Whenever a resume comes across my desk with a CCNA or CCIE or one of the many MCP certification letters after the name I put the resume in the “cheap” pile.

Those letters signify that you’ve branded yourself as a low-priced commodity.

And you possess a certain degree of gullibility that can be exploited in any salary negotiation.

If you believe that the product or service you are building right now, today, this moment is more important than the marketing of that product or service that you are putting off until tomorrow, next week, “when its ready” then you are most definitely putting the cart and the horse in the wrong order.

A leader is something that makes.

They make decisions.

They make art.

They make content.

They make time.

They make their own path.

If you are not making, you are not leading.

As the non-technical co-founder you will need to learn a hard lesson… you have to let your developers develop.

Drop me a line at justin@justinlloyd.org if you want to grab a “no pressure” coffee and just talk about cool technology and neat ideas in S.F. or San Jose this weekend.

The secret (shortcut) to getting early customer traction for your SaaS project is to stop diddling your keyboard and get out and meet people.

I take a consultative approach to mentoring rather than a prescriptive approach.

I’ll show you the pond where you can get a drink, it is up to you whether you drink.

Brilliant product design happens in the last ten percent of effort after everyone else has given up and called it good enough.

Think of the subject line in your cold emails the same way you are thinking of the titles for your articles. Engage me in that limited space of a subject line and I will open your email.

Make me disengaged and I hit the REPORT SPAM button faster than you can hit SEND.

You cannot find and hire great people if you expend the minimum amount of effort necessary in finding and hiring them.

Hello, my name is Justin.

I am a recovering entrepreneur.

It has been two years since I last launched a start-up.

I struggle with entrepreneurship every waking hour and think about launching another start-up six or seven times a day.

Never hire an engineer that isn’t curious.

If you want to be in charge, you have to learn how to sell.

But if you want to lead, you have to learn how to sell hope.

And if you want to effectively lead, you have to learn how to sell hope to those that may not have any.

A pint of sweat saves a gallon of equity

My guerrilla tactics of sourcing and hiring great engineers will bring your ability to only spend money on the hiring pipeline to its knees every single time.**

**Certain restrictions apply. Google & Facebook are exempt from my previous statements. 😉

Bosses and leaders.

Too many people want to be the former without realizing (or knowing how) they should be aiming to be the latter.

Many years ago…

I was the CTO with about 25+ years experience of launching and running businesses than my co-founder had.

Ex-Co-founder: “You’re just an engineer. You’re not here to solve problems, you’re just here to write code.”

And he wonders why he is no longer my co-founder…

Specialists save your arse right now.

Generalists save your arse.

I will happily give away tips, and pointers and five minutes of help all day long for free.

The step-by-step instructions that I have to personally guide you along and ensure you don’t wander aimlessly cost money.

We just connected on LinkedIn.

Please don’t send me four emails.

Sign me up to your weekly newsletter — eight months old but only two newsletters published so I guess I should be thankful for that.

Text me on my phone.

Connect with me on Skype

And leave me two voicemail all in the space of four hours.

Because you really need to find a CTO to work on your unfunded idea.

You’re very earnest and enthusiastic, I like that!

But there’s earnest and enthusiastic, and then there is border-line crazy.

Talking != Communicating.

Or “Talking <> Communicating” if you are a BASIC programmer.

There are few jobs on this Earth that require perfection yet so many people try to make it their job to require it.

Frequently the reason an organization does not want their pain cured is not because they like the pain, but because they fear the unknown cure more.

There are many products or services we fall in lust with, but we never fall in love with.

That brief fling, a honeymoon period where the product or service can do no wrong, then BAM!

It’s all over and someone is accusing someone else of commitment issues.

I didn’t ask about your budget because I want to take you for everything you’ve got.

I asked about your budget because I want to make sure that my solution is realistic.

Nothing a for-profit college ever did was naught but marketing.

School tours, fancy websites, cheer squads, football games, graduation ceremonies, dances and exclusive rankings; they are all marketing material.

If someone can figure out how to market information and sell it for $100,000 that you can get from $100 worth of books, then you can figure out how market your SaaS or mobile app for $20/month.

If you believe that these are tough economic times and your start-up is failing because of that, you are right.

If you believe that these are tough economic times and your start-up is successful in spite of that, you are right.

If you believe these are good economic times and your start-up is a success because of that, you are right.

If you believe these are good economic times and your start-up is failing in spite of that, you are right.

It’s not the economy that dictates success or failure, it’s your attitude.

Ignore the doomsayers and the naysayers that predict the doom of start-ups left and right.

But in the same regard, ignore the soothsayers and the pundits who predict the success of start-ups ahead and behind.

Just keep focusing on building your business and making forward progress day after day.

Open a café.

Each day is routine.

Put the tables outside, open the blinds, heat the coffee, put out the pastries, serve the customers, clean the bathrooms, wipe down and put away the tables, throw out the stale pastries, turn out the lights.

Day after day.

Start-ups are like that.

We see them as something exciting to be involved with.

But it is persistence and consistency that keeps the start-up moving forward, day after day.

The only difference is, somedays we don’t have time to turn out the lights before the next day’s work begins.

We don’t win (American) football games with a single, defining pass.

Every move, every play, every tackle, and yes, every failed pass moves the team down the field another four yards.

You do enough short plays, and eventually, you reach the touch down.