Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
Entrepreneurs are passionate, but this passion can be their undoing. One common mistake entrepreneurs make is to say too much. It’s easy to understand why. First, entrepreneurs know a lot about their space and their product. Second, they love the subject so much, they’d happily expound for hours. Finally, they can’t help wanting to show … Continue reading Say Just Enough, But Not Too Much
If nature abhors a vacuum, startup people abhor mistakes. Most of us got to where we are via a long chain of good grades and aggressive action, which means our instinctive reaction is to attack mistakes like a hungry piranha. And that itself is a mistake. It feels good to jump into action, to examine … Continue reading Before fixing a mistake, ask yourself if it matters:
One of the big frustrations that startups face is the disconnect between the customer-facing and product-facing sides of the company. From time immemorial, engineers have complained about the wild promises Sales makes, while salespeople complain that engineers have no idea what the customer wants. The thing is, both sides are right. Sales doesn’t understand the … Continue reading The customer is always right (but not in the way you think)
Ask any entrepreneur, and she’ll probably tell you that her most important job is getting the right people on board.* * It’s not; the most important job is to not run out of money. But people is a close second. Yet despite his fact, many entrepreneurs offload hiring to others as quickly as possible. This … Continue reading Why an entrepreneur has to be the chief recruiter
I recently ran across an awesome New York Times editorial by Erin Callan, who was the CFO of Lehman Brothers in 2008 (she had the foresight/luck to resign a number of months before the financial crisis brought down the firm): http://nyti.ms/1b2a4wr In particular, I’d like to draw your attention to two passages: “I didn’t start … Continue reading You Can’t Balance Your Life By The Decade
Keith Rabois touched off a mini-Twitter firestorm the other day when he posted a tweet saying, “I don’t know of a single successful CEO or entrepreneur who blogs regularly.” http://bit.ly/1b0gv4V Sadly, as I often note, 140 characters isn’t enough for a nuanced response, which this topic deserves. Here are my (often conflicting) thoughts about whether … Continue reading Should entrepreneurs blog?
After writing about the importance of reputational capital, I realized that in many cases, it’s more important to focus on building your reputation. The key insight is this: As an entrepreneur, your control over the financial outcome of your startup is limited. Luck is a necessary but insufficient factor in nearly every startup success. On … Continue reading Why You Should Focus On Building Your Reputation
The very wise and very successful Saad Khan says that he only invests in “badasses.” I’m on board with that; given the likely length of the investor/entrepreneur relationship, life’s too short to waste on people you don’t like. Yet like many simple rules, it’s incomplete. Investing in great people is a critical part of being … Continue reading The Performer and the Script
One of the big trends in career advice has been telling young people to “pursue their passions.” Yet this advice is both simplistic and problematic. I enjoyed this take by music producer Paul Cantor: http://bit.ly/HjtS5v “Kids now aren’t taught to find careers. They’re taught to find their ‘passions.’ Then they’re encouraged to pursue them. Except … Continue reading Passion and Pragmatism
Jeff Atwood recently wrote a great piece about the classic book, “Masters of Doom,” about the origins of id Software, the creators of the first-person shooter: http://bit.ly/15YdAIe I still remember the first time I saw Castle Wolfenstein 3D. I was a junior at Stanford, and for the first and only time in my life (thank … Continue reading “The Barriers are Self-Imposed”