Category: Entrepreneurship
Helpful Sales & Marketing That’s Actually Helpful
It’s easy to have a negative reaction when we hear the words “marketing” and “sales”. But why does this happen? We’ve all bought a product that didn’t live up to the hype or our expectations; were annoyed by the pushy sales-guy trying to earn a commission; or were perplexed by the maddening string of “sales”,…
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How to “CATCH” an MVP
I was recently asked to participate as a panelist for a startup week event to share my experience developing MVPs (Minimum Viable Products). Ahead of the panel discussion, our organizer shared potential questions so each panelist could reflect and create our responses for the audience. Perhaps because I was focused on the MVP acronym, I…
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An Innovator’s Reading List
Two years ago, I suggested a series of books helpful to innovators in both startups and corporate settings. Since that time, I’ve continued to see a flood of recommended reading lists (many with great recommended books) focused on the innovation process. It occurred to me this last week that many of these lists, including mine,…
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Top 3 Blog Posts from Nebraska Global
Not only was 2015 our biggest year for the Don’t Panic Labs blog, it also saw the launch of the Nebraska Global blog. Tom Chapman and Adam Hunke have been publishing some great content from the investment and entrepreneurship standpoints during the past few months, and we look forward to what they have store for…
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ConAgra’s Departure Is Our Opportunity
News of ConAgra moving their corporate headquarters from Omaha to Chicago created quite a stir last week. Not surprisingly, much of the news has been quite negative. And with roughly 1,300 jobs leaving (approximately 1,000 from layoffs and 300 from relocation, according to the Lincoln Journal Star’s October 1st article), it’s likely that many of…
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Viewing Product and Service Failures as an Opportunity
As a startup community we spend quite a bit of time focusing on processes and techniques for designing products, discovering product/market fit, scoping/building/iterating on MVPs, and ultimately acquiring customers. And rightfully so — these are the fundamental actions of creating sustainable innovation. But there’s one aspect that I feel is overlooked in the early stages:…
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Better Through Partnership: National Research Corporation and Don’t Panic Labs Improve Patient-Provider Interaction
Don’t Panic Labs works across industries, and with clients large and small. Each of these are excited about different aspects of DPL’s offerings. For example, one unique partnership is with Connect. This company is a joint venture with National Research Corporation (NRC), a large Lincoln, Nebraska-based provider of services to healthcare facilities. Specifically, Connect helps…
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Resources on Innovation
As we work with corporations seeking to innovate and entrepreneurs pushing the envelope, I’m frequently asked to recommend resources to help accelerate their learning curve. Here are a few resources that have been very influential for me. General Resources The Lean Startup by Eric Ries consolidates a ton of resources into a method to help…
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On Innovation
Over the years, I have worked with a number of large and medium-sized companies on innovation related efforts. All have expressed the desire to innovate, but most have fundamental issues that prevent internal innovation from succeeding. At Don’t Panic Labs, we work with companies to help overcome technical limitations, but many of the fundamental challenges…
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Big Omaha Is Dead…Long Live Big Omaha
I have been to every Big Omaha since its debut in 2009. I do not think that this means very much other than I have the ability to contextualize this year’s event through the lens of time. This was not the best Big Omaha, but it also was not the worst. The speakers were interesting…
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