Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
I’ve been writing a lot about reputation lately. But one thing I’ve neglected to do is to point out the key difference between reputation and notoriety. When people talk about “reputation,” they often mean notoriety. Notoriety is what people who don’t know you think of you. You get notoriety from being written about in TechCrunch … Continue reading Don’t Mistake Notoriety for Reputation
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
One of the pieces of advice that entrepreneurs receive is to ask any investors they meet to introduce them to other investors. This is good advice, but it’s incomplete. You should only ask for introductions to other investors *if* the investor is serious about investing in your deal. The reason is that experienced investors understand … Continue reading Reputational capital is just as precious as Financial capital
I recently read a Washington Post editorial by Francisco Dao, “The terrifying rise of the political entrepreneur”: http://wapo.st/13WViC5 Dao argues that we’ve seen the rise of a new breed of entrepreneurs, who manage to be successful despite not building real businesses: “There seems to be a new breed of entrepreneurs whose greatest skill is playing … Continue reading Why I’m not worried about “political entrepreneurs”