When I first met Don Sexton, Mark Broadie, Ralph Biggadike and John Whitney at Columbia, a few things stood out at once. All four were very successful, well established and well respected professionals. They had touched professional peaks I couldn’t even dream about and had nothing left to prove. All four changed my life. 8 years later when I look …Read the Rest
Entrepreneurship
Startup Guide: My love affair with Google, Google check out
April 2, 2010
It was the beginning of the year that would mark the turn of the century. I was a second year MBA student at Columbia, sharing a conference room with a first year who had just moved to New York from the valley. We shared a seat each at the Integrity Board Club and I don’t even remember what I was …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: Strategy and tactics or Winning for itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie, little mom and pop tech shops.
April 2, 2010
Here are my hard earned qualifications that allow me to speak on strategy. I have never been rich or famous (infamy is separate classification) or successful. Of the last four of my ventures, three were dismal failures. I have been teaching since a crazy afternoon in 1995, when I was asked to substitute for a peer at FAST ICS who …Read the Rest
Startup Mode: On Hamlet, Horatios and Shakespearean mythology…Or you are not alone
April 2, 2010
Did Hamlet have a death wish? “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” Remember these lines as Horatio puts Hamlet’s head to rest and his eyes to close. I don’t know about you but I don’t like sad endings. I remember them… “Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the …Read the Rest
Startup Capital: Funding for dummies…four
April 2, 2010
And finally no financing deal ever goes through without relationships and credibility. Relationships open the door and get you time; credibility gets you to the term sheet. The sooner you build up your stock of these two elements the faster you can get to capital – debt or equity.
Startup Capital: Funding for dummies…three
April 2, 2010
We met Wilson Tan on a trade trip across China. In just over a week, thirty technology companies from the Asia Pacific region covered 3 cities and one hundred Chinese partners, trying to understand the opportunity that was China. Wilson was the President of the organizing body, (the outgoing President of Mercury interactive and on his way to take charge …Read the Rest
Startup Mode: Funding for dummies…one
April 2, 2010
You dream, you write, you pitch. If you put your heart in it and have an idea with merit you collect, build, sell, retire and live happily ever after. You never have to ask, borrow or steal another dime since the millions of dollars you have put aside as a result of your efforts are more than enough to take …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: The myth of a unique idea – one
April 2, 2010
How important is it to start off with an idea that no one has ever thought of before. Something absolutely unique, different and able to stand up on its own. A concept that would win you grudging respect from your friends, colleagues, class mates and neighbors. “That is one smart dude” they’d whisper as they bowed their heads and paid …Read the Rest
Startup Mode: Things they never taught me at Columbia Business School…
April 2, 2010
Despite my numerous comments about how much I owe Bruce Greenwald, Mark Broadie, Don Sexton and Ralph Biggadike on this blog, there are a few thing that they didn’t get around to covering in my all too short stay in school. Here is my list The link between dropping kids to school and closing deals in the parking lot. Who …Read the Rest
Startup Mode: There goes your coolant; here comes your core…
April 2, 2010
Running a small business is difficult. No one ever said it would be easy. You sleep less and work harder and that is the part you actually enjoy. Everything else is a struggle. If your small business is a technology company it just upgrades your nightmares to a different class – your personal nuclear reactor running amok, without the manuals, …Read the Rest
