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FightCamp Review (2024)
A comprehensive review of FightCamp's home boxing system including the new console, trackers, and workout quality—is it worth the investment for at-home fitness?
Essays
entrepreneurship articles
51 articles matching this filter.
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VC Pitch Tips for the Lazy
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Growing the Startup Ecosystem in Your City
Every city would love to have a thriving tech ecosystem. But how do you build one? Where do you start? Here are some of my ideas.
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Why I Switched From Squarespace to Webflow
I switched from Squarespace to Webflow last year, after seeing a big drop in my traffic. Here's why.
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29 Lessons From Year 29
This year was a weird one, but there was just as much to learn. Here are 9 things that stood out for me this year.
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Why You Should Work Transparently
Working in view of others is uncomfortable for everyone. But working transparently is by far the fastest way to improve and produce a great product. This post explores why you should be working transparently.
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What Makes a Great Product Manager?
What makes a great product manager? This list of attributes is extensive, but all are important to being a great PM.
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Why Your Project Needs a Concept
Concepts, like a concept car, are important for communicating your vision of the future with customers and employees alike. They're also valuable tools for clarifying assumptions and details, and should not be overlooked.
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My Favourite Media - What I Watch, Listen To, and Read
This article outlines my general principles for consuming media, as well as my favorite TV shows, films, authors, books and blogs.
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How to Take Book Notes
This post tells you how to take book notes in an easy process designed to extract the most important information from the books you read, letting you search it, retain it, and use it in the future. Includes screenshots from Kindle and iBook reading applications to make the process clear.
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My Favourite Tech Products
A curated list of my favourite tech products for productivity, focus, and effective work—from noise-cancelling headphones to apps that help me stay organized and get things done.
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Techstars Boston Week 10 - Acquisition
Customer acquisition is usually the foremost topic on a founder's mind. This week was full of workshops, focused on various aspects of this topic. We also heard one of the most powerful Founder Stories of the program.
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Techstars Boston Week 11 - Last Workshop
This week was the last "normal" week in Techstars, before the pitch practice madness begins. The final week was full of workshops, with the last workshop on Friday, and the topics varied from selling techniques, to common VC (venture capital) pitch mistakes, to PR (public relations) strategy.
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Techstars Boston Week 4 - Efficiency
Sales and efficiency were the key topics this week, with a workshop focused on sales, and some insights from the Founder Story.
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Techstars NYC Week 5 - Outlining Your Buying Process
This week was what I consider the hangover week – everyone was a little bit tired, and a little bit off. Big Rocks were tough, and some got there, but certainly not the majority.
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Zero Waste: What is It?
What is zero waste and why is it important? This article introduces the zero waste mindset, and how you can get started.
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I Have a New Job at Unito
I just left my position as cofounder at Lean Systems, and started a new role with Unito, a startup based in Montreal doing syncing between collaboration tools. This post explains the rationale for the decision, and why I’m excited about this new opportunity.
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Successful Entrepreneurs Aren't (Necessarily) Geniuses
Being a successful entrepreneur doesn't require exceptional intellect. This post explores what really matters.
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Techstars Boston Week 1 - The Beginning
Four key lessons from my first week as an Associate at Techstars Boston—insights on startup culture, mentor relationships, and the intensity of accelerator programs.
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Techstars Boston Week 3 - Sales are King
Lessons learned from Week 3 at Techstars Boston. This week the focus was sales, on which all businesses are built.
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Techstars Boston Week 5 - Madness Over!
Lessons from Week 5 of Techstars Boston, where we learned about the power of the Techstars network, and learned all about customer interviewing.
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The 3-Tier Buying Model
In this post, I posit there are three tiers for most goods: cheap, luxury and middle. The value is typically found in the middle, and while there are some good products in the other tiers, you must be careful.
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The Top 10 Books I Read in 2018
The ten books that most impacted my thinking in 2018—covering strategy, psychology, habits, and personal development, with key takeaways from each.
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Techstars NYC Week 2 - Sales & Mentor Madness
After determining that growth and product were going to be our two main points of focus in Week 1, we got prepared for Mentor Madness in Week 2.
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Techstars NYC Week 4 - Conference Tips
I spent most of Week 4 in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, attending the NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers conference which happens once every year. In theory, these are exactly the people we want to be talking to, learning from, and eventually helping, so it was a great opportunity.
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Advice for Finding a Cofounder
Finding a cofounder is one of the most important steps in the life of a startup. Here are my tips on how to do it.
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My Favourite Photo & Video Products
All of my favourite photo and video products in one post, with details about each one, and how I use them.
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My First 3 Months at Unito
Reflections on my first 3 months at Unito, a Montreal-based tech startup—lessons on joining a growing company, product development, and startup culture.
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Techstars NYC Week 3 - Mentor Madness & Customer Acquisition
Mentor Madness is an interesting time – you repeatedly get questioned, given opinions, and you usually end the week feeling as if you have no idea what you’re doing.
