's the top, invalid competitive advantages startup founders like to claim.

Stop claiming you’re profitable

You're not profitable if you couldn't afford someone else to do your job. $1000/mo isn't profitable. Fix your definition of "profitable," and build a truly profitable business.

If you build it, they won't come, unless...

A/B tests and accumulating Twitter followers is not a marketing strategy, just as "we'll use salt and cheese" isn't a recipe.

When free markets make it worse: new TLDs

Free markets don't always produce optimal results, or even desirable ones. As entrepreneurs, our job shouldn't only be to create profits, but to do something useful in the world.

An eBook pricing model that resulted in $100,000 in sales

How you price a product can have a radical impact on the revenue you make from it. My search for the perfect pricing model resulted in an additional $50,000 (a 170% increase) in revenue. Here's how.

You’re a little company, now act like one

You're afraid that looking like being a small company means you'll lose sales. It's actually the opposite -- you're alienating your best customers.

Business Advice Plagued by Survivor Bias

Advice from "successful entrepreneurs" might be unreliable due to Survivor Bias. What's real, and what's random?

Your idea sucks now go do it anyway

Your idea probably sucks, and it doesn't matter because your business will probably turn out to be something completely different.

Hiring Employee #1

If you want another pair of hands to screw things up, how do you acquire resumes, pair them down, and identify someone who is going to work well in your company?

Why you should take the money

SEOmoz founder and visionary Rand Fishkin is struggling with whether he should personally award himself millions of dollars from his company. Here's why I think he should.

Bending over: How to sell to large companies

Selling to big companies can be lucrative, and small bootstrapped startups absolutely have the power to sell to the big boys. But it's a very different world than you're used to. Here's what you can expect and how to deal with it.

Fighting micro-burn-out

Our emotions ride like a roller coaster -- we've all heard that phrase but it's different when you're actually living it. Noah Kagan believes that the real successful entrepreneurs are the ones that can deal with difficult times the best; here's some tips on how to do that.

Why your company should have a single email address

Most startups run (or believe they must run) a hodge-podge of email-slash-communication tools like person email, CRM, ticketing, etc.. But everything gets easier if you just have one email address and one system.

Lessons from 150 startup pitches

After reviewing several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory, I found several extremely common problems. You're probably making the same mistakes -- I did have too ten years ago -- so let's get that fixed.

Startup Therapy: Questions to ask yourself every month

Therapists don't tell you what to do. Rather, they ask probing questions that get you to discover for yourself what is true for you, your situation, and what you want. Similarly, these ten questions will force you to make the important decisions about your business. Ask them of yourself every month instead of writing…

"Authentic" is dead