I was reading an article by Premal Shah of Kiva this past week. The focus of the article was on how to do reviews for the people that work for you. I thought he had some really good ideas on how to get away from the traditional annual review. At Kiva, the staff are required […]
Tag Archives: Business
Lessons from the Runway
I was at FashionSpark this past weekend, which is the fashion show associated with SparkCon here in Raleigh. I was there, not because I know anything about fashion (other than that I don’t know anything about fashion), but to support a friend who was launching a new clothing company called Villette. There were about fifteen […]
The Network Made Me Do It
A good friend posted an article on Facebook the other day about the network effect on extremism in modern life. The author, Bill Davidow, is a veteran of business and studying the market. First, let me say that I agree with the premise of this article in that the network produces positive effect more rapidly […]
Being Ruthless About What You Shouldn’t Do
I have been reading and studying the book End Malaria this week. It’s a compilation of 62 authors who came together to help, as you might imagine, end malaria in Africa. For every book that you purchase, $20 is donated to buying mosquito nets. The first part of the book is about focus, a topic that […]
Serving Two Masters – Will It Work?
I have been running Rocket Hangar for about a year now. When I started the company, I had two primary goals: 1. Do interesting and valuable work. 2. Don’t go broke For #2, I lined up a series of consulting gigs that I still work on to this day, more or less. Smaller gigs have […]
The Upper Crust Bakery – Fulfilling life-long dreams
There is a new bakery that just opened up here in Raleigh, very close to our house, called The Upper Crust Bakery. We have made it one of our new favorite places. This morning I took my daughter there for breakfast, and the food was awesome yet again. Everything is made fresh each day, and […]
Dennis Crowley of Foursquare
The video below is Kevin Rose’s interview with Dennis Crowley of Foursquare. I have really come to enjoy Kevin Rose’s interview style while watching / listening to the Foundations series. My number one takeaway from this interview is the simplicity of thinking and concept behind each of Dennis’ ventures. In each case he took a […]
Singles vs. Home Runs
I was talking with a good friend yesterday about a business opportunity that has come across my plate. He has been very successful, and seems to have a knack for making really good decisions. I described the opportunity and asked him how he would evaluate it and what he looks for. He said (paraphrasing a […]
Drones In Everyday Life – The Wave Is Building
There are two really cool things happening in drones right now. I started DroneOS with Anders Brownworth earlier this year because we believe that great things are going to happen in this space. Just as we are seeing in the military, drones can do things that people and manned vehicles cannot. So it will be […]
Remembering Past Conversations
I had a conversation this week with a pretty important personal advisor wherein he proceeded to give me advice that was exactly the opposite of advice I had received on the same subject a few weeks ago. It got under my skin a bit, and it brought to mind the importance of remembering past conversations […]