The most important question to ask before taking seed money

2009-10-30

There is a certain well respected venture capital firm (VC) that has a program for fledgling entrepreneurs.   The teams that are selected…

Embrace the medium

2009-10-27

An obvious but surprisingly under-practiced design principle is to “embrace the medium.”  Applied to software, this means building…

Twelve months notice

2009-10-23

Generally speaking, there are two approaches to relating to other people in the business world. The first approach is transactional and…

The ideal startup career path

2009-10-22

For most people I know who join or start companies, the primary goal is not to get rich – it is to work on something they love, with people…

The challenge of creating a new category

2009-10-20

One of the hardest things to do as a startup is to create a new category.  Bloggers and press have a natural tendency to “pigeonhole” – to…

If Verizon’s Droid is good, that’s bad for the wireless ecosystem

2009-10-18

I carry around an iPhone and a Blackberry Tour.  I know that’s ridiculous. The iPhone is a great device on an awful network; the Tour is an…

Dow 10,000 and economic reflexivity

2009-10-17

People who criticize Obama’s economic policies forget that, around the beginning of this year, a lot of serious people thought we were…

What’s the relationship between cost and price?

2009-10-16

What’s the relationship between price – the ability to charge for your product – and cost – how much it costs you to produce it? Price is a…

What carries you up will also bring you down

2009-10-13

In Rules of Thumb, Alan Weber quotes legendary venture capitalist John Doerr discussing the original business plans for companies he…

Understanding your market

2009-10-11

Some startups become huge sensations without requiring any active marketing – YouTube, Skype, and Twitter come to mind. However, the vast…

Man and superman

2009-10-10

There are two broad philosophical approaches to explaining the forces that drive world events. The first one is sometimes called the Great…

The importance of asking people questions

2009-10-06

Andy Weissman’s blog has the tagline “Maximizing the serendipity around you.”  It’s a good philosophy.  I think one of the simplest ways to…

The problem with online “local” businesses

2009-10-02

One of the most popular areas for startups today is “local.”  I probably see a couple of business plans a week that involve local search…