Both Sides of the Table

MAY 17, 2011

I went to undergrad at UCSD, which is not a place known for its Greek institutions and my father grew up in South America and had know idea what a fraternity was. So I went to college with no expectation that I would ever join a fraternity let alone aspire to become president one day. Yet being in a fraternity was one of the most transformative experiences I had in college and prepared me better for becoming an entrepreneur than any class that I took.

peer-to-peer 365

peer-to-peer leadership support construction 365

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 12, 2011

If you're looking to build relationships with VCs, learn from top entrepreneurs or just get deep into the NYC innovation community, I suggest you read a book. I don't mean any particular book about startups--I mean join a book club. Joe Yevoli and Reece Pacheco run a book club of 30 local entrepreneurs that meets monthly. How about riding a bike?

entrepreneurship 271

entrepreneurship communities pitching innovation 271

Berkonomics

MAY 7, 2011

We’d all like to retain our best managers and employees forever or at least for as long as possible. But sometimes our corporate wants and needs conflict with what is best for an employee and his or her career development. We cannot legally stand in the way of an employee resigning to pursue a dream, but we can leave a bad taste with that person and chip away at our corporate culture by not cooperating or even helping the employee move on. .

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creativity culture opportunity investing 66

abovethecrowd.com

MAY 25, 2011

[Follow Me on Twitter] “ Don’t you know that you are a shooting star, And all the world will love you just as long, As long as you are.” – Paul Rodgers, Shooting Star With the IPO market now blown wide-open, and the media completely infatuated with frothy trades in the bubbly late stage private market, [.].

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media venture capital capital ventures 108

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strategy

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

This article originally ran on TechCrunch. I’m in Seattle this week. People keep asking me if I’ve “seen anything interesting.&# Of course I have. I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. I really liked BigDoor, MediaPiston, OpsCode, BuddyTV, SEOMoz and much more. Can’t list them all.

communities 317

communities VC innovation entrepreneurs 317

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2011

In the past I’ve given some tips for handling meetings effectively, covering topics like: - How not to let your meeting go down a rat hole ; - Dealing with the elephant in the room ; - Dealing with skeletons in your closet ; - How to make meetings discussions, not “pitches&#. - A tale of two pitches (I eventually invested in the first company that pitched).

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pitching advice culture VC 392

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 2, 2011

I wrote this last night as the preamble to my weekly NYC innovation events newsletter: Osama Bin Ladin is dead. I’m not sure what to say. It’s 2AM and I’ve been watching coverage of worldwide reaction. In NYC, there is a lot of cheering, countered by the stark reminders of those who lost loved ones in 9/11 and soldiers halfway across the world that this will not bring anyone back.

energy 284

energy education innovation finance 284

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

This post originally appeared on TechCrunch. I have often said that what separates real entrepreneurs from pundits and bystanders is a bias towards getting things done versus over analyzing things. My credo has always been JFDI. It’s the hardest thing to teach people who come out of big companies, out of conservative jobs. At the big consulting firms, investment banks and established large technology companies we’re taught to produce long reports, make sure that every document is perfect quali

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startup culture frameworks entrepreneurs 335

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 19, 2011

The New York Times' Executive Editor, Bill Keller, wrote a piece for New York Magazine entitled " The Twitter Trap " in which he laments the pandora’s box of continuously connected social media he has just opened for his 13 year old daughter by allowing her to have a Facebook account. “I’m not even sure these new instruments are genuinely “social.

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media networking opportunity technology 358

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startup

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 25, 2011

I've been thinking about bread for the last couple of days. No, not bread. bre.ad , a new startup launching whose founder has perfected the art of the conference pitch. I was sitting at lunch at Techcrunch Disrupt in the middle of a bunch of people. The guy leans in and says, "Hey Charlie, sorry to interrupt, my name is Alan, I'm with bre.ad, I'm going to follow up with an e-mail to you about our startup.

pitching 284

pitching disruption entrepreneurs enablement 284

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2011

Advisors, investors and board members come in all shapes and sizes. I'm a strong believer in having a board, even at a seed stage, to report to and set strategy with. The most successful companies have strong boards and so as a good housekeeping practice, why not start acting like a great company as early as possible. Having a board and advisors is usually better than having none at all, but the following characters don't really provide the kind of value add you're looking for.

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board advice consulting angel investing 278

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I spoke at Stanford last year about starting a tech company. They really cleverly chopped the video up into small bite-sized segments. So for anybody who reads my “This Week in VC&# transcripts but doesn’t watch the video – this one’s for you! It’s only 3 minutes, 44 seconds. I covered what I call “the co-founder mythology.&# So embedded is this conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley that it feels like heresy to even question it.

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founder strategy VC startup 393

Berkonomics

MAY 2, 2011

Years ago, when I was CEO of my record manufacturing company in Hollywood, I happened to walk around the plant into the press room just as Bobby, one of the employees’ favorite coworkers, was offering stolen merchandise to his fellow pressmen from a bag he was carrying. He halted, and waited for me to react, obviously caught in the act. Everyone loved Bobby, a hard worker and good friend.

coworking 73

coworking energy culture 73

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financing

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 23, 2011

There's no silver bullet way to get a job these days--or at any time--but what college grads should be optimizing for is a) making sure they're choosing something they're actually interested in, b) casting a wide enough net to find the best path possible in their field and c) making sure they have enough skills and connections to be the right candidate when they do find the job they want.

peer-to-peer 369

peer-to-peer mix-use media consulting 369

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2011

A lot of baseball fans have the knuckleball fantasy--particularly guys like me who are over 30 that realize that this quirky pitch is their last ticket to play in the major leagues. We never developed the 98mph fastball--and it's unlikely that any amount of pounding a vat full of rice is going to get us there. Yet, there's always the possibilty that Charlie Hough or Tom Candiotti randomly moves in next door to us and agrees to soft toss some floaters every night for six months until we pick it u

mix-use 265

mix-use pitching founder development 265

Berkonomics

MAY 23, 2011

All of us are pressed for time, always attempting to balance the overwhelming demands of business with the basic wants and needs of family. In earlier insights, we have examined the need for and care of your corporate vision, and how to develop and nurture that vision through to creation of a corporate culture, goals, strategies and tactics. Now we get personal.

culture 103

culture advice strategy development 103

Berkonomics

MAY 31, 2011

If you have been in management or an entrepreneur long enough, you will have experienced the gray area of decision-making where ethics, the law, your needs and expediency all collide. This is the time when you are paid the big bucks, and when others aware of your plight will be watching most carefully. It is also the time when you demonstrate your true courage to your contemporaries.

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entrepreneurs 96

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technology

Berkonomics

MAY 17, 2011

We are not dealing with personal time management with this series of insights, except when it helps immensely to make a better manager of you and me. All of us have time management tips and tricks to help us get through the day. I have a mantra I try to live by, and it has helped me more than you know over the years. “Never handle a paper twice” may be extended to include reading and acting upon emails, messages, and any written distraction. .

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. But I loved reading them and so did my team.

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peer-to-peer communities development innovation 285