Today I attended the 2007 Entrepreneurship Conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. One session that I truly enjoyed and found very informative was the “Going Solo or Partnering” Panel. Going Solo or Partnering Panel: Stanford E-Conference Below are three questions and answers I believe capture the importance of developing a solid team. Moderator Andy …
Going Solo or Partnering Panel: Stanford E-Conference Read More »
Six quotes from William Feather’s “The Business of Life” offer practical business wisdom from a successful publisher.
I found an interesting little tool Website Grader which evaluates your website. It produces a score and a list of things you can do to improve it. Some of the things I don’t agree with, but most are pretty good. Last night I played with it and the best sites I looked at were 80-70/100 …
I had lamented that I always Google too late, but lately I’ve been getting better. Here are some tools to use beyond Google and LinkedIn for searching for different kinds of specialized information. A9 let’s you search the contents of any books that Amazon carries, all of Amazon, and another 500+ specialized information sources. Citeseer, …
Last night I attended the IBDNetwork Strategies Series: Stepping on the Web 2.0 Scale. The event was hosted at Shasta Ventures and featured these guest speakers: Moderator: Tod Francis, Managing Director, Shasta Ventures Panel of Experts: Adam Gross, VP Developer Marketing, Salesforce Shawn Hardin, CEO, Flock Jason Pressman, Partner, Shasta Ventures Sam Schillace, Engineer, Writely/Google …
Stepping on the Web 2.0 Scale at IBDNetwork Jan-23-07 Read More »
Over lunch today I attended the SVASE Startup-U Event: Do I Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur? Which was held at Plug & Play Tech Center. The guest speakers were John Kim founder of Five9 and LeadMarket, and Steve Stephansen, Board Director of the Sand Hill Angels. It was an open discussion with a …
SVASE: Do I Have What it Takes to Be an Entrepreneur? Read More »
Some quotes from William Feather’s 1949 book, “The Business of Life.” It’s a collection of short notes, letters, newspaper columns magazine articles. Very insightful, and something like reading a blog from the 1930’s and 40’s. The way to get things done is to have a good assistant. In closing a deal, what you don’t say …
Everyone has advice for you about how to run your company! Even if it’s in the form of question like “When are you going to Get a Job?” Friends and relatives who have only been employees may have your best interest at heart but not have the background or temperament to help you get your …
Hugh MacLeod posted “Random Thoughts on Being an Entrepreneur” earlier this week. I’ve picked the best five and added some of my own comments 4. Once you become an entrepreneur, you find the company of non-entrepreneurs a lot harder to be around. You’ve seen things they haven’t; the wavelengths alter, it’s that simple. There are different perspectives …
Hugh MacLeod’s Thoughts on Being an Entrepreneur Read More »
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on thinking about your business goals for 2007, it’s also worthwhile to look at your own motivations and needs. In an extending interview in Fast Company “Are You Deciding On Purpose,” Richard Leider advises that you ask yourself two key questions: What do you want? How will you know …
Thinking About Your Business Goals for 2007, Part 2 Read More »
Thinking About Your Business Goals We went through a brief planning exercise with our clients, and some prospective clients, that several found useful. Since it’s not not too late to do some planning for 2007, here are a few questions that should answer on a single piece of paper (perhaps even a 3×5 card you can carry with you) …
Here are three ways for building credibility. Referrals A referral is an introduction to a prospect with an endorsement. A referral allows you to borrow credibility from a trusted third party. They spring from shared success with your customers or former co-workers, someone who knows your potential and can vouch for you or your team’s …
Ser Hou Kuang & Sean Murphy Granted US Patent #7162706 B2 for “Method for Analyzing and Validating Clock Integration Properties in Circuit Systems” on January 9, 2007. Abstract: A method for analyzing and validating clock integration properties in a circuit design is disclosed. A database of timing points that are clocked cell elements of the …
Ser Hou Kuang & Sean Murphy Granted US Patent 7162706 B2 Read More »
Here’s a good blog post on website content. How Can 10 Simple Articles Change Your Life? In his post Chris Pearson, recounts a story about a friend who creates a website (nothing fancy) but has wonderful content (10 articles). He kills his competition with his content. If you are selling your expertise, try promoting yourself …
We did an end of year de-briefing session an concluded that that the following changes had a things that had a positive effect on our business in 2006. Adding a logo to Business Cards Backgrounder (now in about SKMurphy, Inc. page) Improving Our Website Blogging LinkedIn Contacts Bootstrapper’s Breakfast “12 Books for the Busy CEO” Talk …
Last night, I attended the January Silicon Valley New Tech Meetup. For those of you who do not know the format of these gatherings, it is very simple. Each group of presenters is allowed five minutes to pitch their offering and then the crowd is allocated five minutes to ask questions. The first presenters were the founders …
Eight quotes by Paul Saffo on how technology is re-shaping organization design and strategic thinking in both commercial and military realms.
This was a principle for systems design suggested in a talk I heard 15-20 years ago. I can no longer remember the speaker’s name but I remember that he was in the disk drive business. Google has proven unavailing in sourcing it so it was probably an original insight with this engineer that hasn’t gained wider …
Jon Winokur has published a number of good books, including “The Portable Curmudgeon” and “Advice to Writers,” and was interviewed September 2006 by Guy Kawasaki, which prompted me to add his most recent, “Encyclopedia Neurotica” to my Amazon cart (where books can linger for months or years). I was frankly a little disappointed, but found …
Here are our 2007 New Year’s resolutions. Theresa plans to improve her public speaking, Francis wants to develop a better understanding of theories of entrepreneurship, and Sean hopes to develop a more positive outlook.
