On Outbound Poaching

November 3, 2013

Sometimes the best potential hires for your startup already have jobs somewhere else. To get them, you need to poach. Here are some thoughts on outbound poaching: In general, don’t poach from customers or partners (though there are exceptions that can be good for everyone involved); competitors can make great targets (unless they stink so […]

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On Inbound Poaching

November 2, 2013

If you hire great people and do great work, your startup will be a target for poaching by BigCos, by your customers, and by pesky recruiters. It’s a natural part of business. Luckily, the same things that make your startup a target for poaching make it hard for your people to want to go. It’s […]

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Just Say No to Indemnification Clauses

November 1, 2013

You will indemnify and hold us harmless from and against all damages, losses, and expenses of any kind (including reasonable legal fees and costs). That’s an indemnification clause. It means that you are responsible for covering the legal fees of the other side, even if the claim is ludicrous. Legal fees are expensive. Legal fees […]

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Thoughts on Not Starting an Investment Fund

October 31, 2013

Recently, Jimi and I took a serious look at starting an investment fund – not the VC type, but the type that buys and sells in public financial markets. The idea was to use machine learning and an interesting technique for scouring the internet to determine mood in order to make trades. We were looking […]

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The GDP and You

October 28, 2013

The US GDP is over $15 trillion. That much money is exchanging hands each year, just in the US. All you have to do is insert yourself in the middle. Go out and get you some of that! I like that quote. It is simple and inspirational. I heard it in a startup speech 10 […]

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Get a Powerful Entrepreneurial Mindset

October 24, 2013

You’re making $200k at a BigCo. Or you’re graduating with a 4.0 GPA and have your pick of McKinsey, Bain, or BCG – or Google, Apple, or Facebook. Cool right? But you have an itch. You want to start your own thing. You want to live a more raw life experience. You can! You just […]

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Building Technology Barriers to Entry are Tricky

October 23, 2013

Today I had the pleasure to present on a panel with other entrepreneurs to a class of TI:GER students at Georgia Tech. I remember fondly sitting in their shoes and learning about startups in a classroom setting. University research is all about building technology at the cutting edge – things that no one has ever […]

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A Sampling of Market Data from Venture Atlanta

October 22, 2013

Today was the first day of Venture Atlanta, the biggest annual venture capital conference in our city. One thing that stuck out to me was the valuable market data shared at the conference. Here’s a sampling of some of the information that was shared: There is $3.1 billion in lost revenue due to long healthcare […]

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Georgia Tech Startup Competition Kickoff

October 21, 2013

Tonight I enjoyed attending the kickoff meeting for the Georgia Tech Startup Competition. Keith McGreggor and Paul Freet presented some great thoughts on startups. My notes from the event are below: Startups are NOT a smaller version of a large company. In fact, to assume so is “amazingly, gobsmackingly, stupidly wrong!” Startups are a temporary organization […]

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3D Printing

October 20, 2013

People talk about 3D printing as a major technology trend. The concept of 3D printing relies on an additive process (i.e. adding layers of material) rather than a subtractive process (i.e. cutting away material from a block) to build an object. Here are some reasons why 3D printing is interesting: Major forward technology thinker’s (like […]

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