10 Jun 2008
[Book Review]: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson Published by HyperionWorldCat • Read Online • LibraryThing • Google Books • BookFinder Chris Anderson, a former editor at my favourite magazine, The Economist, and now editor at Wired, presents an in depth analysis of how digital technologies have transformed the means of distribution and hence many business models. Coming from the perspective of an economist and filled with loads of great examples, including some non-web examples like low cost airlines, this book should be read by anyone who hasn’t figured out that the digital age has expunged the scarcity upon which many traditional businesses relied on as a barrier to entry.
5 Jun 2008
The Essential Entrepreneurial Toolkit #1: “Fearless Passion”
“I believe ‘fearless passion’ is a secret sauce of future success.” – Jeff Pulver This morning, fearless entrepreneur Jeff Pulver, published an truly inspirational blog post that all entrepreneurs (and aspiring entrepreneurs) should read and take to heart. Read “Fearless Passion Knows no Boundaries” and consider, as one comment suggested, printing it out and putting it on the wall of your office or cubicle. Jeff, a co-investor in our portfolio company iotum, is a prolifically tireless entrepreneur who, among other things, co-founded Vonage and continues to be a visionary innovator in the VoIP community and Internet Video. Why do we put this as the first item in our Essential Entrepreneurial Toolkit? In the uncertain world that entrepreneurs must navigate, both in startups and the social sector, Jeff’s advice is right on the money. To outsiders, the sheer bloodymindedness and chutzpah exhibited by many entrepreneurs comes off as arrogance, or even worse, naïveté. In truth, when balanced with other qualities in the toolkit we’ll discuss at a future date, such fearlessness allows them to navigate those inevitable troughs of despair. And, it’s a good thing. Without such “fearless passion” our world […]
27 May 2008
Gotham in Kitchener: Waterloo Area Arts Truly Striving for World Stature
Last weekend, I attended Asphalt Jungle Shorts IV, a truly innovative and engaging theatre experience — one that you definitely shouldn’t miss. And, even better, AJS is performed right here in Waterloo Region. Downtown Kitchener, having weathered a down cycle and now in a major resurgence, has evolved an urban, hip, almost Manhattanesque kind of feel. Multitalented Artistic Director Paddy Gillard-Bentley‘s innovative use of site specific theatre builds on our unique urban environment in bold new ways. In her previous three installments, she allowed us to experience drama in such real world settings as a parking garage, a bar, City Hall, a store window, back alley, small parks and even a book store. Without giving too much away, I can say that Paddy has pulled out all the stops and presented a play in the most unlikely and crazy place I’ve ever seen. I’m sworn to secrecy, so you will have to attend to find out where. Couple the intrigue of great locations with a globally selected talent pool and you’ll start to see what the AJS magic is all about. Although primarily directed and acted by best of the […]
21 May 2008
Indigestion from “Half Baked” Mobile Web Browsing
Blackberry Pearl – Convergence of Network and Information Yesterday, Chris Sacca (ex Googler extraordinaire, investor in the likes of Twitter and recent Tech Leadership Conference Keynote speaker) shot a provocative salvo across the bow of the Twittosphere. Many times Twitter is a true belwether, capturing the pulse of market dynamics. And, although saying this might not go down well in Waterloo, it struck a chord with me. Here’s Chris’s shot of wisdom: “Surfing the web on a Blackberry is like trying to prepare dinner for four with an Easy-Bake” Oven. In the mobile universe, aren’t we forever doomed to suffer a hopelessly limited and painful browsing experience? And, why is mobile browsing that important anyway?Whizzy gizmos like the accelerometer aside, the key breakthrough of last year’s Apple iPhone launch was to deliver mobile browsing that is every bit as rich as the equivalent desktop experience. The entire universe of websites accessible to the desktop user simply works in the iPhone browser. This is equally true on 2G EDGE networks, and doesn’t depend on the forthcoming release the iPhone 2 with its higher speed 3G HSDPA capabilities.In short, Apple has moved the […]
20 May 2008
Finding Negawatts Right on your Doorstep
