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The Common Sense Web... An Entrepreneurs' Blog
2010 SXSW, Location based services, Austin Restaurants, etc.
A few quick thoughts this morning as we near the event of the year, Austin's SXSW Interactive. It just keeps getting better every year. Location-based is bound to dominate the landscape this year. Think back even......
Hal Varian on newspaper economics
Interesting blog post from Hal Varian, Google's Chief Economist, on newspaper economics. http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/03/newspaper-economics-online-and-offline.html Hal points out a few things that I 100% agree with: special interest local advertising was the bell cow for the newspaper business, people consume news and......
I caught up this past weekend with an old friend who is most certainly *not* an entrepreneur. This friend is a corporate guy through and through. He's so corporate, he just doesn't understand the life of a startup person or......
Looking to meet .NET startup-friendly folks in Austin
Howdy everyone -- quick departure from the norm here. We happen to be one of those rare Austin startups that run primarily on Microsoft technology. Most Austin startups are built on Rails or Open Source technology. It makes sense... the......
Once you advance beyond the point of being an individual contributor in business, you henceforth have to keep your eyes open to assess people who may be able to join/advance your team. You should always have a pretty good idea......
As we progress with our business in 2010, I find myself more and more drawn to doing business with people who are genuine, sincere, and as honest as they can be. Maybe I'm having a negative visceral reaction to all......
OPEN Forum Articles
Eating + Meeting ~ Finding the Balance
From Jean Aw: We've all had days where work was so crazy that eating didn't make it onto the to-do list. Sometimes we even spend a good chunk of that time around food, but it still doesn't change things. You know the situations: You're at a business lunch, and you're...
Read Your Financial Statements Like A Banker
From Kate Lister: Let’s face it — financial statements aren’t the most fascinating things to read. Unless, that is, you’re a banker. Your balance sheet and income statement tell a banker more about your business than you may think. Whether you’re applying for a new loan, renewing a line of credit,...
7 Essential HR Resources for Your Small Business
From Sharlyn Lauby: As a business owner, you know your product, service, market and customers. But sometimes one of the most challenging aspects of operating a business is employees. Not because the employees themselves are a challenge but because there’s so much legislation and nuances to employee relations. Wouldn’t...
How to Get the Most Out of Your Interns (And Make Sure They Don't Destroy Your Company)
From Anne Field: At first glance, this seems like a great idea: Cut costs by hiring low-cost or unpaid interns. Why not? You’ll have yourself an inexpensive staffing solution, and your new employees will benefit by getting much-needed experience and (perhaps) a salary. Trouble is, bringing interns on board is a...
From Matthew E. May: I have been an active participant in social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn — for just a little over a year now. That qualifies me as little more than a rank amateur. Still, my network of friends, followers, and connections has grown rapidly during that time....
Treat Your Employees Like Customers
From Tukope Esisi, CEO of Tuopsy's Enterprises: Delivered by FedEx. From the time I started my first business, selling cakes while I attended university, I treated my customers like gold. Over time as I needed to employ staff, I realized it was important to treat my employees just as if they...
Ben Casnocha: The Blog
Obvious and Non-Obvious Reasons For and Against Casual Sex
1. Obvious reason to have casual sex: Feels good, instant gratification, etc. 2. Non-obvious reason to: The boost in self-confidence that comes from knowing that another person was attracted to you physically. Casual sex is about physicality. People need validation......
Chris G. wrote about how he reduces stress when traveling, and among all the good tips is this: I often get stressed out spending small amounts of money. Overall, this isn’t always bad -- it’s led to a healthy paranoia......
All Entrepreneurship is Social
There is a tremendous amount of fuzzy thinking around terms like "social entrepreneurship," "social business," and "socially responsible business." When people ask me what I think about social entrepreneurship, I first say I'm not sure what social entrepreneurship means. I'm......
