Archive for the 'Entrepreneurship' Category

Chattanooga, TN and Smart Furniture in Forbes

CMM April 1st, 2008

Chattanooga, TN and a handful of profile start-ups were featured in article by Forbes on best places. Included in the article is Smart Furniture and their CEO, Mr. Stephen Culp. The Smart Furniture is a very cool company in the SAF portfolio.

Of note… Knoxville, TN is considered by Forbes as the #10 city in the country for business and careers.

The Gabe & Max Internet Thing

CMM January 29th, 2008

I grabbed this excellent video from Marc Andreeson’s blog (which I highly recommend). This reminds me of some of the presentations I witnessed/suffered during my MBA.

Remember folks, you can have the dream life of your dreams!

Video, Entrepreneur Panel on Start-Up Success

CMM December 6th, 2007

Full 1 hour video can be seen here.

From the Churchill Club’s 2006 entrepreneur panel on start-up success. Participants included Alex Welch from Photobucket.com, Daniel Mattes from Jajah.com, Joe Kraus from Jotspot, Reid Hoffman from LinkedIn, Lauren Elliott from PNN, and moderated by Guy Kawasaki of Garage Technology Ventures and Truemors.Discussion topics include:

  • Business models
  • Pros and cons of entrepreneurship
  • Entrepreneurship as an economic driver
  • Critical mass as a start-up
  • Being a serial start-up
  • Silicon Valley

Updates: Fox Interactive Media(News Corp) acquired Photobucket, Google acquired Jotspot, and LinkedIn has positive cashflows.

Christopher Columbus School of Management

CMM November 7th, 2007

The principles of the CCSoM:

  1. When he set off, he didn’t know where he was going;
  2. When he got there, he didn’t know where he was;
  3. When he returned, he didn’t know where he had been.

This was from a slide in tonight’s Managing New Ventures course. I’m not much for academic humor after 12 hours of class work, but this is a nice little quip and very applicable to entrepreneurship and business development. Without a business plan and model, your great idea is little more than one of Columbus’ shifts drifting at sea. Success is not the product of luck or happen-stance. Plan, execute, assess, and repeat.

Peter Ungaro, CEO Cray Computers on Innovation and Execution

CMM October 23rd, 2007

At today’s TechX 2007, Peter Ungaro served as the lunch keynote. For a technology speaker, he did a pretty solid job of connecting to business principles and innovative ideas. Probably my favorite quote was, “Your customers have more data on your competitor than you do.” In addition, he emphasized placing the company focus on execution and innovation. Here are some key points I jotted down:

Cray’s Learning Points:

  1. Two goals (what does Cray want to accomplish) + two focuses (company culture– execution and innovation) + “sweet 16″ (16 critical performance metrics) = Cray’s success
  2. Stay focused and committed. Remember, “Ready, aim, fire… aim, fire… aim, fire… aim, fire…”
  3. Design and execute strategy around the current business plan and the long-term plan.
  4. Leadership is the key and must come from everyone, not just the CEO or executive team.
  5. Form major alliances with suppliers and customers.

Dare to be Different (and build your brand in the process):

  1. If it makes sense, go the opposite direction. (example– Apple with OS X)
  2. Personalize even non-personal components of business (example– Cray personalizes the cover of every supercomputer, i.e. Army has a camouflage cover)
  3. Go the distance and surprise (example– Cray places a case of beer in the bottom of every supercomputer refrigerator cabinet when they ship to a customer).

Also, John Morris of Sunlight Direct won Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year. His acceptance speech was great– “I’d like to thank God and my wife. Both of them put up with a lot and both deserve more attention than they get.”

« Prev - Next »