Scott Berkun worked on the Internet explorer team at Microsoft from 1994-1999. He is the author of a recently released book called The Myths of Innovation. He also wrote the 2005 bestseller, The Art of Project Management. He teaches a graduate course in creative thinking at the University of Washington, runs the sacred places architecture [...]
It’s hard to write something about the iPhone that takes a new angle. For the next few days you’ll be seeing hands-on reviews of the iPhone by folks like Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times. Come Friday night, you’ll also see the first customer reactions. Thus, [...]
Markus Frind, the founder of PlentyOfFish.com is my new hero (James Hong of Hot or Not is a close second). Marcus spends about two hours a day in his underwear managing a free dating website that gets twelve billion page views a year. He is the only employee, and he only has one server. And [...]
Want to be inspired? Check out this collection of videos about social entrepreneurs from around the world. It’s called the FRONTLINE/World series. Here’s a description: “…we have searched for stories about people who innovate in ways that truly transform our interconnected world. This special site will feature the stories of people whose ideas and organizations [...]
Pixilu Imaging Inc. provides professional retouching services as an online service. You upload digital photos and Pixilu’s graphic artists review each photo and perform color correction, acne removal, facial lines reduction, teeth whitening, and enhanced red-eye correction. The cost varies from $1.49 to $9.99 per photo. I submitted my picture to the service, and this [...]
I am three weeks behind the times, so I’m just catching on to how cool the Facebook Platform is. Then I read “Analyzing the Facebook Platform, three weeks in” by Marc Andreessen. It’s a must read for any social-networking entrepreneur. Facebook Platform is almost as exciting as developing Safari apps for the iPhone. :-)
There was such a positive response to the speaking tips of Doug Lawrence (email) that I asked him for more stuff. Taking a cue from the fact that “Bite your tongue” was the most popular tip, here are more: Warm-up with a towel. Singers often have to get their chops “up” in their hotel rooms [...]
In the spirit of the $12,107.09 startup, check out how some folks started FROG, an organization to help Guyana (no relation to me), on the very cheap. It includes a great list of free/cheap apps to use. Lots to admire and learn here.
I know that you might be sick of my Art of Innovation speech, but Zentation has created a very good way to view a PowerPoint-based speech that shows both the speaker and the current slide. Here is a sample to show you how it works.
My buddy Doug Lawrence has been a professional singer, music director, and speech coach. He is a highly respected concert artist having sung for almost forty years in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, and throughout Europe with conductors like Leonard Bernstein and Michael Tilson-Thomas. In the last forty years, in addition to singing, [...]
Check out Steve’s slides: big font, lots of pictures, very few words, and the bullets build. For a good contrast, read Garr Reynolds’ analysis of Steve vs Bill.
I’m moderating a Churchill Club event this Thursday called “No Plan, No Capital, No Model…No Problem: Companies that Defied What VCs Will Tell You.” Here’s a decription of the event: Conventional wisdom says listen to the venture capitalists. They know what works. They know how to successfully build a startup. But Silicon Valley wasn’t built [...]
I love cool graphs. Here’s a visual representation of the federal budget. Guess what that big blue circle is on the left side of the chart.
I’m going to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to cover Steve’s opening keynote. I’ll post real-time reports beginning at 10:00 am Pacific on Monday morning at Truemors. Yes, this is just another ploy to draw traffic to Truemors. :-) If this isn’t the coolest way to get this message, I don’t know what is: via [...]
A little while ago I was in Hong Kong to make a speech. I visited Stanley Market,—a large bazaar (nothing to do with the Stanley Cup). Mind you, it’s a kiosk compared to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but it’s jammed with stores. Most of the stores carry a little bit of everything: tshirts, shoes, [...]
The most common question about by Truemors post (besides “How could you be so dumb as to think this could be a real business?”), was about what I got for $4,824.13 in legal fees. The fees covered the following: Trademarking Truemors Drafting a Terms of Use Discussion of copyright, liability, infringement, IP, and insurance issues [...]
Threadless is a very interesting company because of how it has “community-sourced” its product design. If you had told me that a company could succeed by running weekly tshirt design contests and then selling the winning designs, I would have told you that you’re nuts. I met Jeffrey during my tour of the Threadless offices [...]
Because of Truemors, I’ve learned a lot about launching a company in these “Web 2.0” times. Here’s quick overview “by the numbers.” 0. I wrote 0 business plans for it. The plan is simple: Get a site launched in a few months, see if people like it, and sell ads and sponsorships (or not). 0. [...]
Susan RoAne wrote the book on schmoozing. Literally: How to Work a Room: Your Essential Guide to Savvy Socializing. The recently updated and revised book is a classic because we will all have to walk into “rooms” that contain meetings, conferences, trade shows, business mixers, fundraisers, and parties and be able to schmooze, make connections, [...]
In the early 1990s, Bruce Webster wrote and published The Art of ‘Ware (M&T Books, 1995), a reinterpretation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Basically, Webster applied Sun Tzu’s work to creating and marketing IT products. Webster recently updated his original version. If you’re a Sun Tzu fan, you’ll enjoy what Webster has done. [...]