Big “boil the ocean” issues (with apologies for the corny metaphor) like Global Warming overwhelm many people with their scope, long time scale and difficulty to solve. Predictions that human activity, which has of late been increasingly generating Green House Gases (GHGs) which in turn accumulate in the atmosphere and, by changing the heat retention of the whole earth’s ecosystem, cause our average temperatures to warm up, are now almost universally accepted as fact rather than just scientific theory. In response, socially responsible businesses and individuals have started to buy carbon offsets which seek to provide an alternative reduction elsewhere, equivalent to the actual carbon they the purchaser of the offset produces. While worthwhile, most offsets are, in fact, delivered via the CDM part of the Kyoto Protocol in the absence of more pervasive emissions trading schemes. CDM, short for Clean Development Mechanism, invests in programs in developing countries which reduce GHG emissions. But, what about reducing our emissions here in Canada and the United States? I’d like to share a best kept secret, namely the Elora Centre for Environmental Excellence (ECEE), a charitable organization of which I am the […]
13 May 2008
Startups: A History of Location
In today’s knowledge-based economy, much discussion centres around the importance of clustering. For example, in financial services, cities like New York, London and Toronto have all benefited at the expense of smaller rivals (eg. Philadelphia, Paris and Montreal or Vancouver). Likewise, as entrepreneurial technology startups have spread around the world, the Silicon Valley remains a magnet and model for that magic blend of people, ideas and capital aspiring to create the next Microsoft or Google. Furthermore, in spite of the world-flattening ascendency of information technology over the last decade, in some ways, the forces of such clustering seems to have increased. Being domiciled in Canada, and having built transatlantic technology companies over the years, led me to ponder Chris Anderson‘s recent endorsement of distributed workface in which he “builds companies that are distributed because that’s where the best people are.” So, what’s the stronger force: clustering or distributed teams? First, let’s dig a bit into history so we can follow this trend. The 1980’s: Selling Software in a Pre-web World In the late 1980’s, an otherwise bright, young MBA student advised MKS to conquer local markets (ie. Waterloo Region) […]
6 May 2008
Tech Leadership Redux
I finally found some time to record thoughts on a great conference – last Thursday’s Tech Leadership Conference (TLC) by Communitech. CEO ROUNDTABLE: Verdexus once again gathered a few tech CEOs from Waterloo and Toronto, the night before at Charbries, to have an informal and open-ended discussion of key issues in financing, growing, valuing and finding exits for technology startups. As in past years, we assembled an accomplished group who have built primarily software-based businesses during the last decade and are now executing newer models, whether SaaS or the more esoteric Venture 2.0 Playbook necessary for “so-called” Web 2.0 and Mobile businesses. In an earlier blog, I covered a past TLC speaker and Verdexus advisor Grover RIghter’s Venture 2.0 Playbook. Numerous war stories about increased complexities of dealing with founders, VCs, groups of angel investors, not to mention simply making enterprise sales highlighted common success factors of perseverence to overcome obstacles, failure and experimentation before ultimate success and just plain good luck around timing. The drying up of VC money and other funding challenges remain a constant theme. Experience in building great businesses over the last ten years has a […]
11 Jun 2008
Entrepreneurial Toolkit #2: “Don’t Drink Your Own Bathwater”
In the tech heyday of the mid-1990’s, my favourite US investment banker, Mark Slater (formerly of Hambrecht & Quist) had a strategy to avoid CEOs that, as he so eloquently put it, “Drank their own bathwater”. Mark had identified the tendency amongst CEOs, even entire executive teams, to become so satiated with the power and glitz of riding the waves of technology/media hype, that the corporate adulation goes straight to their head.Ego and ambition, never faults in themselves, taken to extremes tend to cloud better judgment. Anyone who has visited their capital city, like Washington, London or Ottawa, has witnessed the same effect that all that marble and walnut lining the corridors of power have on newly elected Members of Parliament or Congress.I’m sure all of us entrepreneurs have been seduced by the siren call of their own PR. I know I have. But long ago I learned that, no matter how big the entrepreneur’s ego, it is critical to be self analytical and have enough inner humility and judgement to resist the corrupting force of power and spin. Every company has faults, challenges and issues to deal with. In […]