See www.xkcd.com/ for more comics. This scene plays out in one form or another several times a year.I have learned to: send the E-Mail just to myself and read it again in the morning. save the forum comment in a separate text file. save the blog post for review in the morning. Update Tue-Nov-5: Jim […]
Late Night Comments and E-Mail Read More »
I was still mulling over the implications of yesterday’s briefing by Nate Burgess when I came across “Prediction: Angel investing in 2009 will be up?” by Alexander Muse on the Texas Startup blog. Briefly his thesis is: The angel investment market hovers around $12 billion each year. I predict that the turmoil on Wall Street
Prediction: Angel Investing Down in 2009 Read More »
Real entrepreneurs don’t need encouragement to form a startup–although they may benefit from outside perspectives on their plans. Encouraging non-entrepreneurs to form a startup does them a disservice.
We Don’t Encourage Individuals to Form a Startup Read More »
I attended a “Merge Briefing” workshop today offered by the Corum Group Ltd. on the status of software acquisitions. I had learned a lot from a workshop that Ward Carter, Corum’s CEO, gave at the Software Business 2007 conference and felt that this would be informative. It turned out to be much more. It was
Sobering Workshop By Corum on Software Mergers Read More »
“Contentment comes from wanting what you have, Ambition from wanting what the other person has, Progress from wanting what nobody has.” Bob Lewis “Random Thoughts“ Bob Lewis writes the “Keeping the Joint Running” E-mail newsletter, devoted to practical advice for leading IT organizations effectively. From his column “In General, a Time for Generalists” Bob offer
Bob Lewis on Progress and Economizing vs. Cost Cutting Read More »
Attracting new customers is at the heart of every business. Active participation in a community can make you more visible and allows you to demonstrate expertise.
Cultivating Communities to Get More Customers Read More »
I now see books being written and thousand dollar a seat conferences offered on how to use twitter. My model is fairly simple, starting in April of this year I post quotes that I believe are useful, thought provoking or otherwise inspiring for entrepreneurs on @skmurphy. I try and post about ten quotes for entrepreneurs
Quotes For Entrepreneurs – November 2008 Read More »
Some post-Thanksgiving musings on my belief that most people want to do a good job. As you grow your startup find ways for everyone involved to work hard, see an impact, and improve. “Ancient Greeks defined happiness as the exercise of vital powers, along lines of excellence, in a life affording them scope” Edith Hamilton
Offer Scope for Employees to Exercise Their Vital Powers Read More »
A quick note of thanks that even in the midst of a serious economic downturn for Thanksgiving 2008 I have my health, my family, my friends, and the opportunity to make a living.
A great write-up by Yatin Trivedi on the value of coopetition: the motivation for a partnership program in any company is to better serve the customers beyond one’s ability.
Yatin Trivedi on the Value of Coopetition Read More »
Here are three startup feeds that I use at last weekly (I am skmurphy on Hackers News and may check there two or three times a day) that represent three different models to generate a stream of topical links for folks in software startups. Hacker News http://news.ycombinator.com/ Techmeme http://www.techmeme.com/ Alltop http://startups.alltop.com/ What are your favorite
Three Software Startup News Aggregators: Hacker News, Techmeme, Alltop Read More »
I had an unfamiliar pain recently. It was sharp, sudden, and unexpected: I ended up talking to my doctor about it. I have been trying to understand why it was more frightening, even though it was less painful than many other problems I have experienced.
Excerpts that I found thought provoking and useful from an interview with Jeff Bezos in the October 2007 Harvard Business Review.
Jeff Bezos on Strategic Planning Read More »
Interesting web site demo at http://nextgenerationelectronicsdesign.com/ by the folks at Altium. Unlike any PCB demo I have ever seen and an interesting use of self-deprecating humor to talk about the challenges of linking FPGA, Board, and Mechanical design. Two time coded remarks at 2:25 “We did what any traditional EDA company would do, we denied
Disruptive Tools Can Stall At Group Boundaries Read More »
A lot of is written these days about how to conserve cash in a downturn. In particular the need to cut expenses by cutting headcount and unnecessary fill-in-the-blank spending. But conserving trust is equally important. If you have been bootstrapping and only increasing expenses in response to revenue (versus in anticipation of revenue) then your
Conserving Trust in a Downturn Read More »
Startups survive because they can live on the scraps of a market (a niche) that larger competitors ignore or would be unable to pursue profitably. This is doing less with less.
Doing Less with Less Read More »
In April of 2001, as the euphoria from 1999 started to fall to earth again (by October it would be accessible only by Deep Submersible Rescue Vehicle) Daniel Pink wrote “Land of the Free” in Fast Company that was a teaser for “Free Agent Nation” as a hardback in May of 2001 and paperback in
Daniel Pink’s “Free Agent Nation” Worth Revisiting Read More »
Nov-17: the last full week before Thanksgiving, if you are trying to close business it can get much harder between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day [Full Week] Nov-24: a half week at best. [Half-Week] Dec-1: normally a good week [Full Week] Dec-8: normally a good week [Full Week] Dec-15: unless you are chasing end of
6 Work Weeks (or Less) Until 2009 Read More »
“We started with two empty hands.” Icelandic expression It’s hard to believe the frugal and hardworking Icelanders have gone bankrupt. I re-read Njal’s Saga every few years and find new nuggets each time. In Letter from Iceland, Robert Jackson reported November 14, 2008 in the Financial Times on the complete meltdown of Iceland’s financial system.
We Started With Two Empty Hands Read More »
When you are very angry, think about how momentary a man’s life is. Marcus Aurelius I worked in the router software marketing group at Cisco in the early 90’s. I had left engineering and taken up residence in the marketing department. I was playing asteroid to a number of dinosaur protocols: we had realized that
Odd Jobs With an Even Temper Read More »
