Founder & Tech Startup Specialist / Startup Success & Community Manager @ Stone & Chalk 🚀

Are you in the early stages of creating an innovative new mobile app, web app, SaaS platform, or any other tech product?

I HELP FOUNDERS LIKE YOU, ACCELERATE THE JOURNEY FROM IDEA TO SUCCESSFUL RELEASE AND BEYOND. 

So, why would you seek help?

When you’re creating a tech product startup, there are many unique challenges that can derail the whole venture, even before it gets off the ground.

The fact is… 91% of all first-time tech founders fail.

Here's the good news… These mistakes are easily avoided and you can 10X your chance of success if you have a proven ‘roadmap’ to guide you.

My goal is to help you defy the odds and become one of the star founders who turn their startup dream into reality.


Let me share a little of my experience.

Over the past four decades, I've been in business. From working in the family company to founding or co-founding over 8 successful startups… Conventional and tech based.

In 2012, I co-founded Buzinga Apps, a small app development company based in Melbourne.

We grew Buzinga to one of the fastest-growing development agencies in Australia, until late 2017 when we sold.

During this period, sadly I witnessed numerous clients fail to achieve commercial success… Many, for reasons I thought were totally avoidable (in retrospect).

This sparked my obsession with success systems for tech startups.

I delved deep into design thinking, lean methodology, lean startup, and exponential growth strategy, among others. And had the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of successful founders, gaining their insights about what it takes.

There are several fundamental steps at each stage of tech business growth that must be completed to have any chance at commercial success.

In the past five years I have coached five tech startups to successful outcomes and impacted more than 120 with advice, guides and training.

If you're a first-time tech founder and could use some help... simply follow me here on LinkedIn.

AND, subscribe to my '10X Founders Edge' newsletter.

Head to my website for more information and resources:  kuboom.com.au

--------

In 2024, I’ve taken on a new challenge. I’ve joined the passionate team at Stone and Chalk’s Melbourne Hub as ‘Startup Success and Community Manager’.

Stone and Chalk are the largest innovation community in Australia.

If you're the founder of an Emerging Tech Startup and are experiencing some initial traction, be sure to reach out to me…

Let’s explore how we can help you accelerate success and connect you with mentors, customers, investors and other founders in our community.

Graham McCorkill

STARTMATE ARE IN THE HOUSE!
Energy is super high this week at Stone & Chalk here in Melbourne with Startmate's Summer '26 Accelerator program kicking off this week. And, it's their largest cohort ever!

Huge congrats to Emma Grife, Ben Simai, Louisa Lin, Sam Monkhouse and Bell Allen for such a well organised in-person start to their national accelerator... We love having you in the hub!

Dane McFarlane Olivia Grandjean-Thomsen Paulette Parker Liz van Zyl Desmond John Dickie Currer Paz Pisarski 🏵 Sara Singh Tak⚡️ Frances Goh

Tech Startup Specialist / Head of Ecosystem @ Stone & Chalk Melbourne 🚀

Most strategy is, unfortunately, bullshit.

Complicated.
Dense.
Timid.

And more concerned with "optimisation" and "efficiency" than what really matters:

-> Making a big move that's going to change the game.

That's real strategy.

The kind that builds categories of one.
Inspires teams.
Locks-in customers.
Is written about in books.
Turns executives into legends.

...and frankly turns our boring business lives into a true adventure.

(Because I don't know about you, but I'm not here to shuffle papers until I die)

No Bullshit Strategy is how you do it.

If you want to be able to:

- Read markets like a book
- Conjure innovations nobody saw coming
- Build companies with no competitors
- Inspire teams to follow you into the unknown

...then you're in the right place.

Start here 👇

To work with me to develop a strategy like this, or embed these skills into your organisation, learn more here:

👉 www.basicarts.org/work-with-alex/

To get my ultimate strategy document template (that forces you to think the right way), totally free, grab it here:

👉 www.basicarts.org/template

To read No Bullshit Strategy, that helps you master these skills for the price of a cocktail, and which is passed around in the halls of many of the world's top brands:

👉 Go wherever you get your books

For video deep dives on these topics, check out my YouTube:

👉 youtube.com/alexmhsmith

And if you're a small business or want to learn these techniques yourself (or to use on your clients - I don't mind!), then you've gotta see this:

👉 www.strategyshortcutsystem.com

Business is an adventure.
Strategy is the map.

