There is never enough time to do all the things that need to get done in a startup. Hence , we continuously look for ways to be more productive. I recently read an interesting natural study about inefficiency in the public sector and it got me thinking about transparency and its effects on output.
The case examined multiple public agencies performing identical tasks at different sites. Originally there was no transparency amongst the agencies about comparative performance and despite the fact that they were performing the exact same tasks, there were gaps in the levels of output. Tired of the disparity, an executive decision was made to make the output information available across agencies. Shortly after, the lagging agencies improved their performance …
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I’m extremely fascinated by the opportunity to leverage data to find implicit signals. If you’re unfamiliar with the term implicit signals, I’m referencing instances when user actions/data imply meaning, yet don’t state it outright. Fred Wilson provides some additional quality content on the implicit web here. An example of an implicit signal can be if I check into the same coffee shop on foursquare every morning. By doing this I’m implicitly recommending their coffee. I don’t state it outright, but the act of me broadcasting my location when I purchase it every morning implies that I like their coffee.
API’s have driven a lot of the innovation around this concept because they enable the sharing of data. Still, I believe we …
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This post originally appeared on VentureBent.
I heard an amazing story at my Church weekend. I drew many parallels from it to my own life including some of the things I’ve learned in my journey as an entrepreneur. The story goes like this:
Alexander the Great’s powerful army spent years overwhelming opposing armies in their conquests. His men were fierce and swelled with the confidence that comes with consistent victory. Yet when Alexander and his men arrived on the shores of Persia they were visibly outnumbered. Clearly outmanned, his men pleaded that it would be wise to go back and get more men. Alexander responded by ordering the men to burn their boats. As their only means of retreat went …
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This post originally appeared on VentureBent
Over 4th of July weekend I had a great talk with a friend’s Dad whose had a pretty stellar career in private equity. He probably still has American Online and couldn’t tell you what a hashtag is, but the guy is a total sage when it comes to business insight across the board.
We talked about how important it is to find a career that truly excites you: nothing new there. A more thought provoking conversation surrounded how we must objectively evaluate our personal strengths and weaknesses to see where we can win professionally. Its an incredible insight that I think is particularly important for entrepreneurs to think about.
If I was a betting man, or a …
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This post originally appeared on VentureBent – a blog syndicate I’m part of.
Its so important to finish in everything you do – especially as an entrepreneur. When you’re doing startups there is never enough time in the day. You’re forced to pick and choose your battles and devote less time to certain things you care about. A hierarchy results where some things get more time and attention than others. I’ve found this segmentation to be fine, but when you start cutting it short on things it can be a slippery slope.
Three things that have been consistently important to me throughout my entrepreneurial journey are my professional goals, fitness, and diet. Early on, I decided that my diet and fitness regimen …
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Being an entrepreneur can be a very isolating existence, especially in the early days. This definitely contributes to the emotional roller-coaster of building a startup. I hear about a lot of people who are “heads down” coding for weeks and even months at a time to get their product out there. This may be good for pushing the product along, but for your mental health its rough.
When we first have something we want to work on its incredibly exciting, but as we push forward its hard to maintain that momentum. I’ve found that collegial discourse around your project or building things in general can help maintain this. Theres a certain energy that exists among entrepreneurs that can be unlocked over a …
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You usually hear about people wanting to start companies because they have a problem they want solve or think they have some unique insight that might result in bags of cash. I think there is another reason that is spoken of less frequently.
When people would tell me how hard it was to build a company a certain itch would arise that made me wonder if I had what it took to start my own. In the current landscape, this feeling is amplified because you’re bombarded by success stories in the media. I find myself asking similar questions about aspirations in other fields. For example, I want to go through Marine training not because I truly feel called to serve our …
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A few weeks ago I went to TC Disrupt and spent some time walking through “startup alley” where new companies set up booths to demo their products. In a span of two days I came across 3 social calendaring apps, 3 mobile marketplace apps, and 2 mobile app directories. Its wild that even within a small microcosm significant overlap exists and I imagine theres far more companies are in these spaces then were at TC Disrupt.
When this occurs people react one of two ways. They comfort themselves by saying this is evidence that a market exists or they are overcome with anxiety that someone else is trying to solve the same problem. I don’t find fault with either of these reactions, but …
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