At the CommunityNext conference I moderated this panel with the founders of six very successful web properties: Akash Garg of hi5 Sean Suhl of Suicide Girls Max Levchin of Slide James Hong of HotorNot Markus Frind of PlentyofFish Drew Curtis of Fark This is the most amusing panel that I’ve ever moderated, and the speakers [...]
The Kauffman Foundation is launching EntrepreneurshipWeek USA from February 23rd to March 3rd. The theme is “What’s Your Big Idea? Take it On!” There will be educational programs around the country. Stanford is embracing this program in a big way starting with the kickoff event on Saturday. The schedule for the week is packed with [...]
Michael Raynor has a doctorate of business administration from Harvard and works for a big-name consulting firm so I had to overcome several deep-seated prejudices to read his new book The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (and What To Do About It). He’s from Canada, and I believe that I am [...]
Beginning in the March, 2007 issue, entries from my blog are appearing in Entrepreneur Magazine. The title of my column is “Wise Guy.” Please tell your friends and colleagues who aren’t blog readers that the “best of” my blog now appears in print.
Before you dedicate your life to crafting a business plan the length of a book, read these two paragraphs from the 1/9/07 edition of the Wall Street Journal in an article called "Enterprise: Do Start-ups Really Need Formal Business Plans" A study recently released by Babson College analyzed 116 businesses started by alumni who graduated [...]
Matthew E. May is the author of The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation. He has held a key advisory role with the University of Toyota for over eight years, and he is a graduate of the Wharton School and Johns Hopkins University. You can download a copy of his ChangeThis manifesto by clicking [...]
Here’s a New Year’s resolution for entrepreneurs: ”I will fix my pitch.“ And here’s a suggestion on how to do this written by Bill Reichert, my colleague at Garage Technology Ventures. Endless articles, books, and blogs have been written on the topic of business plan presentations and pitching to investors. In spite of this wealth [...]
What’s the most inspiring story of entrepreneurship that you’ve heard in 2006? My answer does not involve two guys in a garage who sell their company to Google for $1.6 billion. No way...my answer is a woman who runs a soccer-ball factory in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her name is Aziza Mohmmand, and she told me what [...]
Woz and I did a one-on one-chat for the Commonwealth Club on November 16, 2006 as part of his iWoz book tour. (Click here to watch a video of it) It was one of the most enjoyable gigs that I’ve ever done. After the event, I compiled this list of the “Top Ten Things I [...]
This is the video recording of the “Funding Your Dream” panel at Garage’s recent “Art of the Start Conference.” The moderator is Mohanjit Jolly, Managing Director - Garage Technology Ventures. The speakers are: Daniel Ahn, Managing Director - Woodside Fund Susan Mason, General Partner - Onset Ventures Chris Moran, General Manager - Applied Ventures Warren [...]
Inspired by The Amateur Gourmet’s truffles-centric adventure, I present to you a “comic” based on a recent trip to Phoenix, Arizona. I was there to speak to the Outlook Leadership conference for convenience-store retailers. This was created with Comic Life from Plasq. While I was there, I asked my hockey buddy, Prof. Steven Strasler, if [...]
Woz and I are having a “fireside chat” on November 16th. We will discuss iWoz, Apple, and tech entrepreneurship. Here are the logistical details: 6:30 p.m. Santa Clara Marriott Grand Ballroom 2700 Mission College Blvd. Santa Clara Standard seating: $15 for Members, $25 for Non-Members Premium seating (seating at the front of the room): $35 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The Woz XM radio show “Guest DJ On A Segway” starts airing this week on Channel 15, The Village: Tuesday - Noon ET to 4:30 PM ET Friday - Midnight ET to 4:30 AM ET Saturday - 6:00 PM ET to 10:30 PM ET Monday - 3:00 AM ET to 7:30 AM ET Woz will [...]
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 [...]
SVASE (Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs) is hosting an event called “Launch: Silicon Valley” on November 8 at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, California. SVASE is looking for new companies that are ready for launch or have launched recently. If you want to nominate a company, please email a two-page executive summary to: [...]