The Torturous Inner Life of the Man Who Seems to Have it All
How many people whose lives we admire actually maintain a torturous inner life? How many ideal men and women -- and I don't mean perfect, I mean ideal, which is to say perfectly flawed -- actually are consumed by insecurity......
The Impact of the New Tech: Use, Then Judge
Alain de Botton recently blogged about "one of the challenges of our time": re-learning how to concentrate. To sit quietly and think without distraction. I agree, except I'm not sure if we've ever known how to do so. Technology broadly......
There are four articles of note in the latest Newsweek magazine. 1. I wrote a brief personal piece on Chile. I mention other natural disasters that preceded Chile and conclude: The anonymity then of death tolls, my lack of proximity,......
Twitter / sdentrepreneur
sdentrepreneur: Watch This Video - How To Use Ping For Social Media Marketing: http://ping.fm/xQy75
sdentrepreneur: Watch This Video - How To Use Ping For Social Media Marketing: http://ping.fm/xQy75...
sdentrepreneur: Ocean Beach, California on Sunday afternoon http://post.ly/SoOr
sdentrepreneur: Ocean Beach, California on Sunday afternoon http://post.ly/SoOr...
sdentrepreneur: Twitter Marketing – 5 Ways You and Your Business Can Benefit ... http://bit.ly/coceU8...
sdentrepreneur: I'm at O'bistro cafe (4934 voltaire st., San Diego). http://4sq.com/c5Ozv0
sdentrepreneur: I'm at O'bistro cafe (4934 voltaire st., San Diego). http://4sq.com/c5Ozv0...
sdentrepreneur: @eric_lanlard Sweet, its going to be in the upper 70's all week in SoCal
sdentrepreneur: @eric_lanlard Sweet, its going to be in the upper 70's all week in SoCal...
sdentrepreneur: @AdeliaReid Awesome, 2010 is going to be a great year !!!
sdentrepreneur: @AdeliaReid Awesome, 2010 is going to be a great year !!!...
Twitter / charleneli
charleneli: @timgrahl Heading back to SF Sunday AM so can't meet in Austin. Sorry!
charleneli: @timgrahl Heading back to SF Sunday AM so can't meet in Austin. Sorry!...
charleneli: @sthommes Hope we connect, crazy that we meet at #sxsw and not SV!
charleneli: @sthommes Hope we connect, crazy that we meet at #sxsw and not SV!...
charleneli: B'fast at Hilton coffee shop, finishing up SXSW preso on open leadership at 5pm Room 12AB http://bit.ly/chncMo...
charleneli: Heading to @jhagel book party Club DeVille 900 Red River Austin with @joi,http://bit.ly/bK1YTo. Come on over!...
charleneli: Bonding with my Altimeter peeps over great food and Penfold's Shiraz in Austin #sxsw.
charleneli: Bonding with my Altimeter peeps over great food and Penfold's Shiraz in Austin #sxsw....
charleneli: #sbs2010...
Gawker: valleywag
Blog Wunderkind Has an Adventure with the Word 'Nigga'
Tumblr founder and skinny white wunderkind David Karp posed a question to his followers today: "Can I use the word 'nigga' if I'm quoting a song?" Response-friendly Tumblr overfloweth with advice. Just make sure you say -a, not -er, advised A Person Of Creepy Tendencies. "When I was listening to the...
Twitterati at Breaking Point, Just in Time for SXSW
Alex Blagg is not going to improvise like some sort of monkey; Lily Allen is not going to stand for your "fat whore" condolences; and Nick Bilton is not particularly enjoying this week's pressure cooker. The Twitterati defied reality. The Daily Beast's Tina Brown joined Twitter and promptly got to promoting...
Was Apple Employee Choked By Law & Order Star?
An Apple Store staffer said she was choked by Richard Belzer. The Law & Order star, meanwhile, says he just touched the employee's shoulders to get her attention. Plus she's a crazy person who kept him waiting. According to the New York Post, Upper West Side store employee Milan Agnew said...
