Groupon went public on Friday, and it was reported to be the largest IPO since Google. I don't get it. The founders took $900 million in cash from the company before it went public. Which suggests they think the company is overvalued (and they want their money while...
I caught up on back issues of Wired this weekend. Good writing is underrated, and this magazine has some of the best. Plus, where else can you read about behavioral feedback loops, hackers, a kerfuffle over a hijacked copy of a video game, and Harry Potter in the same...
Clones might be perfect, but people are intriguing. We’re intriguing because we’re not all the same. We don’t look alike. We don’t act in unison. And we have different strengths—and weaknesses. There also isn’t “one” entrepreneur. And, in Entrepreneurial DNA, Joe...
Check out this instructive post by Vivek Wadhwa, director of research at Duke University's Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization. In it, he explores five myths about entrepreneurs: Typical U.S. tech entrepreneurs are in their 20s. Entrepreneurs...
Some days I wish there were a magic potion, a special key, a secret sauce. A wand I could wave that would mystically make my business hum along without having to worry simultaneously about budgets, business development, clients, networking, professional development,...
Fred Wilson wrote a thoughtful analysis of the differences between first timers and serial entrepreneurs: "The best first time entrepreneurs have been stewing on their idea for quite a while... They often get the right product into the market at the right time and...
Rework is a deceptively simple manifesto for entrepreneurs that is all about challenging conventional wisdom and the way that business ought to be done. It’s written in brilliant one- and two-page bursts of ideas held together by big-picture business themes, much as...
Many years ago, I set up a joint venture involving the Russian real estate market. My partner Philip Bay had a successful business in Russia and Bulgaria catering primarily to foreign companies looking to expand into these emerging markets and foreign governments...
Should business schools teach the arts? Consider this, from an article in The Economist: "Studying the arts can help business people communicate more eloquently. Most bosses spend a huge amount of time "messaging" and "reaching out." yet few are good at it... Many of...
In Energize Growth Now, author Lisa Nirell discusses five stages of growth (startup, growth, advanced growth, plateau, and decline) and the challenges entrepreneurs face as they move from one stage to the next. The book aims to help founders and other CEOs identify...