Year: 2013

The Hybrid Cloud is Here To Stay

by Chris Yeh

I’ve already written about how “Enterprise SaaS” might be a misnomer: http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-enterprise-saas-may-soon-be-misnomer.html Now comes a major piece of news that reinforces my prior post.  Amazon has just signed a $600 million contract with the CIA to construct a private version of Amazon’s cloud infrastructure inside the CIA’s datacenters: http://bit.ly/10Luqth If any company has the wherewithal … Continue reading The Hybrid Cloud is Here To Stay

Want to be an expert? Create a resource people rely on.

by Chris Yeh

I recently ran across the Wheel of Persuasion: http://www.wheelofpersuasion.com/ It’s a catalog of online persuasion techniques, perfect for persuasion junkies like me and Ramit Sethi (which is where I suspect I found the link). But it’s also a great example of how putting in the work can establish your status as an expert.  It’s marketing … Continue reading Want to be an expert? Create a resource people rely on.

To judge an entrepreneur, meet their spouse

by Chris Yeh

Tony Tjan has a great post on HBR’s blog network about 10 questions he uses to become a better judge of people: http://bit.ly/143pfD6 (Bonus trivia: Tony had just graduated from HBS and started his first company when I entered HBS.  He and his co-founders raised $100 million dollars in a single round.  Can you name … Continue reading To judge an entrepreneur, meet their spouse

Business Idea: Truly Trusted Communication

by Chris Yeh

I was reading a BuzzFeed piece on the proliferation of notifications (http://bit.ly/1cbXJ8c), when I was struck by a business idea: What if you provided a truly trusted means of electronic communication?  This tool would require you to specifically grant communications privileges to specific people or data sources, and probably impose a strict limit on the … Continue reading Business Idea: Truly Trusted Communication

Overcoming Email’s False Sense of Progress

by Chris Yeh

Dan Ariely has a new book out where he discusses the psychology behind why we overinvest in email, to the detriment of more important priorities: http://bit.ly/12XYjqu “First, people have a really bad habit of coming in and checking e-mail first thing in the morning. And for many people, the morning is the most productive time. … Continue reading Overcoming Email’s False Sense of Progress

Smart Investors Should Seek Out Female Founders

by Chris Yeh

I loved the points that Kat Gordon made in her recent guest post on Inc.com: http://bit.ly/15vVKYE “1). Women are amassing wealth, influencing spending, and driving tech usage at rates well beyond men. By 2030, women will control two-thirds of the nation’s wealth. 2). Founders are most likely passionate about something that meets a need or … Continue reading Smart Investors Should Seek Out Female Founders

Why, mathematically, startups make more sense than ever today

by Chris Yeh

The underappreciated engine behind the startup boom is the reduction in startup costs…but not for the reason people think. Most people believe that the lower costs of starting a company (thank you, Amazon Web Services!) have resulted in a startup boom because it has allowed more people to start Web companies. This is true. Many … Continue reading Why, mathematically, startups make more sense than ever today

Writing Takes Away The Power Of Bad Things

by Chris Yeh

I am a huge believer in storytelling.  Whenever something traumatic happens in my life (and despite my incredibly lucky existence, bad things have happened), one of the most important steps I take to get past the initial emotional shock is to boil it down to a simple story, and lay out what I’m going to … Continue reading Writing Takes Away The Power Of Bad Things

Why It’s Good You Don’t Always Get What You Want

by Chris Yeh

I just finished listening to Kevin Pollak’s amazing interview with filmmaker Peter Farrelly (“Dumb and Dumber”, “There’s Something About Mary”, “Hall Pass”).  You can watch it on YouTube here: http://bit.ly/12X3CGJ (Note: This is a 2 1/2 hour interview…be ready to be seated for a while!) Farrelly covers his entire career, how he became a writer, … Continue reading Why It’s Good You Don’t Always Get What You Want

Stop thinking big and start thinking small

by Chris Yeh

It’s fashionable these days to lament the fact that Silicon Valley doesn’t think big.  Instead, entrepreneurs are focused on building apps that will experience explosive growth and be sold for a billion dollars before ever having to discover a business model (sound familiar?). I was at the 40th birthday party of one of my friends, … Continue reading Stop thinking big and start thinking small