Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems with Jeremy Gray

We take a look at the leading causes of failure in Startups and how you can avoid them.

There are many myths about the great life you can live as an entrepreneur and they are just that, myths. I share my experience with reality.

Entrepreneurship is exciting and enjoyable but it is not easy

Some start ups spend more on acquiring a customer than the customer’s life time value. This leads to failure and closure. Tune into to learn why most entrepreneurs incorrectly calculate LTV and how you can avoid the mistake of paying too much to acquire customers. Also we look at three questions you can ask your team to improve their problem solving skills and your unique role in the solution. Finally research published in HBR has identified the most important skill when pitching to venture capitalists. It’s probably not what you think, join me to find out what is this vital skill.

Learn about a company that was founded in 2011, achieved Unicorn status in June 2013, and was out of business by mid 2014. A rapid rise and an even more rapid fall. The story of how a company that sold $600,000 of merchandise in its first twelve days of business fell victim to the speed trap. We will look at the specific reasons Fab.com ran into difficulties, and then discuss how the speed trap can trip up any high growth company

In the final segment you will hear about how entrepreneurs face the heartbreaking decision to close down their companies. There are a lot of emotions at play when facing the question, Do I soldier on? Or call it a day? Exiting gracefully can position to pick yourself up and start again.

In this episode we learn about why a successful start up, Dot & Bo failed to scale up.

Scaling up is a challenge so in the last 12 minutes you can learn from James Bilefield who helped Skype become a leading communications company. Hear his advice on what a company must do to scale up successfully

A pet care service expands rapidly in Boston and Chicago and then falters. Did a false positive lead them astray. Listen to find out. What do you think went wrong?

Entrepreneurs need to present their businesses in the best light. This can lead to exaggeration of the truth, even deception. Is this acceptable if the ends justify the means?

How do feel about bending the truth if it gets your business through hard times?

Taken from Professor Eisenmann's article in HBR May 2021

Case study 1: Two friends, with complementary talents, an identified unmet need and a clear solution to the problem in an industry that was not familiar to them Enough cash to last one year at launch,

Case study 2:

A solid idea, an outstanding leader and top flight team able to attract funds from a leading VC. Proponents of Lean Start Ups and excited to get going.

What went wrong? Listen and find out.

This week, starting in China we look at which companies are winning in China and which have failed. And why they achieved success or failure. It is had to ignore the second largest economy in the world, and many are forecasting that China will soon overtake the US to become the world’s number one economy.

The next topic may seem a strange choice for a radio show that focuses on helping entrepreneurs. It comes from McKinsey’s Public and Social Sector Practices. It is called Moving teams from campaign to transition: Five things to get right. But when I read the article. I saw it contained a lot of useful advice for us small business folks.

We will stay with McKinsey for the final article. Getting real about mitigating price inflation.

The first article we discuss is from McKinsey & Co and is entitled Team work at the top. This will provide you the ability to identify if some of the common causes of less than ideal performance are present in your company and how to fix them. The article mentions the need for diversity of thought in any organization and neatly takes us to the second article from Wharton, that encourages you as leader to hire disagreeable people. Note in this case disagreeable does not mean unpleasant, it refers to people who will challenge your thinking.

Do have a skills gap or a capacity gap in your company? In our final article for today from MIT Sloan the authors, Tracy Anderson and Peter Cappelli explain why hiring an outside on a short term contract maybe the ideal solution.

My apologies for the technical glitch in the first segment of the show

Our first article from McKinsey looks at how live commerce is transforming the shopping experience. By blending entertainment with instant purchasing, live commerce provides the solopreneur the opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

Then we turn to McKinsey Digital “Building e-commerce ecosystems on Amazon. A conversation with Rainforest’s JJ Chai” a cofounder of the Singapore based e-commerce aggregator. By looking at what Mr. Chai looks for a potential acquisition you can learn where you should focus your efforts and maybe achieve that big payday as you exit your business.

After that it is time for some self-refection. From the Harvard Business Review – How susceptible are you to the sunk cost fallacy? Have you continued a project too long after you should have abandoned it? Dragged yourself to an event in miserable weather just because you already bought a ticket with your hard-earned cash. These are examples of the sunk cost effect. Later in the show I will let you know what the author, David Ronayne has to say on the topic. Also, how you can assess your own susceptibility to the sunken cost, or continuation, bias.

Finally from Gartner Business Quarterly we can learn why do executives move forward with Strategic initiatives when they see pitfalls ahead. The author Marc Kelly says its due to overconfidence and in most cases their confidence is not justified.