Would companies that went from nothing to grossing more than $300,000 a month catch your attention? If caught mine. I wanted to know what these entrepreneurs did that resulted in a successful new business and a new product launch. The winners of the 2012 Shopify Build-a-Business Competition are a valuable place to look for real-world innovation lessons, especially through the lens of the individual entrepreneur or small founding group.
To make the task of learning from the winners even easier, Tim Ferriss (author of the 4-Hour book series, starting with the 4-Hour Workweek) provided a well-structured interview with the winners, asking these important innovation and entrepreneurial questions…
- Describe your product in 1-3 sentences.
- How did you decide on your product? What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?
- What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or a-ha moments? How did the tipping points happen?
- What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time / money?
- Key manufacturing and marketing lessons learned?
- Any PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc? How did they happen?
- What software/tools and resources, mentors or groups did you find useful for growing, if any?
- If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
The answers are in Tim’s blog at: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/04/24/how-to-online-business/#more-9459.
The primary responsibilities for an organization are product management and innovation. They deliver value to customers. They're also exciting responsibilities for those properly equipped. That is my job - equipping product managers and innovators. 
