Plus Minus People
“Plus Minus People” make a strong initial impression but once you start working with them (or you hire them) you realize that they have a negative impact on the team.
Two Images of Startups
I had lunch today at El Cerrito with an old friend from college who has done a number of successful startups. We talked of old classmates, children, the energy we had in our twenties, his new son, and my new granddaughter. And we talked about what it was like to do a startup. He left
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Nusym De-cloaks 4
Nusym De-cloaks 4 Venk Shukla, CEO of Nusym, commented on Nusym De-cloaks 3 on Dec 4 We had met a long time ago but lost touch afterward. The points you make about website credibility are valid. We will measure the information we put out against this criteria once we decide to emerge from the shadows.
Ten Quotes from “Guidelines to Creativity” by K. Bradford Brown
I got Guidelines to Creativity by K. Bradford Brown as a gift and was impressed by these ten quotes. Some are clever re-statements of more famous observations but all have a certain poetry. Creativity will take me as far as my imagined limits. The building blocks of our creativity are quarried from the space between
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12 Books For the Busy CEO – Feedback
12 Books For the Busy CEO – Feedback Last night’s talk was well received. We had a good crowd, with folks filling the seats and a few having to stand up along the back wall. Here’s the feedback from the talk: I was surprised that it was more than 12 capsule reviews back to back,
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12 Books For the Busy CEO Tonight (Mon Dec-11-2006) @ SDForum
12 Books For the Busy CEO: spend an hour and leave with a summary of key marketing insights and some rules of thumb for successful innovation in Silicon Valley. You might even identify one or two books that you haven’t read that will be worth your time over the Christmas holidays. I will cover twelve
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Just For Today by Ben Stein
Just For Today I Will Feel Grateful For My Customers. I Worked Hard To Get Them. Without Them I Would Not Have A Business. I Will Be as Friendly as Can Be to Everyone That I Work With; I Will Treat Them as If They Are Responsible For Keeping Me in Business. If I Have
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3 Tips for Blogging
Map out a calendar of subjects to cover. Just planning one or two a week for the next 2 months will help you avoid writer’s block. This still leaves room for “inspired” work but can give you some structure. Pick a focus or related set of subjects for your writing. Inject your perspective and where
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Going Pro
Going pro means learning how to deliver the results required. Some key points to remember as you ask folks in larger firms to take a risk with your new offering or service. They are from a March 1993 column entitled “Going Pro” by Asa Baber.
Welcome from Theresa Shafer
I will be offering practical advice to startup entrepreneurs in this blog. I am a hardware engineer and a mom, so I like lists with a do-it/done methodology. My post are short and to the point. Hopefully you will find them useful. “It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only
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Coffee Break with Gary Smith
I had a coffee break with Gary Smith after he had been let go by Dataquest and decided to start Gary Smith EDA to continue as an EDA market analyst.
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3 Tips for Closing your Next Consulting Deal
Early software sales are typically a mix of service and product, and in fact can look a lot like consulting deals. Here are a three tips to help plan your next sales call. Focus on the prospect’s business needs, issues and concerns more than your smarts, methods, or credentials. Promised results (benefits) matter more than
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Larry Sonsini Profiled in Fortune Nov-27-06
Larry Sonsini Profiled in Fortune Nov-27-06 I have been catching up on my reading and came across a profile of Larry Sonsini in Fortune’s Nov-27-06 print edition. The article in the print edition is titled “The Man To See In The Valley” but “Scandals rock Silicon Valley’s top legal ace” in the on-line version. It’s part
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Thoughts on Perseverance and Promises
A collection of quotes on perseverance, staying true to your character, and keeping your promises.
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3×5 Cards
Always carry 3×5 cards with you wherever you go. I keep a handful in my shirt pocket and jot down those sudden inspirations or solutions to small problems that I would otherwise quickly forget.
Email Overload
Email overload has become an overused term. But I find myself with an inbox hovering near 6,000 messages (5932 at the moment) and so I have to make some serious changes.
Nesheim vs. Cowan on Bootstrap Economics
This post contrasts two views of bootstrap economics. John Nesheim is unabashedly anti-bootstrapping, David Cowan is more positive.
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Quotes for Thanksgiving
Here are a set of quotes for Thanksgiving to reflect on over the holidays.
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Nusym De-cloaks 3
Nusym De-cloaks part three in a five part series on Nusym, an EDA startup that over promised, under delivered, and ultimately sank.
Custom Centric Marketing Means Shifting to “Resolution Messages”
Mary Sullivan addressed “Customer Centric Marketing” last Monday, providing a number of examples of marketing messages based on the customer’s operating reality. Mary highlighted the need for marketing campaigns to recognize that the customer is in charge of the buying process today. The example messages cut through the noise (Mary provided an estimate that every
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