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Techstars NYC Week 6 - Persistence & Early Customers
If Week 5 was the hangover, Week 6 was the reboot. Most companies started to really hit their stride, and see the results of all the hard work in the first half of the program.
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My Founder Institute Experience
Thinking about joining the Founder Institute in your city? This post goes into detail about my experience, and whether I would recommend it.
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Techstars Boston Week 6 - Hangover
Lessons from Week 6 at Techstars Boston, with some great Founder Stories, learning about behavioural interviewing and exploring cofounder conflict.
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Techstars Boston Week 9 - Product
After dipping briefly following Mentor Madness (at least in feel), the pace here has started to noticeably increase again. That mostly means founders and teams have less time for distractions, and are putting in even longer hours than usual. New product is being shipped, and more time is being dedicated to fundraising and sales, in preparation for Demo Day. As such, the focus this week was mostly on product development, and putting more pressure on growth.
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The Growth Process (for Startups)
Expanding upon the growth framework I introduced in the last post, I describe in detail how I think about growth, and the steps I go through when working on growth experiments.
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Time Not Money
I’ve lost my childhood desire to own and drive a supercar daily. It’s a result of a gradual change in my own thinking, which can be summarized as: time not money.
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Techstars NYC Week 7 - Elevator Pitches
Week 7 kicked off the final stretch of the program, during which we would normally be preparing for Demo Day. There have been a few posts written recently (Ty Danco, Ross Baird) about why we should be changing Demo Days, and Techstars NYC has been experimenting with a different format.
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What is Growth? (And What Does a 'Growth Specialist' Do?)
What is growth? And what does a Growth Specialist do? When I tell people about my work, these are the questions that immediately follow. This post gives an overview of the answers to these questions.
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Just-in-Case vs. Just-in-Time Learning
Just-in-case learning is what we’re taught in school. But just-in-case learning is vastly more efficient. Learn when and why you should use each.
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How 25+ Cognitive Biases Influence Your Decisions
Cognitive biases affect the decisions we make every day. Understanding 25 of the most common biases will help you improve your thinking and decision-making in business, relationships, and more.
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My Favourite Style Companies & Products
My go-to apparel and style brands for quality, durability, and timeless design—including the specific products I wear most and why they've earned a permanent spot in my wardrobe.
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Techstars Week 2 - Settling In
Learnings from Week 2 of Techstars Boston, covering the start of Mentor Madness, adjusting to the intense accelerator pace, and early lessons on startup focus and prioritization.
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Techstars Boston Week 7 - Fundraising
Lessons from Week 7 of Techstars Boston focusing on fundraising strategy, cap table structure, and how to approach early-stage investors with confidence.
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Techstars Boston Week 8 - Enterprise
For whatever reason, this week the workshops focused largely on enterprise-oriented companies, and the Founder Stories happened to come from two people involved with an enterprise-focused company. From a general standpoint, this week has been about growth. Companies are spending a lot of time working out their strategy for the next 6-12 months, and which direction they will head after Techstars.
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Techstars NYC Week 1 - Preparation
My plan was/is to write a post every week during my time here in Techstars NYC – we’re currently starting Week 6, but I plan to catch up.
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Startup Failure - Why I Left My Startup
The difficult decision to leave the startup I founded through Founder Institute Montreal—lessons learned about co-founder dynamics, market timing, and knowing when to walk away.
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Why Positive Constraints Are So Valuable
I haven't managed to write nearly as much as I'd hoped for the past several months, but for good reason. After Techstars finished, I did a bit of traveling to visit some friends in Europe, and then headed back home to Nova Scotia. I ended up staying longer than planned - it's difficult to leave Nova Scotia in the summer (check out this video to see what I mean). Ultimately though, it was one of the best summers in recent memory.
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Writing and Stuff
The first post on my blog! This explains a bit about what I'd like to accomplish in my writing here.
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FightCamp (Home Boxing Workouts) Review
Learn about FightCamp, the “Peloton of boxing” and their home boxing workouts. This review covers the equipment, the app, and the overall system as a method of staying fit, including video of me attempting to box.
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How to Communicate Effectively
Effective communication is important for every aspect of life. Here are two communication techniques I’ve learned that have proven to be exceptionally useful.
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Lean Systems - My Next Project
I've joined a new startup called Lean Systems (as of September)! I'm super excited about the project, in which I'm now a cofounder, and the last few months since joining have been awesome. I wanted to share a bit about the company, as well as my thought process in selecting a new challenge following my time as an Associate with Techstars Boston (Spring 2016).
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Techstars NYC Week 8 - Investor Pitches
The alternate format to Demo Day continued this week, and in preparation for Investor Preview in Week 9, we were preparing to record investor pitches. I was reminded how difficult and time-consuming it is to prepare a great company pitch, and how difficult it is to pitch in front of a camera.