iWoz is out
iWoz is out. It’s a must read for anyone who’s interested in engineering and Apple. I reviewed it previously here.
Startup Review Blog
Nisan Gabbay brought his blog, Startup Review, to my attention. He writes analyses (“The study of such constituent parts and their interrelationships in making up a whole.”) of successful online companies. I hope he can keep his blog going because it provides interesting and useful information. After a while, he may run out of successful [...]
Online Reviews and Small Businesses
One of fortunate outcomes of the “democratization of information” is that anyone can now be a critic. You don’t even have to be work for a publication anymore because of sites like Local.Yahoo and Judy's Book. Even amateurs can rate businesses: Power to the people! Ilana DeBare of the the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a [...]
Startup Success 2006
This is a video of “Startup Success,” the Churchill Club’s annual look at what it takes to build a successful startup. This panel of five Silicon Valley entrepreneurs discussed the challenges and critical success factors necessary to reach the promised land. August 17, 2006. Moderator: Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures Speakers: Lauren Elliott, [...]
Ten Questions with Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL
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 [...]
Ten Things to Learn This School Year
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. [...]
Doing Business in 2006
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 [...]
Startup 2006 Panel, Palo Alto, California, 8/17
I’m moderating the Churchill Club’s Startup 2006 panel. We will discuss and debate the challenges and critical success factors to landing funding, proving long-term viability to customers, building a team, and leading a startup to the promised land. The panel members are: Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and CEO, LinkedIn Joe Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO, JotSpot Roman [...]
The Wrong Tale: A Checklist for Long-Tail Implementations
1. Make everything available. 2. Help me find it. Chris Anderson, The Long Tail I love authors like Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Anderson. They’re writer’s writers: digging through mounds of research, conducting interviews with famous people, crafting their text, and then publishing tomes with cool titles like The Tipping Point and The Long Tail. And [...]
The Art of the Layoff
We’re in a bubble again. It’s not as frothy as last time, but hallelujah, this time we know what to do, right? One good thing about the dotcom implosion in 2000 is that we got lots of practice laying people off, and I’m afraid that this valuable knowledge may get lost. If you are scoffing [...]
Ten (Actually Fifteen) Questions with Dr. Sandor Gardos
This is an interview with Dr. Sandor Gardos, CEO and staff sexologist of MyPleasure. Sandor is a licensed clinical psychologist and sex therapist as well as a board-certified sexologist. We met recently at a San Francisco Entrepreneurs Organization dinner where I was the keynote speaker. By the way, I predict that most people will say, [...]
Nolan Bushnell
This is Google Video week on my blog...here’s another one. This is Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, at Garage’s “Bootcamp for Startups” in London on September 5, 2000. It‘s fair to consider Nolan the father of arcade video games; more info about Nolan is here at Wikipedia and via the [...]
The Art of the Start Video
An honest speaker will tell you that she has “on” days and “off” days. The result of a truly “on” day is a standing ovation. I had a very “on” day at TiECon on May 13, 2006. This is the annual meeting of The Indus Entrepreneur organization. I’ve provided postings of audio and video of [...]
One On One with Pierre Omidyar
My preview of Woz’s book, I, Woz, got me thinking about entrepreneurs who embody the “purity” of the process of creating great products. Another outstanding example of this is Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. On September 5, 2000, I did a “fireside chat” with Pierre at a Garage event in London. Here is a [...]
How to Kick Silicon Valley’s Butt
From the fjords of Norway to the sands of Israel to the ice of Alberta to the waves of Honolulu, many regions of the world have Silicon Valley Envy. They look at the Valley as a place where people start cool companies that generate billions of dollars of wealth (and tax revenue), create thousands of [...]
Ten Questions with Dr. Joseph Chamie, Demographer
A few years ago I met Dr. Joseph Chamie at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (This was back when I was “hot” and invited to the World Economic Forum.) He was terrific there—stealing the show in his panel session. He has spoken at Garage events twice—stealing the show on both occasions too. He [...]
The Top Ten Lies of Guy Kawasaki
"I already have a meeting at lunch." This isn't a lie if you consider talking to people on the bench between shifts a "meeting." What can I say? One of my great joys in life is playing hockey, and some of the best games are at lunch time during the week. So if I tell [...]
After the Honeymoon
Much of my blog, and other information for entrepreneurs, focuses on creating new products, raising money, and building a successful startup. The advice stops there, and everyone lives happily ever after. Guess again. Here’s some information about what happens after the honeymoon is over when the shiitake hits the fan. There are three parts to [...]
“Why It’s Better Not Being CEO” by Scott McNealy
As reported in the San Jose Mercury News. You’ve got to love Scott McNealy’s sense of humor. He’s a very good hockey player, by the way. 10. “I don’t have to apologize for stuff I say to Wall Street.” 9. “I’m no longer on the most overpaid CEO list.” 8. “I just say, ‘See Jonathan on that.’” 7. “I [...]
Venture Capital Panel MP3
This is an MP3 recording from the venture capital panel at a Garage event called The Art of the Start. In this panel, five prominent venture capitalists from Silicon Valley firms discuss entrepreneurship, fund raising, and market sectors. The panel occurred in 2005 (that is, after the dotcom implosion), so the information is still highly [...]