These Kids Will Put a Dent in the Universe: MIT 2021 delta v Teams & Demo Day Presentations
September 20, 2021
0 Comments5 Minutes
The MIT delta v Demo Day is always my favorite day of the year. It is a chance to see the best of the best at MIT in entrepreneurship crystalize their one-year journey in entrepreneurship and it also welcomes the next wave of students who will be on the stage the next year.
The Decision-Making Unit: The Who-is-Who of Your B2B Sales Process
by Martin Giese & Matthias Hilpert
September 5, 2021
0 Comments12 Minutes
The challenge in B2B sales is that a company is not a single entity, like an actual human. It’s not the company that decides on buying your solution – it’s the humans within the company. And these humans can have conflicting interests and perspectives regarding your product.
Why Startup Founders Can’t Outsource Their First B2B Sales
by Martin Giese & Matthias Hilpert
August 15, 2021
1 Comment8 Minutes
Many B2B startup founders try to outsource sales to “experts” very soon. In a way, that’s understandable: If you have no IT background, you wouldn’t presume to tell your software engineer how to code your product. So why would you try to sell your product yourself if you have no experience in sales?
Fast Forward – Introduction to Teaching Materials on B2B Sales for Startups
by Martin Giese & Matthias Hilpert
July 19, 2021
0 Comments6 Minutes
In 16 separate PPT slide sets, the Fast Forward teaching materials include all key points and illustrations from the 16 chapters of our book: from market segmentation to pricing, contract negotiation, sales process, customer conversations, pipeline management, reporting, sales organization, and customer success.
The Top 10 Mistakes In B2B Sales
by Martin Giese & Matthias Hilpert
June 15, 2021
0 Comments16 Minutes
Selling an innovation to enterprise customers (business-to-business or B2B sales) is one of the toughest nuts for startup founders to crack. This is an excerpt from the book Fast Forward: Accelerating B2B Sales for Startups, which was published on April 20. In their book, authors Matthias Hilpert, Investor, and Martin Giese, Managing Director of XPRENEURS Incubator, share their insights from 40 years of operational experience and from interviews with 32 internationally successful founders from…
Thoughts to Begin Summer 2021
June 8, 2021
1 Comment10 Minutes
The academic school year just wrapped up and the summer has officially started. It is a time to look back and digest an amazing year and look forward as to what needs to be done next.
The Problem Statement Canvas: A Deep Dive in Problem Definition for Startups and Innovation Teams
May 30, 2021
3 Comments21 Minutes
A framework for problem definition used by thousands of founders, innovators, and entrepreneurship educators. Taught at MIT Sloan, Harvard Kennedy School, UC Berkeley, and more...
Easter 2021 Basket of Updates: Trish Cotter Moves On, New delta v Leadership, New Online Finance Course in Development, Positives from Pandemic, Books I am Reading Now, and Pandemonium After Pandemic
April 11, 2021
5 Comments13 Minutes
Happy Easter to all and hope you and your loved ones are healthy, safe, and mentally sound. We are almost to the other side. Stay strong and we will be reborn better and into an exciting time in the history of humankind.
Latest Thinking on Corporate Entrepreneurship
March 28, 2021
2 Comments4 Minutes
As is mentioned in the Adam Grant book “Think Again,” if we don’t look back at ourselves a year ago and say, “Wow, I understand that topic so much better today than I did a year ago,” then we are not learning fast enough.
How the 24 Steps of Disciplined Entrepreneurship Helped a Company Survive in a Time of Crisis in Sudan
March 21, 2021
4 Comments12 Minutes
Although the pandemic has brought crisis to people around the world, for Sudan, crisis was the norm even before we heard of Covid-19. For a bit of historical context, Sudan was placed under US economic sanctions in 1997. The sanctions were lifted in 2017, with no effect on the life of Sudanese people because the country was also on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism since 1993. Sudan was removed from the SST in December 2020. The sanctions and SST list meant that Sudan was cut-off from the…