Adam Curry was one of the VJs (video jockeys) of MTV back in the 1980s. In this position, he “interviewed” some of the most popular musicians of the time including Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. Adam is an early adopter and pioneer because he embraced the web and podcasting long before other people. He [...]
Jon M. Chu is a film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. He may be best known for directing Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights. If you want to get the most out of this episode, go watch them first. Not that Jon would keep score this way, but his films have grossed [...]
Several times a year a group of executives from startups do a six-minute demo of their products to an audience of venture capitalists, analysts, and journalists. This name of the event is, logically, DEMO. It’s a great occasion—especially if you understand the dance that’s going on: Entrepreneurs acting as if they don’t need venture capital, [...]
When I started working at Apple in 1986 I was afraid of public speaking—for one thing, working for the division run by Steve Jobs was intimidating: “How could I possibly measure up to Steve?” But if you want to succeed as an evangelist and CEO, you must learn how to make speeches. [...]
This is a guest post by Ben Parr, the author of Captivology. You probably deal with attention issues every day. How do I get the attention of new customers? How do I retain the attention of existing clients? How do I captivate my boss or my upcoming date? It’s a hard problem to solve, especially [...]
As I write this, I’m just past the big 6O. Here’s some advice based on thirty-eight more years of living than you have. I don’t expect you to believe everything I say–when I was twenty-two I wouldn’t listen to someone this old, but maybe some of this will resonate with you: […]
People love the notion of the sole innovator, but this notion is wrong. Successful companies are usually started, and become successful, with the contributions of at least two people. Yin and yang, maker and seller, dreamer and pragmatist — call it what you will. After the fact, people may recognize one founder as the innovator, [...]
Take this quick test: […]
A long time ago I was a revolutionary at Apple. My job title was “software evangelist.” My responsibility was to evangelize Macintosh to software developers. Later my title was “chief evangelist,” and my responsibility was to evangelize Macintosh to anyone who wanted to increase productivity and creativity. […]
In 2011 the publisher of one of my books, Enchantment, could not fill an order for 500 ebook copies. Because of this experience, I self-published my next book, What the Plus!, and learned first-hand that self-publishing is a complex, confusing, and idiosyncratic process. As Steve Jobs said, “There must be a better way.” [...]
My friend, Carmine Gallo, has written a book called The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty. The Apple Store is the most profitable retailer in America, generating an average of $5,600 per square foot and attracting more than 20,000 visitors a week. […]
Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial [...]
Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don’t want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons [...]
On January 24, 1984 Apple introduced Macintosh. Many of us who worked in the Macintosh division are now asking, “Where did the time go?” The Division had a reunion at the home of Alain Rossman (software evangelist) and Joanna Hoffman (the division’s conscience and first marketing person) to celebrate this occasion, and these are pictures [...]
These are pictures taken at the January 2009 Macworld Expo in San Francisco, California. I did not attend the unkeynote because I was at home watching Sponge Bob with my son, so there are no pictures from it. But there weren’t any big hardware announcements anyway. […]
My new book, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition is now available. The cover price is $29.95. It is approximately 500 pages long--twice the length of The Art of the Start. This book is the "superset" of all my books, articles, and blogs. I wrote it to provide answers [...]
The experts are promulgating many esoteric ways to determine the financial condition of the economy. It's irrational to base one's mood on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). After all, (a) what does that have to do with the real world? And (b) it reflects the buying (and selling) decisions of the same investment bankers [...]
I posted an entry called "What You Can Learn From Hollywood" over at the American Express small business blog. I derived these lessons from the work of Scott Kirsner. He studied the movie industry and ended up writing a book called Inventing the Movies: Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo, from Thomas [...]
In this interview Dave Balter explains word-of-mouth marketing. Balter founded BzzAgent in 2002. His company has provided word-of-mouth media services for dozens of Fortune 500 companies and has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and on National Public Radio. He is also co-founder and current board [...]
You learn something new everyday. For example, I visited the St. James Gate Brewery of Guinness the other day in Dublin, Ireland and learned how to properly pour a point of Guinness. This is where the real production happens. This facility brews roughly three million pints per day. The tourist part of the facility is [...]