CategoryConscious

Investing without Zombies

The results of an investment (in an early-stage startup) depend not only on the success of that startup, but also on the form of the investment. A sophisticated investor is going to be nodding right now, thinking about liquidation preferences and other common add-on’s to equity investments. But at the same time, those sophisticated investors likely have a majority of their investments in a state...

The purpose of business

Practice makes better.  The Ignite format looks simple, 20 slides, auto-forwarding every 15 seconds, making for an exactly 5 minute talk.  Hitting the timing of the slide transitions comes down to two strategies.  Either practice, practice, and practice, not skipping or adding any words to the script, or don’t even try, making the slides pure images that don’t need to be in sync with...

Inspire me, but make it quick!

One of the great benefits of the Web is the ease at which we can share ideas.  A decade ago, talks at a conference would be seen by a few dozen to a few thousand people, then never seen again.  Now we can watch and share great ideas from TED and elsewhere, from the comfort of our own homes. One consequence of all this great content is the raising of the bar of quality in the presentations.  The...

Startup != “tech”

I spent the first twenty years of my career as a software entrepreneur.  I started my first software company at age 22, way back in 1992.  That was a few years before the “tech” bubble began brewing, back when the only significant software company in Seattle was Microsoft, and it was still small enough to fit into its first 10 buildings, all on one campus. A lot has changed in the 24 years since...

The purpose of “purpose”

Does the world really need yet-another blog on business and entrepreneurship?  Don’t Fred Wilson, Brad Feld, Mark Suster, and others do a good enough job on their blog?  Those are wonderful sources of advice for entrepreneurs, but what is missing from that whole circle of thought is purpose. What is missing from most every business, and the whole of business media is purpose. That is, a purpose...

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