Did Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Break Electronic Privacy Laws?
Mark Zuckerberg's hacking of email accounts and user profiles in 2004 could be felonies under Federal and state law, according to privacy lawyers who spoke with Business Insider. As we described last week, Mark used login data of early Facebook members to break in to the private email accounts of two...
Airline Stops Video Chat Because You 'Could Communicate With a Terrorist'
United Airlines ordered tech writer John Battelle to stop video chatting with his daughters because "maybe I could communicate with a terrorist on the ground." Other in-flight wifi uses were OK, since terrorist don't tweet or email. (Pic)...
Facebook Vs. Britain's Most Fearsome Tabloid
On one side, a media outlet controversial for misleading readers, running sleazy ads and misappropriating private letters. On the other, a British tabloid. Facebook is in a big teen-sex-scandal feud with the Daily Mail — ironically, its old-media doppelgänger. The Daily Mail Wednesday reported that its correspondent posed as a 14-year-old...
Caroline Middlebrook
Turning Attention to Marketing IMAutomator
Now that IMAutomator has officially been released to the public, it’s time to turn my attention to the marketing of it. So far all of my efforts have been focused on developing the software itself but that has gone much faster recently and with the first paid release now just...
Social Bookmarking Just Got Quicker – IMAutomator Is Live!
I have been discussing my software project on this blog for well over a year now and today the day has finally come to announce the software properly! Over the last few weeks I have had 100 members privately testing the software and now the kinks have been ironed out,...
Stats & Analysis for February 2010 – $1,188 Earned
Income Become a Blogger – $356.88 Bluehost – $270 Teaching Sells – $137 Market Samurari – $118.08 The Bloggers Bible – $114.06 Unique Article Wizard – $53.60 Traffic Rush – $44.87 Twitter Rockstar – $42.32 Niche Adsense Themes – $30.77 Mass Outsource Mastermind – $20.93 Total income earned during February 2010: $1,188.51 It’s interesting how the income is very close to last...
Self Disclipline When You Work From Home on the Internet
I have been self employed on three separate occasions, for a total of 10 years. When self employed I have always worked from home, and for 5 of them, I have worked from home on the Internet. I have written before about how I love the freedom that it gives...
Help Dr Mani Perform 47 Operations for Children with CHD in 2010
Dr Mani is a surgeon and an Internet Marketer. However his marketing efforts are used to fund his aims to perform life saving surgery on children with Congenital Heart Defects. He donates his own time to do this despite working as a full time surgeon and supporting his own family....
Keeping Customer Relationships Alive
Last week I implemented a major update to my software – one that drastically improves the way the submission engine works. This gave me an opportunity to talk to my members and thus strengthen the relationship with them. With my software, I’m busily working away behind the scenes and in these...
TheFunded Founder Institute News
Last Weekend to Apply in Singapore
The Founder Institute in Singapore has accepted over 30 applicants, and there are just a half dozen spots remaining in the program. The final application deadline is Sunday, March 14th, so take a moment to apply here.The Singapore program has attracted top local and global mentors, including Adeo Ressi, CEO, TheFunded.comAdeo...
San Diego Special Open Community Session on Tuesday
New and experienced entrepreneurs, future founders and co-founders, and all those passionate about startups are invited to a special Open Community Session of the Founder Institute on Tuesday evening, March 16, 2010, in San Diego. At this free event you can meet some of our Mentors and Founders from the recently...
There is a great article in the San Diego Union-Tribune by Dean Calbreat discussing the Graduates, the Mentors and the startup ecosystem in Southern California. "After going through a four-month business boot camp, a dozen local entrepreneurs have become the first graduating class in San Diego of The Founders Institute -...
Founder Institute, San Diego - Spring Session
If you can benefit from training and mentorship to make your startup more successful, please apply to the second San Diego semester. The first semester in San Diego was the highest rated by participating Founders in the history of the Founder Institute. If you know a founder that needs help,...
