Startup

Startup Secret No. 25: In praise of the CEO idiot-savant

"Do it because you can't do anything else."

--Me

I've made a minor career of studying entrepreneurs. Among them, there's an especially interesting subset: The serial entrepreneur.

Being a serial entrepreneur who's successful at more than one company is not the American Dream. In the standard-issue American fantasy, the one that politicians and banks promote, you start one company, and if it doesn't work out, you do it again. Until you hit on a winner. And then you cash out, buy a lake-front house and a fishing boat, and retire. The dream is … Read more

Startup Secret No. 24: Learn networking. The other networking

"It's how you know, not just who."

--Nick Hughes, CEO, Seconds

Nick just launched Seconds, an SMS gateway for small businesses. I think it's brilliant. So I asked him for a Secret, and he gave me this one.

No matter how good your technology or product, Nick says, other people will be critical to your success. It is vital to continually develop your network. "You must reach out, look them in the eye, shake their hand, smile and ask what you can do for them because you never know if five years down the line … Read more

Can a startup competition ID the next Facebook? Not likely

There's no doubt that there will someday be another round of superstar entrepreneurs on the order of Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Steve Jobs. But can a group of judges in an arbitrarily cobbled together "American Idol" for startups be the ones to identify them?

With its Startup World competition, which it announced today, The Next Web clearly thinks that the answer is yes.

"It's inevitable there will be the next Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Google, or Facebook," The Next Web wrote this morning in its announcement of Startup World. "… Read more

Startup Secret No. 23: RIM's Lesson

"Innovation doesn't come from a committee."

--Roger Cheng, Senior Writer, CNET News

Why did it take RIM so long to dump its ridiculous Pushmi-pullyu CEO management structure? Because two people can't act as quickly as one. Especially when what they need to act on is their own job performance.

RIM was set up with a built-in committee at the top of its organization. It looked like a bad idea from the outside, and the dual CEOs didn't overcome that perception through job performance. Theoretically, they could have, and they would have rewritten management theory … Read more

How to start Windows 7 faster

High-performance PC hardware doesn't always deliver the speed users expect. But you probably shouldn't blame the hardware. The slowdown may be due to a software conflict.

A reader named Abe Ibrahim contacted me last week to ask about his slow Windows 7 PC:

My system: Asus Rampage III Extreme MB, Intel i7 980x CPU, 12GB Tri-Bus Memory, 128GB SSD (OS), and 9TB RAID-5 storage. One would think no matter what you ran, the system would scream through it. That is not the case with my system: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit boots in 51 seconds... [When] I use it … Read more

Startup Secret No. 22: Some garbage is to be expected

"You have a finite amount of crap in you. You just have to put it out there."

--Roman Mars, Producer, 99% Invisible

When you're starting a new project, chances are you won't get it right at the start. Roman, who produces the awesome 99% Invisible podcast and radio segment about design (you must subscribe to it now if you haven't already), was talking to me about starting his career in audio programs. The first shows he did were pretty bad. He was told to expect that and to keep pushing, because you can't get … Read more

Startup Secret No. 21: Don't over-think

"Have a bias for action."

--Lars Leckie, Partner, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Stop reading this blog. Stop asking people for advice. Just do something. That's the advice from the venture side of the house today.

Lars says, "Seeking advice, as a founder, is the opposite of action."

It is important to be smart about what you do, obviously. But you can over-think yourself to death (analysis paralysis), especially if you're working in a nascent field or building an invention-based product. In many of the fields that startups graze in, there's simply not enough … Read more

Startup Secret No. 20: Easy money, it ain't

"It's harder than you think."

--Multiple sources

At one of the CES events last week, I asked Vladimir Tetelbaum of Swivl for a Startup Secret. "It's harder than you think," he said, about launching a company. "But it's also a lot more fun."

OK, good tip. I was hoping for something a bit more specific, but I can dig it.

Later that evening, I found myself talking with Matt Rogers, the founder of Nest. Got any good secrets? I asked. "Yeah," he said to me, with a sidelong glance. &… Read more

Startup Secret No. 19: Shift your own gears

"Scalability is overrated."

--Tony Emerson, SEO Analyst, SpareFoot

How do you say, "Screw you" in Silicon Valley? Ask, "Does it scale?"

It's one of those obnoxious conversation killers that entrepreneurs get all the time. The appropriate answer, I think, is this: "Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks so much for asking!"

Of course it scales. Or maybe it doesn't, because it's not supposed to. Or, as Tony from SpareFoot adds, maybe scaling--that is, finding a way to automate the technology, or lower the resources required, for incremental … Read more