Once in a Blue Apron
After a couple years of talking about Blue Apron in my classes and accelerators I thought I’d write of those thoughts down. Blue Apron is the meal delivery company that everyone loves to hate. It’s not without good reasons. Their stock price is currently $2.15 (it was $10 on opening day). We’ve seen their high CAC […]
If You Must Crawl Before You Walk Why Do So Few Do It?
It’s a common phrase, “you must crawl before you walk.” We say it because that’s what we see babies do as they mature. We then apply the same logic to businesses and founders. But is the saying true? Turns out, many babies go from some other type of movement (sliding, rolling etc) and straight into walking. […]
The Disposable Startup Redux
A few years ago I wrote a piece called The Disposable Startup. The piece was an appeal to let young startup founders explore and have fun building new things (like the college bands I remember), rather than see a need to provide adult supervision and oversight into every aspect (like college today). This is a […]
Facade Over Foundation
Why Do We Want More Startups? I’ve never gotten a good answer to that question. Is it because people believe startups drive innovation? Is it because the successful ones create jobs? Is it because people are happier working at them? Most of the time it seems that we (meaning cities, regions, countries, universities, communities…) want […]
Side Effects. Mean Business.
or Why I Recreate Before Every Startup Program I Run and Company I Advise It’s easy to spend money when it’s not your own. When business people plan and spend a budget (not their own money) I rarely see evaluations of the efficacy of the activities the budget will support. In new product development, innovation management, startup programs, […]
Maxed Out Mentor
There are a handful of startup world terms that I can’t stand. Sometimes that’s because the terms are confusing. Other times because they’re downright unhelpful. Other times it’s just because I’m preternaturally cantankerous. I’m not sure into which one of those my experience with the word “mentor” falls. To rethink these old issues, start with […]
What I Learned Running Startup Programs on Three Continents over Five Years
Five years, multiple program formats, 100+ companies, tens of millions in funding, lots of customers, exits, all across three continents… This past July (2017) marked five years I’ve “formally” led various startup programs with hundreds of startups. Here’s a synopsis of those five years and an intro to what I learned along the way. Read more […]
Should Startups Work on Global Problems? Is the Pope Catholic?
Pope Francis drives an old Ford Focus. He wears cheap orthopedic shoes. He took the bulletproof glass off the famous popemobile, saying it was better to be close to the people and take his chances. He never moved into the official Papal quarters in the Vatican and instead lives in a small apartment. The pontiff, […]
Five Skills for Feasibility
I taught the Feasibility Analysis class at USC for a few years. Afterward, a colleague asked me to speak to his graduate class on the topic of feasibility analysis. This gave me the opportunity to do something that I never did over the past semesters – to think about how to express the essentials of […]
A college level class in growth hacking?
In a few days I’m teaching the first class in Growth Hacking at USC. I created this class because no matter what you feel about the “Growth Hacker” term, I find the role to be sought after by graduating students and the skill set to be appreciated by businesses. As far as I know, this is the […]