Let’s set out.

Alex

Alex M H Smith

This isn't a post about AI.

This is a post about you.

Moreover, it's a post about how your brain solves problems - a process that's more weird than you think.

It works for me, hope it works for you too.
__

This idea first appeared in richer detail on my newsletter, The Hidden Path.

To subscribe for free, go here: https://lnkd.in/eJSPsGUf

No Bullsh*t Strategy | Courage, meaning, and creation in business | Speaker | Author

When I do (and don't) use AI

A "leader" is not just "a senior person in a business".

It's also not someone who's in charge of people.
Or someone with a team.

--- It's actually something very specific - and rare.

Are you one? The slides reveal all...

Hope you enjoy.

(and if you want to actually lead, start here: https://lnkd.in/eJSPsGUf )

Are you a leader or a manager?

A little while ago, a woman was asking me for advice regarding her small chain of baby care stores.

(Is that what you call them? Baby care? Baby equipment? Anyway you know, prams, bottles, and stuff)

So I asked her the first obvious question:

"Well, what makes you different?"

She thought for a while, and ultimately landed on the ultimate get-out-clause of differentiation:

"It would have to be our customer service!"

OK, cool, maybe that's true. So I probed a bit deeper, and asked:

"What exactly do you do to have such good customer service?"

At this there was silence. It took her a while to even process the idea that in order to have "exceptional" customer service, you must first DO something execeptional to create it. Otherwise, it's physically impossible, isn't it?

(Note that almost every business I speak to misses this point - she was in great company)

I gave an example:

"Well, for instance do you only shop staff who have been parents already? If you did, then for sure they would be able to provide deeper and more empathetic service than other stores, right?"

But no, she didn't do this. Her hiring practices were normal.

Eventually we established that there wasn't anything in particular that made it special - it just sort of "was" because she believed it to be true.

And this is true of almost EVERY claim EVERY business makes.

And this is why they find sales so difficult.

Because claims don't sell.
Facts sell.

Facts that make the claim self-evident.

Imagine if she did only hire people who'd already had kids. Wouldn't that be a cool story? Wouldn't that provide substance to her claims? Wouldn't that make you want to go to her store to buy your car seat or whatever?

For sure it would.

So your job is simple: create some facts.

Do some undeniable things, just like this, that make your claims superfluous. Creative, thoughtful, surprising things your competitors wouldn't do.

And then watch how much easier it becomes.

(P.S. this taks becomes a lot easier with this: www.basicarts.org/toolkit )

Facts not claims

Strange isn't it:

- Every company claims they're different.
- But we all know that very few truly are.

How is this possible?

Is it delusion?
Is it lies?

No, actually it's more complicated than that. It's a phenomenon we might call "fake differentiation".

And it's probably infecting your company right now.

Read on to spot it instantly.
__

This post is 100% AI-free.

And so is my weekly newsletter on bold strategic thinking, The Hidden Path.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/eJSPsGUf

Fake differentiation is everywhere

Most strategy is bullshit.

Quite literally.

Bullshit means “a bunch of fancy words which actually mean nothing at all”, and that sure does describe most strategy you come across.

Fortunately there’s a remedy: the three exercises in these slides.

Check them out, and see how your business stacks up.

__

P.S. These are the kinds of strategy hacks I’m releasing every week in my newsletter, The Hidden Path.

Join 28,000 other creative leaders right here: https://lnkd.in/eJSPsGUf

How you can tell if a strategy is actually bullshit

I heard Roger Martin say that he'd never seen any course or program that was dedicated to creating novel hypotheses.

A great point - and a pretty big problem given that this is how all REAL strategy starts.

So I decided to churn out 5 easy methods for doing just that.

Not saying the ideas will be "right".

But they will be "novel".

And that, ultimately, is what really counts.

___

There's plenty more where this came from via my newsletter that teaches entrepreneurial strategic thinking.

Subscribe for free, here: https://lnkd.in/eJSPsGUf

taplio

The Battle

Graham McCorkill

Alex M H Smith

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreGraham McCorkill's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAlex M H Smith's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Graham McCorkill

Alex M H Smith

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Graham McCorkill's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAlex M H Smith's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreGraham McCorkill's LinkedIn Performance