As the Institute attracts candidates for semesters in San Diego, Paris, Singapore and Denver, a number of applicants asked about the benefits once the program is over. Graduating from the Founder Institute is challenging. A Founder needs to develop an engaging idea for a technology company, plan out the business, work...
The Founder Institute has extended the Founder application deadlines for Paris, Singapore and Denver based on multiple qualified applicant requests. The Los Angeles semester is now closed, since sessions are starting next week. If you have been accepted into any of the semesters, please complete the requirements to reserve your...
Information Marketing, Info Marketing, Blog Marketing, Internet Marketing
Introducing My New Business Card
There is one thing that I have not done in my business in the last two years, i.e, pass my business card around at the seminars & events. The truth is, I never had one by choice. The last time around when I created a business card it was just...
Embrace Life: One Of The Best Marketing Videos Of All Times
I’m sure this video will put tears into your eyes, will make your heart heavy. This is one of the best marketing messages I have seen lately. Hats off to the marketing genius who created this This video has been viewed by over 2 million visitors on youtube. Bookmark it! Hide...
2004 marked the beginning of the creation of www.SriniSaripalli.com. My, how time flies. It wasn’t until March 2008, that the wordpress blog really made an impact on the site and delivers everything that you now see today. Communication and marketing skills go hand in hand in delivering...
Your Income Is A Direct Outcome Of The Value You Bring To The Marketplace.
You might have heard this saying “Income Reflects Value” in other words your income is a direction reflection of the value you bring to the marketplace. On this video today, I share a small idea that made a major shift in my business. I hope you will appreciate it...
Insider Secret To Delivering Back-To-Back Knock-Out Presentations
A while ago one of my seminar attendees asked, how I prepare myself leading into a presentation. I shared several techniques with him, but he liked this technique the most. I thought I would create a video and share it with all. On this video I show you how...
Three Must-Know Stops on the Road to Online Success- Where are You At?
Building a business is no easier than building anything else. There is saying “People Make Choices, Choices Make People”. Everyone chooses the paths that they take. If your path has led you to business ownership, there are some things that you need to consider. While you could read articles all...
Silicon Moon
My article at InsideWork is up and also reposted below. Heads up since it has religious references.What Motivates Your Heart?Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivationRecently I watched Dan Pink’s TEDTalk where he sought to answer the question of what motivates people. Pink talked about Karl Duncker’s candle problem...
Record Labels, Old Media Don't Get New Media, Online Videos and Embedding
I came across this op-ed by Damian Kulash ("WhoseTube?", NYTimes), lead singer and guitarist of the band OK Go. And then this morning I received this article from Fast Company:"OK Go Ditches Label Over YouTube Embedding Rights" by Dan NosowitzThe article basically covers Damian's prior piece and tells about the...
TEDTalk: Dan Barber "How I Fell In Love With A Fish"
One of my favorite presentations at TED this year. Dan Barber talks about a revolutionary farming method in Spain. Insightful and informative. Check it out!"Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan humor, he...
SK Telecom's Google Android Promos
SK Telecom's promo for Google's Android platform in Korea. Little Androids in the subway.Promo at Phoenix Park ski resort in Korea. Very cute....
The New Entrepreneur: Research Review
"Grasshopper.com presents a comprehensive research review (research by TrendsSpotting) on entrepreneurs:"The New Entrepreneur: Research ReviewView more presentations from Taly Weiss....
Story on Pandora's Perseverence
Great story on entrepreneurship and perseverance by Tim Westergren, so this link deserves its own space. He closed his second round after 347th pitches and 11 credit cards."How Pandora Slipped Past the Junkyard"The New York Timesby CLAIRE CAIN MILLEROAKLAND, Calif. — Tim Westergren recently sat in a Las Vegas penthouse...
