Running a startup is like riding a monster roller coaster. You push your way through line, excited and a little nervous, maybe even scared. You talk a good game to all your friends, while secretly stealing an envious glance at some of the seemingly safer rides. As you approach the ride, all the signs warn [...]
Continue Reading →Oy. My head is about to explode. I’m here at the Innovate Columbus event listening to a panel that had such wonderful potential. David Pogue of the New York Times (and an incredibly funny moderator), Anousheh Ansari, co-founder of Prodea Systems and the first private woman space tourist, and Sarah Lacy, the [...]
Continue Reading →Remember the iconic movie scene in which Dorothy’s black-and-white Kansas becomes Technicolor Oz?
Life might feel a little like that for the engineers at Cooliris, watching Silicon Valley tastemakers speculate about Color and its $41M venture round, except that the Cooliris folks have been working in living color all [...]
Continue Reading →Steve Larsen is an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. By his own admission, he’s not the “world’s greatest CEO” or even the “idea guy” of young businesses. But by my observation, he is among the most willing among experienced executives and entrepreneurs to share his experience with those who have yet to cut their startup [...]
Continue Reading →The Obama Administration today jump-started a key initiative of the President’s national innovation strategy, The Startup America Partnership. The program is a proposed alliance of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, CEOs, university presidents, foundations, and other leaders, “joining together to dramatically increase the prevalence and success of innovative, high-growth U.S. startups.”
And it’s no wonder. [...]
Continue Reading →Now that health insurance reform is out of the way (sort of), our employees in Washington (that is, Congressional reps and Senators) will surely turn their attention (if not their bipartisan cooperation) to economic stimulus and finance industry reform (get ready for Obstructionist Politics: Round 2).
Among the bits of joy in the financial reform [...]
Continue Reading →Several days later and I’m still reacting to the amazing day that was TEDxAustin. In a day jammed with wonderful ideas, insightful speakers, engaged audience, and some stunning performances, I had the privilege of sharing one of my ideas within the event’s banner “Play Big.”
Being the contrarian I am, of [...]
Continue Reading →Mine was beige, with flowers. Which, as the evening wore on, proved to be one of the more boring updates. (I especially loved the person who asked, “Why is everyone posting synonyms for tan in their status?”) But what occurred on Facebook last night and this morning was, in my opinion, pretty amazing. A meme [...]
Continue Reading →In October, I spoke at Startup Camp Montreal5 about the 10 Stupid Things Entrepreneurs Do to Mess Up Their Businesses, and alluded to that talk again recently at the Forum for Entrepreneurs and Executives conference on entrepreneurship. It came up in conversation again on Friday so [...]
Continue Reading →I admit I’m a bit behind in my reading amidst end of year planning and all this holiday hoopla, so I’m just getting around to reading Sunday’s Wall Street Journal post asking “Should Start-Up Founders Forget About Business Plans?”
The post quotes HubSpot founder and CEO Brian Halligan saying that [...]
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