I've been on both sides of board meetings: as the entrepreneur (a.k.a., the “victim”) and as the board member (a.k.a., the “heavy”). I can't tell you that I've run perfect board meetings nor that I am the world's greatest board member, but I can provide some tips on the art of the board meeting. These [...]
Here's a quiz to determine your “entrepreneurial quotient.” My intent is to test a person's knowledge of entrepreneurship. However, scoring high doesn't mean you're the next Steve Jobs, and scoring low doesn't mean you're not. Some answers are debatable, so there will be many comments. #10, in particular, is tricky so read it very carefully. [...]
How many times have you watched a panel and thought that it was entertaining and informative? Your answer is probably a small number. Moderating a panel is deceptively hard--harder, in fact, than keynoting because the quality of the panelists is usually beyond your control. Here's how to be a great moderator. Don't over-prepare the panelists. [...]
Many people have asked about seeing me speak in person. Most of the time, I speak at private events that the general public cannot attend. However, if you will be in the Los Angeles area in the middle of March, please check out this open-to-the-public (but not free) conference: The What’s Next? Boomer Business Summit [...]
Hugh Macleod is using FilmLoop to push out his Gaping Void cartoons. You can subscribe by clicking on this: http://snipurl.com/gapingvoid
Adam Lashinsky is a reporter for Fortune magazine. He has the high-tech beat in Silicon Valley. As such, he works with some of the best known (as well as the most full-of-shitake) companies and PR firms in the world. His perspective on working with the press is valuable for every marketing person. You can read [...]
Make no mistake about it: There is an art to raising angel capital. Raising angel capital is not harder or easier than raising institutional venture capital—it’s simply different. Here’s how to do it. Make sure they are “accredited” investors. “Accredited” is legalese for “rich enough to never get back a penny.” Just read what the [...]
Check this out: http://electricpulp.com/gbat/ Now you can take the GBAT online. Thanks, Michael Lehmkuhl and Electric Pulp. There is also a German version at: http://www.houseofuser.com/guy_kawasaki_GBAT_german.html Thanks, Stefan Voigt. Can online study courses be far behind? :-) Whether you guys did this on purpose or not, this is a VERY clever way to get me to [...]
Due to the overwhelming response to my article about bozosity, I've created the GBAT (Guy's Bozofication Aptitude Test). It is a compilation of the best indicators of whether a company is sliding into bozosity. I've included the names of the people who came up with some of these ideas. In some cases, I took their [...]
It's depressing to watch a mean, lean, fighting machine of a company deteriorate into mediocracy. In Silicon Valley we call this process the “bozo explosion.” This downward slide seems inevitable after a company achieves success--often during the years immediately following an IPO. The purpose of this article is to prevent, or at least postpone, this [...]
My buddy, Brad Fitzpatrick, drew this cartoon in response to the “abhorrent” article that I wrote called “How to Suck Up to a Blogger.” We're missing a caption. I KNOW you guys can come up with some great stuff. Please submit your idea as a comment! Oh yeah, click here to see the outtakes (ala [...]
Here's another MP3 recording. It is my reading of Chapter 7: The Art of Raising Capital from The Art of the Start. It covers some of the same material as my blog entries, but sometimes hearing is believing. Download raising.mp3
There's a great article called “How they named companies” at the Day2Day Activities blog. How do you like this for irony? Volvo- From the Latin word “volvo,” which means “I roll.” It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF. I'll never look at a Volvo without thinking about this irony [...]
You may find this hard to believe, but I recommend that you read this post, “Spread Firefox but don't be a fanatic,” from the Firefox marketing community web site: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/19663 It begins with this: In my opinion it's ridiculous to have “loyalty” to a company. I base my evaluation of products only on their own [...]
Blogging has flipped traditional PR on its head. It used to be that ink begat buzz. Life was simple then: you sucked up to the Wall Street Journal, one of its reporters wrote about your product, and the buzz began. (Here’s a collection of great speeches about the state of the art of blogging, courtesy [...]
Many people have asked questions about how I write my blog entries. Some think that I am simply copying and pasting from my books. Others, ironically, have asked when I'll publish my blog entries in a book! I'd like to explain what I'm doing for many of my entries. It starts around 10 pm when [...]
I don't usually act as a newsbot, but New York Magazine has two very interesting articles about blogging in the February 20th issue. Forget Brett Hull and Mark Messier, Arianna Huffington is my new hero. Blogs to Riches The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom. Two years ago, David Hauslaib was a junior at [...]
I admit it: I’m a user-group junkie. I got my first taste of user groups when I worked for Apple—speaking at their meetings was one of my great pleasures. Their members were unpaid, raging, inexorable thunderlizard evangelists for Macintosh and Apple II. These folks sustained Apple by supporting its customers [...]
Here is a loop of the Winter Olympics. The content of this loop changes everyday, so please keep it running. http://snipurl.com/winterolympics The pictures in the loop are from Getty Images. They are some of the best action shots I've ever seen--although I'm from Hawaii, so what do I know about winter sports. :-)
I have a theory (as opposed to a dream) that Heaven is a three-class Boeing 777. You can sit in a narrow seat that doesn't recline and eat chicken-like substances next to a screaming baby in coach class. Or, you can sit in a slightly wider seat that reclines slightly more and eat a beef-like [...]