Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds SEAL Team saying Over the last 40 years Technology investors have learned that the success of startups are not just about the technology but “it’s about the team.” We spent a year screwing it up in our Lean LaunchPad classes until we figured out it was [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 31 Comments »
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture | 55 Comments »
Foreign visitors to Silicon Valley continually mention how willing we are to help, network and connect strangers. We take it so for granted we never even to bother to talk about it. It’s the “Pay-It-Forward” culture. ——- We’re all in this together – The Chips are Down in 1962 Walker’s Wagon Wheel Bar/Restaurant in Mountain [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Teaching | 31 Comments »
Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten involved in hiring for two startups, a public agency and a non profit. Part of each conversation was getting asked to help them put together a “job spec.” I had them leave with a pie chart. ——– There must be something in the air. In the last week [...]
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture, Technology | 31 Comments »
Exploring Spain. Back soon.
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture | 7 Comments »
My friend Ben Horowitz and I debated the tech bubble in The Economist. An abridged version of this post was the “closing” statement to Ben’s rebuttal comments. Part 1 is here and Part 2 here. The full version is below. ————————————————— It’s been fun debating the question, “Are we in a tech bubble?” with my colleague Ben Horowitz. Ben and his partner Marc [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Venture Capital | 14 Comments »
I am honored to be with you as we gather to celebrate your graduation from Philadelphia University. While I teach at Stanford and Berkeley, to be honest… this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. I realize that my 15 minutes up here is all that’s between you and the rest or [...]
Filed under: Air Force, Family/Career/Culture, Teaching | 26 Comments »
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master Ernest Hemingway Silicon Valley is built on simple myths – one of the most pervasive is that all winning startups are founded straight out of school by 20 year olds from Stanford or Harvard. The reality is these are the exceptions [...]
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Family/Career/Culture | 9 Comments »
When the student is ready, the master appears. Buddhist Proverb Lots of entrepreneurs believe they want a mentor. In fact, they’re actually asking for a teacher or a coach. A mentor relationship is a two-way street. To make it work, you have to bring something to the party. A Question from the Audience Recently when [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Teaching | 18 Comments »
Om Malik runs Gigaom, probably the most interesting and accurate site on the blogosphere. Om was kind enough to have me in for an interview. We covered a wide range of topics. This talk on Risk and Culture in Silicon Valley is a small 1 minute snippet of a longer interview on his blog.
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Teaching, Technology, Venture Capital | 10 Comments »
I wrote about entrepreneurs as artists in a previous post. The FounderLy team interviewed me and got me to give a better explanation of what I was trying to say in this 2 minute video clip. If you can’t see the video click here.
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture | 20 Comments »
Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. George Bernard Shaw Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development, Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a “science,” and anyone could [...]
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture | 37 Comments »
If you’re a visiting dignitary whose country has a Gross National Product equal to or greater than the State of California, your visit to Silicon Valley consists of a lunch/dinner with some combination of the founders of Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter and several brand name venture capitalists. If you have time, the President of [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Technology, Venture Capital | 31 Comments »
Out of the mouths of babes. Maybe because it’s a company town and everyone in Silicon Valley has a family connection to entrepreneurship. Or maybe I just encountered the most entrepreneurial 12 year olds ever assembled under one roof. Or maybe we’re now teaching entrepreneurial thinking in middle schools. Either way I had an astounding [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Teaching | 20 Comments »
And, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of Heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. William Shakespeare Last week I had my “public servant” hat on in my [...]
Filed under: Air Force, California Coastal Commission, Family/Career/Culture | 19 Comments »
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