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Real Clear Technology Aggregates Mainstream Media on Technology

I like Hacker News for early information and insights on technology.  But I find the newly launched Real Clear Technology site useful to understand mainstream perception of the impact of technology innovation. It’s a branch off the Real Clear Politics site, my hope is that they build it out to match the same feature set.

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The Risk of General Purpose Toolkits as a First Product

I will sometimes encounter an entrepreneur or team who is developing “a general purpose toolkit for X.” This may be at a Bootstrapper Breakfast or other networking event. They have often developed a core of a promising technology and see applications for it everywhere. Here is what I normally suggest: Write up a few examples

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Outstanding Panel for Wed-Sep-14 Book Club on “Great Demo”

We have an outstanding panel lined up for next Wednesday’s Business Impact Book Club: Matt Cameron,  CEO, WhoTo.com Jon Cline,  Principal, Cirrus Path Brian K. Seitz, Managing Director, Intellectual Arbitrage Group We will discuss lessons learned applying Peter Cohan‘s methodology from his “Great Demo” book. If you are interested in improving your sales presentation you

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Len Sklar: Be Clear About Payment Terms And Consequences

Len Sklar, author “The Check is NOT in the Mail”  has spoken several times at Bootstrapper Breakfasts.  Here is a recent talk he gave where he stresses the importance of putting payment terms and the consequences on non-payment in writing, communicating them in advance, and ensuring that they are understood. It all seems so obvious

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The Search for Validation is Baggage, and You Need to Travel Light

Jon Carroll wrote a wonderful column on July 5, 2000 titled “As You Get Older.” The whole thing is worth reading but there is a section that begins “This is your challenge…” that reads like poetry. So I have re-formatted it as blank verse, it contains a number of observations on advice and influence that

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Erecting Barriers to Competition That Are Difficult to Duplicate

Competition is inevitable, that is why it’s wise to prepare for it and immunize yourself with difficult to copy differentiation where possible. A pure focus on implementing new features as fast as possible in an effort to outrun the competition is unlikely by itself to be enough. Here are some barriers you can erect that

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Venkatesh Rao Thought Provoking on Tempo at Bootstrapper Breakfast

We had Venkatesh Rao, author of “Tempo“, and blogger at RibbonFarm as  guest at today’s Bootstrapper Breakfast. He has had an eclectic career: between 1997 and 2011, he pursued a traditional research/entrepreneurial career (a PhD, a postdoc, a startup, and an industrial R&D lab where among other things, he founded trailmeme.com as Entrenrepeur-in-Residence at Xerox).

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Tony Schwartz’s Principles For Fiercely Complex Times

Tony Schwartz offers “Ten Principles For Living in Fiercely Complex Times” that  you can “rely on to make choices that reflect openness, integrity and authenticity.” Here are the top three for me: “Emotions are contagious, so it pays to know what you’re feeling.” Tony Schwartz One of the balancing acts of entrepreneurship is control vs.

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