TechNation Australia
This is the end, my friends. It’s with great pleasure I announce that, as of today, TechNation Australia (TNA) will no longer be updated. Instead, I have joined The Next Web network of tech blogs as editor of The Next Web Australia (TNW AU). The Next Web is making a concerted effort to become one of the...
More Mainstream Media for the Crowd-Sourcing Movement
Good to see mainstream media catching up on the growth of Crowd-Sourcing and speaking with some of our favourite local tech guys, Ross “Mr Enterprise 2.0″ Dawson and Design Bay Founder and MD, Alec Lynch. The story is a good overview of the pros and cons of the crowd-sourcing space, including...
TeamStream Launches, Aims To Change The Way News Is Read Inside Companies
For a couple of years now, the team at WotNews (formerly Plugger) have been using semantic technology to change the way people access and use news. They’ve done it through the self-titled site Wotnews and it’s Austalian, UK and US sites, through the super-popular WeAreHunted and CelebrityHunted and through a...
ChipHacker Launches Knowledge Exchange For Electronics Hackers
ChipHacker has launched a knowledge sharing community with the aim of bringing electronics hackers from all over the world together to share their skills and experience. The site is another to use StackOverflow’s StackExchange as its platform (TheNextWeb recently ran a story on another site using it, Startups.com). I have to...
Shmotter Looking To Take Virtual Fashion Styling To The Next Level
Shmotter, a Melbourne-based start-up, is looking to take on the world of virtual fashion styling by helping wanna-be Rachel Zoe’s perfect their look for the day without having to put a single thing on. The site allows users to select clothes from their large catalogue, mix and match them with accessories,...
2009 Australian VC Industry Report Is In, And It’s Bad.
AVCAL, the peak industry body for the Australian VC and PE industries has released its 2009 Yearbook and things look grim, at best. Katherine Woodhope, AVCAL CEO , says that while the PE sector is powering along and now rivals that of Europe and North America, she’s hoping the yearbook: acts as...
Preneur Marketing Blog - Pete Williams | Author Entrepreneur
5 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Virtual Assistants + Outsourcing
Thought I should share this video on the blog. A few days ago, I got an email asking for some advice regarding outsourcing and working with Virtual Assistants. Rather than, just responding to the email… I thought I would throw together a quick video covering my Top 5 Implementable Tips...
The Best Business Books + Audio Books
var playerhost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://preneur.s3.amazonaws.com/ezs3js/secure/" : "http://preneur.s3.amazonaws.com/ezs3js/player/"); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + playerhost + "flv/3B96B606-F030-7089-15E6D2DBFD3787B0.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); I was at the beach house this weekend, and stumbled across a bunch of my old audiobooks… actually books on tape – yep, old skool. Like I said in the video, I...
The ‘Coming Home 2′ Seminar with Ed Dale + Co…
Last weekend, I was one of the keynote speakers at Ed’s ‘Coming Home 2′ event… It was actually 4 years since the Thirty Day Challenge team put on a public event Australia; so the room was packed. It was an amazing success, with tonnes of great feedback and huge amount...
I just came across these Twitter Nike Dunks and oh do I want them. It’s my birthday next week – So if anyone can magically make a size 12 appear in my office I’ll give you free consulting for a year or a really long back massage – which ever...
Forget Email – Offline AutoResponders Is Where It’s At In 2010…
Not sure about you, but I use a tonne of email auto-responders in all my companies – and not just the online businesses. The sequential, set & forget marketing from the email auto-responders are killing it for my biggest real world company Infiniti Telecommunications See, I’ve been looking for a...
The old adage of ‘be (read: advertise) where your customers are’ simply doesn’t cut it any more. It’s all about going where your customers are looking; NOT where they are… Yeah, customers are on facebook and twitter, but that’s not where they are looking. Marketing and advertising on social...
Cerdafied...startups, people & the variety Hour
"So...is this a reeeeeelaunch?"
