Philly Bootstrapper Breakfast for Philly Tech Week

Tuesday, April 21, 2015
8:00 AM 9:30 AM 08:00 09:30

Morris Cafe 30 S 17th St Philadelphia, PA, 19103 United States (map)

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This is the start of our fourth year in Philly!

This PTW Bootstrappers Breakfast features a guest speaker. For the first hour, we'll have our conversations as usual. For the last half hour, we will hear from a successful entrepreneur (TBA) sharing their bootstrapping story and field questions from the entrepreneurs.

Come join entrepreneurs who eat problems for breakfast. At a Bootstrappers Breakfast® we have serious conversations about growing a business based on internal cashflow and organic profit: this is for founders who are actively bootstrapping a startup.

The other attendees will all be in startups and emerging businesses. It will be a chance to compare notes on operational, development, and business issues with peers.

Source:: http://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Bootstrappers-Breakfast-Group/events/219717740/

Growth Strategies, Leadership

Not Every Idea Deserves to Be Fully Baked

Sometimes exploration is worth it. Sometimes you just spent a week of the team’s attention answering a question the founder could have tested in an afternoon. That is the part I think leaders underestimate. Ideas do not only cost money. They cost time, focus, and brainpower long before anyone approves a budget. The question I’d want answered is: how much of the organization does this idea deserve yet?

If Everyone Is Playing Defense with their Goals, Nobody Is Trying to Win

Ask a room of leaders why they set goals and most will say accountability. That answer creates the problem. Goals exist for alignment. The company needs to reach a number, so this group does this, that group does that, and together the math works. Everyone is pointed in the same direction. Focus comes second. A good goal tells you what to say no to.

Leadership, Organizational Dev

If Ten People on Your Team Agree, Nine of Them Are Unnecessary

The instinct to build a team that moved in the same direction, at the same pace, with the same set of perspectives is limiting. Consistency is created at the expense of range. The goal isn't alignment of strengths. It's coverage. The most dangerous teams I've seen weren't the ones with conflict. hey were the ones with none. Where every conversation ends in agreement. Where nothing gets surfaced. Where the people who see things differently may have learned to stop saying so.

Leadership

Shiny Object Syndrome Will Break Your Company. It's Also What Built It.

The same restlessness that makes it hard to stay on plan is what made them start the company in the first place. The wandering mind, the refusal to be satisfied with what already exists, the ability to see something before it exists: that's not a disorder. That's the source.

The Bridge to the Moon

If you're building a company, knowing your role isn't optional. The visionary needs someone who will build what they see without getting in the way of the seeing. The integrator needs someone who will point at the moon and mean it and keep pointing at the same moon long enough for the bridge to get built. The mistake I see most often: trying to be both or hiring someone who mirrors you when you need someone who complements you.

The Problems You Haven't Earned Yet

The fear of success doesn't usually announce itself as fear. It sounds like planning. It sounds like due diligence. It sounds like being responsible.

What it actually is: A limiting belief. It’s spending today's energy on problems you'll only face if you win

Organizational Dev

Right Person. Promoted to the Wrong Seat.

Right people, right seats doesn't mean everyone eventually moves into a leadership role. It means finding the seat where each person does their best work and building a structure that makes those seats worth staying in. Create a path for people who want to grow as individual contributors. Create a separate path for people who want to lead. Reward both. Respect both. Pay both.

Scraped Knees and Bus Crashes

Don't prevent scraped knees; prevent bus crashes. A scraped knee hurts. You might carry the scar for years. That's the point. The pain is proportional to the lesson. A bus crash can lead to catastrophic loss. The project. The company. The relationship. Something that can't be recovered. The leader's job isn't to eliminate mistakes. It's to know the difference between those two things.

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Philly Bootstrapper Breakfast for Philly Tech Week

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