For the first twenty years of my career I was a techie. And it was an amazing two decades to be in tech, spanning the dot com bubble, the ubiquity of the personal computer, the Web, a mobile phone in every pocket, smartphones, tablets, social media, and the cloud. Six years outside of tech, it is interesting to watch how that market seems to be reaching a zenith. My computer is almost six years...
Entrepreneurs (and investors) too often conflate risks and uncertainty. It is often said that entrepreneurs are those people who are not risk averse. As an entrepreneur, that has always felt wrong. I’ve never jumped from an airplane. Never would go rock climbing without a rope. I once owned a motorcycle, but not before taking the Washington State safety course. No, it’s not about...
Being an entrepreneur is hard. The ups and down of startup life are far larger and stronger than most other jobs. Working with entrepreneurs isn’t much better, as the empathy is almost are wary. I’ve worked with dozens upon dozens of entrepreneurs at Fledge and dozens more at PGS and elsewhere. Most handle these stresses in stride. Sure, they have some sleepless nights and...
I learned to code 35 years ago. For 30 years, I self identified as a techie. I still follow technology, but what I’ve learned in my greying-hair years is that technology is a tool. One of many. One that is generally best applied judiciously, if at all. Meanwhile, the ongoing excitement about technology makes entrepreneurs think otherwise. This excitement goes back over 100 years, to...
Republished from rankandfilemag.com/first-12-months-as-an-entrepreneur Rank & File turned one-year-old [back in June]. It was quite a milestone for me as a first-time entrepreneur and so I wanted to do a bit of journaling here to document the biggest, most important lessons I have learned during the last 12 months, so I won’t ever forget what the beginning felt like and taught me. Here are...
Finding a great name for your startup is a challenge. The following 10 minute video walks you through the process to not only finding a name you love, but also the steps you need to take to ensure that name can be found by others.
Sure, once you are a successful entrepreneur, life can be fun. But don’t forget to have fun along the way too. Startups are intense. If you pick a startup solving a real problem, it’ll pull you along, rather than require you to push it to the finish line.
Meanwhile… a fun video from two highly successful entrepreneurs:
I’ve been quoted in a new book, Crazy Good Advice, by podcaster Tony Loyd. You can buy the book as part of his StartSomeGood campaign for Social Entrepreneur. startsomegood.com/socentradio [hr] We need your help to bring Social Entrepreneur to the radio After 150 episodes, we’re at an exciting tipping point with the podcast Social Entrepreneur. We have the opportunity to produce a...
Last week I posted a TL;DR blog post on why the Fledge accelerator works so well at helping startups succeed. In short, a few key elements of its program, along an enormous number of tiny details learned through iteration and experimentation. This post is inspired from the multitude of conversations I have with people and organizations who want to help startups and who often have an idea on a...
Great advice from an entrepreneur who has built an amazing interrelated set of companies: [hr] “Jeff, what does Day 2 look like?” That’s a question I just got at our most recent all-hands meeting. I’ve been reminding people that it’s Day 1 for a couple of decades. I work in an Amazon building named Day 1, and when I moved buildings, I took the name with me. I spend time thinking about this topic...