First off, there's been some confusion about the whole Cc:Betty/Threadbox thing. Cc:Betty was something we began to build on Rails in November 2008 on a hypothesis that a smart email assistant could make email discussions better. It was clever; in......
Cc:Betty -> Threadbox launch en route (check) SXSW Details (check) Demo Details (check) Social Business Edge (check) Under the Radar (check) Microphone (check) Guitar (check)...
Two things I can't talk about...
I'm terrible about blogging when there's something I can't quite talk about yet. It's always that one thing I can't talk about that preoccupies my writing mind. There's been a lot of that this year it seems. -About a month......
the sampling process...get out of the way!
With Internet products it's always a bonus and in some cases critical to be able to get first time visitors into the sampling process. The sampling process an opportunity to try the product and get some level of gratification and......
bad netiquette or social media?
Scott Yates of Denver New Technology Examiner has been one of the many writers covering the Google Wave hype of the past couple weeks. He's written some mindful stuff about it actually, and had some insightful stuff to say via......
RB: Welcome, Google Wave. Seriously.
Technorati Tags: Google Wave, Cc:Betty, Parody...
BUZZ in theHUB: Genotrope's Startup Watch
Dave McClure Throws Down Gauntlet to Boston Angels
Dave McClure day in Boston was awesome. I attended both events featuring the geek coder, turned marketer, turned Angel investor/VC, here in theHub. The first talk presented by Performable and hosted at Dopatach Labs was excellent and he did a good job of making it fresh. Once he found out that...
TestCase II March 24 @NERD, Call for Participating Companies
We had such a great time and got really positive feedback from both individuals and participating companies at the inaugural TestCase hosted by betahouse, last year, that we are doing it again this March. This time it will be held at the Microsoft NERD center for 60+ attendees. Josh Porter @bokardo, author...
I was reading QuickSprout one of my GOTO start-up blogs last night and this post really hit home. Are you Making These Mistakes? Neil Patel asks 10 successful entrepreneurs who have all created companies that are worth at least 50 million dollars, what their biggest business mistake was. Half of the...
Genotrope Record: Stamp Mobile Funding Status: Seed Founders Backgrounds: Urban Interactive, Blackstone Group Investors: ? Industry: Mobile Applications, Mobile Commerce Offering Description: Stamp’s loyalty program is a different breed. Points, rewards, customer management tools — sure, we have that. But we also provide the spark to help you build real relationships with your customers. ...
Genotrope Record: Peerium Funding Status: Self Funded? Founders Backgrounds: Harvard PHD CS, Microsoft Investors: ? Industry: White label iPhone apps, B2B web infrastructure Offering Description: A serverless platform that lowers the overhead of internet applications. Peerium is a software company focused on building a highly scaleable , serverless application platform. Currently creating white label iPhone...
Genotrope Record: Performable Currently Hiring Funding Status: Series A Founders Backgrounds: Compete, Lookery , Bokardo Design Investors: CRV Industry: B2B, Web Application Offering Description: Performable’s easy-to-use technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements in real-time, testing everything from a single word to an entire layout. These elements can be optimized depending on...
College Mogul
Startup Lessons From Syracuse University: Vol. 1
The following is a guest post by Shay Colson, a graduate student at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, and co-founder of user-based design firm Capesquared. Transitioning from talking about a new business to actually starting one has been one of the most exciting and empowering experiences I've ever had. It hasn't all been...
Part 1: Guide to Creating Products Linked to Social Entrepreneurship
The following post is by Mershard Frierson, founder of Mojo Body Fuel, a startup that puts a portion of its proceeds towards planting trees and international aid organizations. Mojo Body Fuel is working in Surigao Del Sur, Philippines and Port-au-prince, Haiti. Mershard is 21 and will be graduating from Fisk University in Nashville...
Interested In Taking Over College Mogul?
Hi, This is Alex here. I started College Mogul some time ago and have since moved on. It's a bit difficult to stay in the college loop after being out of school for so long. As I'm not sure what to do with this blog, I'm opening this up for...
