I haven’t blogged for a month, due to vacation and lack of time. We’re busier than ever over at ActiveConversion and FoundPages, and being short-handed has kept me from writing much.

However, I was reading Dharmesh Shah’s OnStartups blog, and he was blogging about his lunch with Seth Godin. He blogged about 8 startup insights, which included having a blog. I actually have two, so I thought I did pretty good in this regard.

In any case, his post was excellent (it usually is, but with his insights from Seth, it was particularly excellent), and it covered points that I agree with wholeheartly. And being that this blog is primarily about ventures, I thought I would share them, along with my comments:

1. Resist becoming “average”. To me, this also means not being a me-too product.

2. Communicate Directly With Your Customers. This sounds obvious, but when you’re busy hiring people, building product and raising money, it’s easily postponed to your detriment.

3. Let Your Users Talk To Each Other. Can’t say I’ve ever really done this well, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe it. My dream is to have a Users Group conference some day.

4. Start a Freakin’ Blog. Besides communicating, it helps clear your mind.

5. Stories Spread, Not Facts. I’m good at this in person, but terrible with the written. Collateral and PR should be stories about amazing successes, rather than ‘we had a record quarter with xx sales’.

6. Beware The Need for Critical Mass. This one is something investors (and I) hear all the time. ‘When we get 100,000 users, we will be worth xx!’. Seth (and I) believe you need something that works and makes money from even 100 users. If you need 100,000+ users to make money, your business model is scary.

7. They Didn’t Call It the Industrial Gentle Change. I’ve not heard this one before, but I’ve practiced it. I believe you need a product that will change the way people will do things, with at least 10x savings/productivity, or you won’t get enough traction to continue.

8. You Have To Start. This sounds obvious but its not exactly what it says. Seth means you need to have the attitude to risk failing - repeatedly if necessary. In my world, this means failing fast, even within the same startup. You can learn from your mistakes and adjust. And if your actions are not mistakes, you’re just that much further ahead!

Anyway, read the unabridged version from Dharmesh. He’s the one who had lunch with Seth Godin!

p.s. And don’t make the mistake of saying some of this doesn’t apply to your startup - it does…