Ten Questions with Amanda Congdon

Amanda Congdon was one of the first, if not the first, videoblog sensations. As a host of Rocketboom, she had approximately 300,000 viewers in the spring of 2006. She extended her online fame to a television appearance on the CBS television show CSI. (This is the show—which I love—where all the cops are good looking; [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:23:44-07:00November 8th, 2006|Categories: Uncategorized|0 Comments

Counterpoint: Patents and Defensibility

Three of my buddies who are patent attorneys disagreed with my diatribe against patents as a key component of a startup’s defensibility. Being the open-minded Guy that I am, I offered to publish their counterpoint so that you can obtain a broader perspective of intellectual property issues for startups. Patent law is currently a sea [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:23:46-07:00November 6th, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship, Innovation|0 Comments

Reality Check: RAZZ Mixer

RAZZ, Inc. recently introduced the RAZZ Mixer. It enables people to create personalized audio recordings to post on web pages. This is a Flash-based application consisting of a voice recorder, music uploader, and special effects sound board with hundreds of pre-recorded sounds. Users “mix” recordings for posting onto social-networking sites and blogs. These recordings serve [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:23:50-07:00November 2nd, 2006|Categories: Books|Tags: |0 Comments

The Art of Projections in a Dotcom 2.0 World

The world is running amok with entrepreneurs pitching every sort of Web 2.0, social networking, user-generated-content startup. It’s the attack of the bull-shiitake startup projections, so I’m losing my hearing; there’s a ringing in my head, and I get dizzy every once in a while. Before the world implodes (again), here is a top-tenish list [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:23:52-07:00November 2nd, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship, Management, Pitching and Presenting, Venture Capital|Tags: |0 Comments

The Art of the Start Conference

Just a reminder: Hope to see you guys at the Garage/SVASE "Art of the Start" event on Wednesday, November 8th. It’s at the Microsoft Conference Center in Mountain View, California. We’re covering the topics of entrepreneurship, venture capital, product introduction, sales, and marketing. The highlight is a fireside chat with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. The [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:23:55-07:00November 1st, 2006|Categories: Books, Entrepreneurship, Events, Pitching and Presenting|Tags: |10 Comments

Woz Outtakes

Steve O’Hear traveled to America in 2004 with two friends in order to document life in Silicon Valley. The end result is a DVD that he’s selling called In Search of the Valley. It contains interviews of people like John Warnock (Adobe), Andy Hertzfeld (Macintosh programming whiz), Woz, Craig Newmark (Craig’s List) Tim O’Reilly (O’Reilly [...]

By |2015-03-17T09:51:56-07:00November 1st, 2006|Categories: Apple, Cool Stuff, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Top Ten Entrepreneur’s Song List

Over at Escape From Cubicle Nation, Pam Slim has compiled the top ten entrepreneur’s song list, complete with samples. Speaking of music, I was listening to the Greg Kihn show on KFOX this morning, and Gregg Allman called in because his daughter’s band came in second in the station’s “Last Band Standing” contest. In response [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:23:58-07:00October 27th, 2006|Categories: Pitching and Presenting|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Happy Halloween: Win $500 of Goodies

My buddies at FilmLoop are about to announce a Halloween photo story contest. To enter, click here. The prize is $500 of party supplies so that you can have a good time as you scare the shiitake out of people with your costume. FilmLoop released a new version so that you can add “bling” such [...]

By |2015-03-17T09:52:01-07:00October 26th, 2006|Categories: Cool Stuff|2 Comments

How to Change the World: Defensibility

Blog reader Curtis Thompson asked me a very good question a few days ago: What should an entrepreneur say when she’s asked what makes her company defensible? This question is more and more common as more and more entrepreneurs start “Web 2.0 companies,” and investors torture themselves by wondering why they didn’t fund YouTube. “Defensible [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:24:00-07:00October 25th, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital|0 Comments

Geek Marketing 101

I found a great blog entry that explains technology marketing. Here are the first three elements of this top-ten list: Marketing is not a department. Marketing is a combination of elements that creates the environment in which it is possible to meet a customer need (starting right back at product development). Promotion and sales are [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:24:03-07:00October 20th, 2006|Categories: Marketing and Sales|0 Comments

The Art of Commercialization

One of the consequences of a boomlet is that organizations like research labs, defense contractors, and aerospace companies are going to want a piece of the action. Their logic will go like this: “The technology we invented for satellite imaging can be used for amateur video, so we could have created YouTube and sold to [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:24:07-07:00October 17th, 2006|Categories: Entrepreneurship|21 Comments

Reality Check: Coghead

Coghead provides a web-based application that allows tech-savvy businesspeople (that is, non-programmers) to create and deliver their own web-based applications. Essentially, it’s bringing the “do-it-yourself” trend to software&#8212hopefully disrupting tradition and changing the way software is created and used. It can help fill the large, unmet need for small, specialized applications because packaged software is [...]

By |2015-03-18T07:49:49-07:00October 11th, 2006|Categories: Books, Uncategorized|Tags: |0 Comments

Six Cool Things

Now-Up-to-Date Script for Motorola Q A few months ago I mentioned that I had bought a Motorola Q and posed the question of getting my appointments from Now-Up-to-Date to the phone. The best solution was this convoluted path: Export from Now-Up-to-Date, import into Palm Desktop, export as vCal, import into iCal, and then synchronize with [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:24:09-07:00October 10th, 2006|Categories: Cool Stuff|0 Comments

Ten Questions with Polly LaBarre

Polly LaBarre is the co-author (with Bill Taylor) of the newly released book called Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win. The strategies, tactics, and advice in Mavericks at Work grew out of in-depth access to a collection of forward-looking companies. These maverick companies are attracting millions of customers, creating thousands [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:24:11-07:00October 9th, 2006|Categories: Management|Tags: |0 Comments

Oh Canada!

I’m in Waterloo (Ontario, no French jokes, please) to give an Art of the Start speech for Communitech. I just found out that the event is open to the public and free. The speech is on Friday, October 6th at 11:00 am in Fed Hall on the University of Waterloo campus. Click here to register. [...]

By |2015-03-18T07:43:06-07:00October 5th, 2006|Categories: Books, Uncategorized|Tags: |0 Comments

Top Ten Quotes: America and Americans (Jon Winokur Delivers Again)

America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization. Georges Clemenceau America...just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries [...]

By |2016-10-24T14:24:13-07:00October 5th, 2006|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: |0 Comments
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