DailyTailgate: Simple and witty sports info delivered to you
Calling all sports enthusiasts (and people who should know a bit more about sports): there is a new tool on the market worth checking out. DailyTailgate is a refreshingly simple and witty email newsletter that features hot sports topics as well as personalized sports information in your inbox every morning. Each...
8 Free Online Entrepreneurial Finance Classes from MIT
Running a business is never easy, especially if it’s your first time going it on your own. There are a million things to remember, clients to find, employees to be managed and of course, money to be accounted for. If you don’t have much experience managing the finances of a...
Poll: Did Facebook Acquire FriendFeed to Specifically Attack Twitter?
* Yes * No * Maybe * Unsure...
Grade A Entrepreneurs
Social Media 101, by Chris Brogan
Social Media 101 by Chris Brogan is a collection of posts related to “social media” that he wrote for his blog. So, just as any anthology, you can read this book pretty much in any order you want by picking one of the 87 topics that are listed in the...
Combining entrepreneurship and leadership: Vision India 2020, by Sramana Mitra
Vision India 2020 by Sramana Mitra describes where India could be – or should be 10 years down the road. Is the country destined to remain an outsourcing haven? No – and anyway, this outsourcing industry shows some cracks. Is its historical heritage doomed to disappear entirely? Yes, if nothing...
My takeaway for entrepreneurs from the Winter Olympics: Fail-forward-fast, and fulfill the promise
In a recent powwow, I was asked about my takeaway for entrepreneurs from the Winter Olympics. As I was starting to discuss the make-up of a champion, mentally ranking key characteristics, I changed gears and realized that what struck me the most, ultimately, was the victory of Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo...
How Startups Can Sell to Large Companies
Selling to large companies is the dream of many entrepreneurs. It’s not easy, and they have reasons to be afraid of it. My advice is that they overcome their fears and try. This week, I wrote a post on the American Express Forum, addressing some of the most frequent questions that...
Groundcrew: Organizing the Social Web on the Terra Firma
We are so used to doing everything via the Internet that we think we have paid our dues when we paypal a donation, or inform all our friends of what’s happening around us via our social networks. Yet, we need to continue to help in the real world and to...
If you are interested in Jewish studies and read French, here is a fascinating book: Survies d’un Juif européen: Correspondance de Paul Amann avec Romain Rolland et Jean-Richard Bloch. This correspondance is put together, presented, annotated, and introduced by my sister, Claudine Delphis-Goettmann, and is published by the University Press...
Deal Terms: Liquidation Preferences, Founder Options
Liquidation preferences have always seemed to be a case of having your cake and eating it too for investors. I’m guessing the original intent was strictly for downside protection. But it’s become a way for investors to guarantee a certain upside–risk mitigation at the expense of common. Put another way, it’s...
The Importance of Call Volume for Execs
First, let me say I always appreciate the courtesy of a phone call, even when it’s disappointing news. I think people deserve the call back. When I don’t want to buy something from someone who calls repeatedly, I call back or email back to let them know they should move...
One of my investors argued with me that I’d end up with 100% of nothing if I passed on a deal. And I know the argument well. In that case, it was a bad deal, but it was the only deal, and was something we likely should have done. I didn’t...
Sometimes things just aren’t going well, yet things are going really well. I haven’t worked in over a year, and have been kicking about trying new things out, figuring things out, and finally committing to an idea I’ve had for a long time. In between I’ve consulted to a number of...
The new software is coming along slowly. Ironically, it’s to help people focus while using the computer, and I’ve had trouble focusing throughout the development progress. While the software isn’t just for those with ADD/ADHD, it’s been helpful for me ever since I finished a few features that help block out...
I’ve been working on something for about 6 months. The results are decent, but it’s not where I want it to be yet. It’s time for feedback! The software is designed to help me focus. The funny thing is, it’s taken so long to get it finished because I’m having trouble...