Marten Mickos joined MySQL AB as CEO in 2001. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a startup to the second largest open source company and the fastest-growing database vendor in the world. Prior to MySQL, Mickos held multi-national CEO and senior executive positions in his native Finland. He holds a masters of science [...]
I’m on the campus of UCSB this week at family camp, and it’s inspired me to blog about what students should learn in order to prepare for the real world after graduation. This is an opportune time to broach this subject because the school year is about to begin, and careers can still be affected. [...]
The first time I had to park this car, I was behind a Suburban trying to get into a lot near Moscone Center. The attendant made the Suburban leave and then said to me, “There’s no room in here for a Suburban, but there is for you.” Score one for the Honda Fit. It was [...]
These are photos from the TechCrunch party at August Capital. If you'd like to zoom or see all ninety-one pictures, click on a frame (only thirty are previewed here). If I got $1.00 for every time I heard “Web 2.0,” I would not have to work anymore. Low point of the evening: Kris Tate (founder [...]
Stephanie Tate is the university relations manager for Yahoo!. (This is not her picture; it’s a stock photo from iStockphoto.) She took a look at my cover email and resume and critiqued them. Just to prove that I’m not easily embarrassed—and to provide the most value to my readers, here’s what she said: I’ll pretend [...]
Guy Kawasaki 3300 Hillview Palo Alto, CA 94304 [email protected] 650-354-1854 August 16, 2006 Dear Libby, I read your interview in Guy Kawasaki’s blog (To show I’m digitially hip enough to have read a recent blog item.), and your responses sparked an interest (A little bit of sucking up to show her that I thought that [...]
This is HR and recruiting week on my blog! This is an interview with Libby Sartain of Yahoo. She is responsible for leading Yahoo! Inc.’s global human resources efforts and managing and developing the human resources team. Prior to joining Yahoo! in August 2001, Sartain was “vice president of people” at Southwest Airlines. She holds [...]
Many people ask me for advice about getting a job in Silicon Valley, so here’s the inside scoop. Not everyone will agree with this advice, and some will outright deny what I’m saying, but if you use these tips you will stand head and shoulders above most candidates. Love what the company does. Passion for [...]
Jim Fowler is the CEO of Jigsaw. This company ignited a controversy because it enables users to exchange information about each other’s contacts. The fear is that a hapless, privacy-seeking middle manager gets inundated with sales pitches for Nigerian banking schemes, organic vegetables, outsourcing services, spam filters, and get-rich-quick seminars because she handed out her [...]
Seth Godin is author of six books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, entrepreneurship, and work. He is also a renowned speaker and a helluva nice guy. I cornered him and got him to answer ten (really eleven) questions about his latest book, Small is the [...]
Veotag, Inc. enables people to place navigation tags in video and audio files. For example, if a speaker uses the top-ten format, you can tag where each section begins. Listeners/viewers can then click on tags to navigate the digital content. Think of this as adding a table of contents to audio or video. Search engines [...]
I read the best explanation of what makes an idea spread in Seth Godin’s new book: Small is the New Big. For an idea to be spread, it needs to be sent and received. No one sends an idea unless: They understand it. They want it to spread. They believe that spreading it will enhance [...]
My buddy Stephen Nipper wrote this very useful piece about trademarks for Think Vitamin. “Trademark Tips for Your Web App” Choosing a good name for your web app is one of the most important things to get right. But without an understanding of the way that trademark regulations work, you could fall at the first [...]
There were many critics of my posting called “As Good As Steve.” They sought to refute my contention that Majora is as good as Steve. The criticism misses the most important implication of her speech; or, perhaps more accurately, I did not adequately highlight the implication. But first, let’s set the record straight for the [...]
I just read an interesting report called Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs. The World Bank published the report, and you can download it here. Here’s a description of the report: Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs is the third in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those [...]
Had a great time at BlogHer today. Here are the pictures that I took. You’ll see about thirty pictures in this looplet. To see all 113 pictures, click on the looplet. To share this loop with other people, send them this URL: http://invite.filmloop.com/x?5-FjvzUuJRGnBfajNam41rL8GgqFlIiP If you see yourself in the loop (or can identify people), please [...]
Hope to see you at BlogHer. I’ll be there on Saturday, mostly at the FilmLoop table. By the way, FilmLoop is going to give away autographed copies of Sweet Swan of Avon in the gazebo presentation theatre at 1:10 pm. You will be amazed at how Robin autographed the books. I should be easy to [...]
When I posted my entry about the speakers at TED, I did not highlight any of them. Now I’d like to specifically suggest that you watch the video of Majora Carter because there’s a lot we can all learn from this magnificent performance. You can watch it online here or download it here. Again, kudos [...]
A few weeks ago I covered the topic of laying people off. In a sense, this is an easier process because it usually happens in bad times, and it doesn’t single a person out. A firing, by contrast, can occur in good times as well as bad times, and it’s highly personal. I’ve fired people [...]
About a week ago the design of my blog changed, and I wanted to thank the people who did this for me: Javier Cabrera designed the new pages. He is a designer in Argentina. You can learn about his company here. Neil Patel and Cameron Olthuis of Pronet Advertising implemented Javier’s design. You can learn [...]