I had a great time at the San Diego Young Entreprenuers meeting yestday at the offices of DLA Piper. Cliff Currie and Robert Reyes are the hosts and founders of StartUpCicle (follow them on Twitter). Their idea is to be able to help startups get together, feed off each other's ideas, and watch young businesses …
Speaking Event: San Diego Young Entrepreneurs Slide Show Read More »
Earlier this week, I was speaking with a few people at a breast cancer fund raising event at the San Diego Hard Rock. I was introduced to two budding entrepreneurs who had just launched a new music site geared towards helping bands market their services. When I asked them to tell me a bit about …
“We’re Going to Be the Next… (facebook / twitter / The Killers / fill in the blank) Read More »
Here's a quick five minute interview with Bambi Francisco and Charlene Li on what to do when pitching a potential investor or member of the media. Always remember to focus on the following 3 steps: 1. What's the problem?2. How are you solving that problem in a differentiated way3. How are you going to make …
From Vator.TV – The Best Pitches Are Done in 7 Minutes Read More »
Image via Wikipedia 6 Helpful Clues for CEOs by Guy Kawasaki. Read and see how your startup is doing. This reminds me how important it is to be blatantly honest with your business. You simply can’t believe your own hype. Deal with the reality you have, not the one you wish to have… 6 Helpful …
I found this story from Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures. I've always found his posts to be thoughtful and useful: "I think that's an important part of the economics of the web that are left out of most discussions of Internet business models. Yes, we are turning analog dollars into digital pennies in many cases. …
Seth is right. Focus on keeping expenses in line and build something that your customers really want. The days of “get big fast and burn money” are over.
I am reading a quick note from Phil Rosenzweig, Wharton and Harvard guy: "High performance comes from doing things better than rivals, which means that entrepreneurs have to take risks. Decisions must be made where there isn't 100% accuracy. Thus, strategy involves making decisions under uncertainty. The goal of strategic analysis should therefore be one …
The grass may seem greener, and the pasture may seem larger somewhere else. But what I’ve learned is that I must be able to answer the question, “What is the value we’re creating that people are willing to pay for?”
Focus on making a product good enough that a core group of people will buy it. If it’s useful for the few, you have a better chance of making it useful for many.
Over the next few months, we are going to be a living experiment in converting a hierarchical site to a more circular tagging site. We realize that we cannot possibly keep up with the ever-changing creative outlets that our users want to learn about. What we believe is that over time, our users (who are the experts) will tell us how things should be organized, and we will use that data to develop tighter social graphs, more relevant search results, and a more fluid overall experience.