Investors describe themselves as helping entrepreneurs and often they do, but somehow every entrepreneur I’ve asked about the challenges of working with investors could still tell me stories about how investors made their lives and business difficult. However much investors want businesses they’ve invested in to grow, their interests never perfectly align with those of management, especially before they invest in the firm in question. I wouldn’t call that difference[…] Keep reading →

I just read that Sweden is separating their trash so effectively, they’re buying garbage from other countries. That is, their reducing-reusing-and-recycling programs work so well, their waste-incineration program is running low. Needless to say, reducing waste reduces pollution more than incinerating garbage, so one program starving the other helps the environment. According to Phys.org, Europe’s average amount of trash ending up as waste if 38 percent. Sweden’s is 1 percent.[…] Keep reading →

In September, 2001, the company I co-founded, Submedia, was installing its first display in Atlanta for our first big launch. We anticipated a lot of press. Giving away part of how the story ends, we did get a lot of media attention. The night before launch was crazy — we had a few hours to finish installing the display, we had to prepare for the Fire Marshall’s inspection the morning[…] Keep reading →

Do you like music, art, literature, innovation, invention, creativity, entrepreneurship, and things like that? Then you probably liked the document I mentioned a few weeks ago about problems with copyright and how to fix them. I considered it well thought-out and felt it proposed ideas that would improve the country. I was surprised to see it coming from the type of hard-core conservative that supports corporate welfare. Until the group[…] Keep reading →

Based on recommendations from readers and other bloggers, I’m going to experiment with here. You may have noticed already. This page is for the readers, so I hope you’ll share if they affect your experience here and, if so, how. I don’t know if ads will help or hurt more, so the scientist in me says to experiment and find out. I’m sure it will appear clunky at first as[…] Keep reading →

I haven’t shared one of my crazy genius business ideas for my Another Genius Business Idea Series in a while. I like people to realize entrepreneurship is more accessible than most people think, since so many people tell me they want to start a company but can’t think of the ideas. This series doesn’t present fully formed ideas, but kernels you could develop into successful companies or projects. The inspiration[…] Keep reading →

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

When I met Jose Gaztelu, my business school classmate and friend who did the bulk of the organizing for this weekend’s INSEAD leadership seminar in Singapore, at the hotel Friday, he asked how many people I thought were signed up. When my flight had taken off that morning from Shanghai it was ten or twelve so I guessed about a dozen. “Thirty-two” So the attendees filled the room — a[…] Keep reading →

I stumbled on this more-than-a-decade-old amazing trove of essays. Just reading the authors’ names is impressive. They are essays written by great thinkers, writers, etc on “best” things of the past thousand years. I’ll cut and paste most of the essay titles and links here. I’ve only read a few so far, but I’ve loved each. Sorry I haven’t reformatted much, but you can always go to the original site[…] Keep reading →