Founder Story

Founder Story: Steven Kim of edify.me

An interview with Steven Kim, founder of edify.me which provides very well written summaries of business and personal improvement books. I think his summary of the Lean Startup is by far the best and most useful, I profiled it last year in “E-Book Summary for Lean Startup” 

Something Ventured: Make Money and Change the World for the Better

One documentary worth watching to get some context on the history of entrepreneurship and venture capital is “Something Ventured.” It’s a series of interviews with venture capitalists talking about their investments and their risk mitigation strategies in the 1950’s through 1970’s. It’s clear that they paid a lot of attention to “minimum viable products” and …

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Hard Drive: Seven Practices I Used to Launch a Successful Startup

This article explores the specific experiences of an entrepreneur (who uses the pseudonym “Hard Drive,” a nickname he earned early in his career for his tenacity and decisiveness) and lessons learned bootstrapping a high-tech software as a service business in the social media space. His sustained efforts enabled him to raise $40,000 in angel funding, …

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The Unreasonable Entrepreneur

Unreasonable entrepreneur is almost redundant. By definition entrepreneurs want to change the status quo, offering better products and services as substitutes for established and successful ones. This often requires an unreasonable amount of effort and persistence, sometimes to the point of stubbornness, in the face of not only opposition but also a concentrated lack of …

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Men Who Built America

The History Channel’s “Men Who Built America” documentary recaps the history of the creation of key American industries: railroad, steel, petroleum, automobile, and finance. Covering a period from roughly 1850 to World War 2 it offers reenactments of key events in the evolution of American business. It’s worth an entrepreneur’s time to reflect on the lives on …

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Founder Story: Edith Harbaugh of LaunchDarkly

I got to know Edith Harbaugh (@edith_h) when she was moderating the Lean Startup Circle Group and published two guest blog posts by her: “It’s Your Execution, Not Your Idea” and “Managing Email Conversations With Customers.” I also invited her to take part in a webinar on Innovator’s DNA: Experimenting Skill. During the roundtable conversation …

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Matt Wensing On Making the Transition to Growth

Matt Wensing On Making the Transition to Growth Stormpulse has gone from an idea bootstrapped on founder savings and credit cards, to a project funded by friends and family rounds, to a small business strengthened by angel money, to a company that’s raised “meaningful” capital (our last round was just over $2 million). Here’s what …

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Founder Story: Steve DiBartolomeo of Artwork Conversion Software

Steve DiBartolomeo is co-founder of Artwork Conversion Software, Inc., an EDA software firm headquartered  in Santa Cruz CA with a development office in Manhattan Beach, CA. Founded in 1989, the company develops CAD translation programs, CAD viewers, plotting software and IC packaging software.  Artwork has over 5000 customers worldwide including Alcatel, AMD, Applied Materials, Agere, …

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Matt Oscamou of Frontier Bites on the value of the Bootstrapper Breakfast

Matt Oscamou, the founder of Frontier Bites, talked about lessons learned getting a food startup off the ground at the April 15 Bootstrapper Breakfast in Sunnyvale. Here is a short recording of his introduction, the benefits the Bootstrapper Breakfast® has offered him, and how he came to bootstrap Frontier Bites with his brother and persevere …

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Leonard Smith 1927-2014

I didn’t know Leonard Smith but I was forwarded a link by John McKenna two days ago to his obituary (originally published in GreenwichTime on Jan. 26, 2014) and I thought it captured the essential personality of people who bring change to organizations in trouble and often start new ones.

FounderSuite Worth a Look for Saving Time On Your New Startup

There are a number of forms packages now available for entrepreneurs that provide templates for incorporation, investment term sheets, hiring employees and contractors, etc.. And there are several business model canvas tools that are designed to facilitate useful discussions among founders and advisors (and potential investors) about a new startup. But Nathan Beckord‘s Foundersuite is …

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Working For Equity CEO Panel Returns to Silicon Valley Code Camp 2013

We are reprising our “Working for Equity” CEO Panel for the fourth year at the 2013 Silicon Valley Code Camp. Here is the current write-up, we will be adding panelists’ bios in a few days. Many of us in Silicon Valley seek either to found or to be an early employee at a technology startup. …

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