In the world, there are certain immutable physical laws. We all know them. You know, you’ve got your Newton’s Law of Gravity, your Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Moore’s Law…and now there’s my Theorem of Agita and Angst. Newton – What goes up will come down Einstein – E = mc2 Moore – Computing performance will double every…
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I’m going to stop waiting till next year. I’m not waiting till next week, next month, next year. The next time I look at an item on my to-do list for the 2nd or 3rd time, instead of putting it off again for another indefinite future execution date that I won’t meet, I’m taking it…
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Investors seek familiar investments that are analogous to companies that they admire. They would like to believe that you can be successful because you are like another company that has been successful. Therefore, when you create your business plan, base it on a successful, public company that is similar to yours. (Public is preferable, because…
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When an entrepreneur founds a company, they typically go through the 4 stages of competence: Unconscious Incompetence – don’t know what they don’t know Conscious Incompetence – knows what they don’t know and realizes they better find a way to know Conscious Competence – understands what needs to be done, the process to get it…
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During my years as a turn-around guy, I’ve boarded many an un-seaworthy, leaky vessel. This has afforded me the opportunity to be responsible for more sunken ships than the entire WWII German u-boat fleet. You see, sometimes the boat comes about when you push the tiller, and other times it continues full speed ahead into…
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Are you ready to take your company to the next level? Is it time to go get some of that easy flowing venture capital cash? Most of the time the answer is a simple “nope.” A company must be the right type of company at the right stage of their development at the right time…
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Starting a new company is exciting. Building a company is thrilling. Seeing your idea grow and take off is exhilarating. Reality, on the other hand, can hit you as hard as a pro-bowl NFL linebacker. When you’re starting up a new venture, you must start with the premise that nothing will go exactly as planned. Projects will…
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Fear is the fox in the hen house on the innovation farm. Fear is the mortal enemy of innovation, because when a culture punishes failure, its people work toward maintaining the status quo, and no headway is made. Embracing failure is not necessary, but tolerating its risk outside of your core business lines is essential…
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Consider, for a moment, all the roles that you play as an entrepreneur. Innovator, manager, marketer, enthusiast, salesman, strategist—the list goes on forever, but does it include farmer? If it doesn’t, it will by the time you finish reading Harvesting Intangible Assets. Entrepreneurs are a special kind of farmers—new agrarians, planning, planting, nurturing and cultivating,…
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How many times have you stopped and thought about the perfection of inhaled air? Maybe after running for miles as you struggle to breathe, you recognize the beauty of oxygen that always surrounds you. How many of us appreciate how wonderful it is simply to walk? When things go wrong, when we’ve broken a leg,…
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Lightning in a bottle is a rare mixture of secret sauce and execution. What is Apple’s secret sauce? How about Google’s or Facebook’s? These companies are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Apple, with its iconic Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad products, is the epitome of execution over secret sauce. Innovation and proprietary IP has not led to the rise…
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Students Helping Startups is an innovative new program at Howard University in Washington, DC. Here’s the concept: There are lots of students learning about marketing and social media, and they need projects to take on for the semester. At the same time, Professor Angela Hausman noticed there are lots of startups out there who may enjoy some help…
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After 30 years of doing the entrepreneurial thing, a person – even one as dense as me – starts to notice certain repetitive patterns. There are times I’m talking with a CEO and their story starts unfolding into what I call a “Oh NO! Here we go again” moment. It’s difficult to hold back and not…
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We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. As a turnaround executive, I had the opportunity to get hyper-experienced in failure at hyper speed. All those good-companies-gone-bad passed on scars, wisdom, and greatly enhanced the level of crankiness. My experience with corporate tragedy has taught me that the number one reason companies…
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I was having a conversation last week with one of DC’s early tech entrepreneurs, and he mentioned that he just completed a pivot with his latest company. Now, I couldn’t help but notice that this contemporary of mine had just uttered one of those newfangled, pants-around-their-knees, hipster-generation, jargon-speakey phrases, and I called him on it. …
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Editor’s Note: This article was written by Zach Davis on his iPhone while hiking the Appalachian Trail (he started in March) from Georgia to Maine. Follow Zach’s progress via the Zach-Track-O-Matic or on Twitter @zrdavis. How would you like to double the traffic to your website with only 1/4 the effort? Piqued your interest? It…
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There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read More
Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More