In this Ferris Wheel episode of The Design Your Thinking Podcast, I talk to Laurence McCahill and deconstruct his Product Mindset by asking questions that get deep into the way he thinks.
Who is Laurence McCahill?
A recovering digital agency founder, Laurence co-founded The Happy Startup School as a backlash against the prevailing startup culture of high growth and fast exits. In less than 3 years this has grown into a 100,000 strong grass roots movement, having built their reputation on a series of game-changing events and programs.
In this particular episode, you will learn
The first part of this conversation with Laurence – https://designyourthinking.com/dyt-012-happy-startup-canvas-happiness-business-part-1-laurence-mccahill/
- Have you trained or coached others to do what you are doing as an entrepreneur? How successful have they been in being able to replicate the results?
- Frankenstein Factories
- What are the biggest mistakes you see product startups make? What do you see as a waste of time in what they do today?
- What are the biggest mistakes you see bigger product companies make?
- No one does Lean Startup and do the hard stuff first
- Jeremiah Gardner – The Lean Brand
- Most valuable money you spend on a startup is 2-3 bucks on a cup of coffee with a customer
- Great entrepreneurs don’t try to be proven right, but try to be proven wrong
- Bad news gets worse the longer you leave it – Rob Fitzpatrick
- Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face – Mike Tyson
- What are your key principles for a happy startup?
- Start with the Why and the Purpose
- If you had 5 ideas, which one would you do if Money was never the purpose?
- What are the biggest mistakes you see bigger product companies make?
- What are your favorite books & resources on making products and running product startups? If people had to teach themselves to start a business using Happiness as the Business Model, what do you suggest they do?
- If you had to coach me for 4 weeks to get build and launch a product business, and you had a million dollars in the line, what would the coaching look like? What would it look like in 8 weeks?
Useful Links
- Laurence McCahill on Twitter @welovelean
- Introduction to The Design Your Thinking Podcast – designyourthinking.com/episode000
- Ash Maurya on “Lean Product Mindset and Running Lean” – designyourthinking.com/episode007
- The Happy Startup Canvas – www.thehappystartupschool.com/blog/2015/9/29/introducing-the-happy-startup-canvas
- The Happy Startup School – www.thehappystartupschool.com
- Books
- Winning Without Losing book by Martin Bjergegaard
- Rework book by David Heinemeier Hansson of Basecamp (previously known as 37Signals)
- Remote book by David Heinemeier Hansson of Basecamp (previously known as 37Signals)
- The Seven-Day Weekend book by Ricardo Semler
- Running Lean by Ash Maurya
- Value Proposition Design by Alex Osterwalder
- Inspired by Marty Cagan
- Do Purpose by David Hieatt
- Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh