Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
I enjoyed reading Natalie Downe’s post detailing the story of her startup, Lanyrd: http://bit.ly/18wX4zs It’s a great story and (spoiler alert!) it has a happy ending. But the part I’d like to focus on is her advice on how to make sure you’re doing your startup for the right reasons: Build something you care about.Build … Continue reading What Should I Build?
As Los Angeles native, I can’t help but see parallels between my home town’s industry (movies) and my adopted home’s (startups). Today’s parallel concerns the problem with having too much money. In Hollywood, studios love to work with successful directors. When a director produces a critical and commercial smash, a studio or production company is … Continue reading Carte Blanche and the Creativity of Constraint
I’ve been catching up on my RSS feeds this weekend, and loved a piece that the great Eric Barker wrote on the secrets of great presentations: http://bit.ly/14Z30wK The part of the piece I’d like to focus on is the very first point, which he sums up with a quote from Simon Sinek, the author of … Continue reading Start With “Why” not “What”
If you ask folks in the startup community to name the most important virtues an entrepreneur can possess, you’ll hear a lot of votes for intelligence and persistence. Hopefully integrity will make an appearance as well. But few, if any, will name empathy. And that’s a shame. Empathy is the ability to understand and share … Continue reading Empathy is the most underrated startup virtue
I often advise entrepreneurs to provide regular updates to all their investors. You don’t have to set up weekly one-on-one meetings–they’re busy people too. A simple email every two weeks, with an update and the latest numbers, is more than sufficient. Entrepreneurs balk at this advice. “Don’t they trust me?” the incredulous founders ask. To … Continue reading For Investors, No News Is Bad News
Fast Company recently ran an excellent interview with Shanley Kane, the author of “What Your Culture Really Says.” http://bit.ly/1fOscLj The entire interview is a good read, as is Kane’s original piece, but I want to focus on a single passage: “This idea that someone is not a culture fit functions both during the hiring process … Continue reading “Cultural Fit” is only a valid hiring criteria if you can accurately define your culture
Some entrepreneurs are in the bad habit of making excuses. I should know, because I’ve certainly done it before. But the simple fact is that excuses are useless in the startup world. We learn about the power of excuses when we’re kids. A good excuse can keep our parents from punishing us, or get us … Continue reading Excuses are useless in the startup world
It is well known that I have a man-crush on Mark Suster. His focus on pragmatic realism dovetails neatly with my own interests, and when he takes a stand, I never feel like he’s doing it for effect. So my man-love leaped to new highs when I read a recent post of his where he … Continue reading Bravo to Mark Suster for Speaking Up For Older Entrepreneurs
Another great tidbit from Paul Graham’s unfairly controversial Inc interview: http://bit.ly/1dNuheK Paul has the last word on the “Silicon Valley doesn’t tackle big problems” meme: “I think people underestimate how small big ideas were when they first got started. Microsoft’s first product was an implementation of the BASIC programming language for a machine called Altair. … Continue reading You Get To Big Ideas By Starting With Small Ones
Paul Graham recently gave an interview to Inc. Maybe you’ve heard of it? http://bit.ly/15rQHsS Sadly, the “controversy” over Paul being misquoted about foreign accents has overshadowed an interview that I think is worth its weight in gold. My favorite part of the interview is this passage: “Most of the time, start-ups fail for the same … Continue reading Startups Fail For The Same Reasons Restaurants Do