Today, I approved and responded to 3 comments on blog posts I’d written. These were left by 3 smart folks – Bobby Mulley, John Gannon and Juhi Heda.  I was pretty siked that there is now proof that 3 people have read my blog. Earlier this week, a candidate who came in for a job…

There is something in me that loves figuring out how to “break” a system. By break, I mean get results not typically expected by doing something different or by optimizing it in some unconventional way. And for this reason, I love reading about growth hacks. How we use LinkedIn to get 5000 customers, how we…

Perception is a funny thing.  I have a habit of writing emails in a fairly stream of consciousness style. Not all that dissimilar from this blog.  And as a result, punctuation and grammar are not top priority. One of the things I do to connect thoughts is use ellipses – you know — these things…

I recently read Ruben Harris’ great post about how he broke into tech and startups.  Honestly, a part of me cringes at the amount of effort he put in because it seems stupid hard, but a much larger part of me admires his motivation to get shit done.  This was pure 100% hustle and effort and sticking…

We trying to share interesting articles in our newsletter in addition to our own data-driven content in a section we call the blurb. It’s one of several experiments we’re going to try to increase our reach.  We call the section with these articles The Blurb. Here is The Blurb from today’s CB Insights newsletter. It’s fun to…

This is a title I’ve never really been comfortable with. To me, a CEO was Jack Welch of GE or Ken Chenault of my alma mater American Express. They ran huge organizations, had big offices and were as the initials imply – executive officers. They did executive’y things. And so I always found it funny…

If you ever want a parent to open an article, title it “How to make your kids ________” or “The Secret to Raising _____ Kids”. The blank might be filled in by expected words like smart, nice, ambitious, etc. And so as it goes. I read one such article entitled The Secret to Raising Smart Kids.…

Just go read this. That’s all. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck Seriously, go read it. If you don’t, I don’t really give a fuck.

Private markets are often described as opaque. They are.  The participants don’t necessarily want it this way, but because there is no central clearinghouse for information or data or insights, information ends up siloed – often in the heads of individuals in the market. With 4000+ clients ranging from investors to acquirers to bankers to…

Private markets are often described as opaque. They are.  The participants don’t necessarily want it this way, but because there is no central clearinghouse for information or data or insights, information ends up siloed – often in the heads of individuals in the market. With 4000+ clients ranging from investors to acquirers to bankers to…

Today, I told 4 clients that we couldn’t meet their price or contract terms. I hate saying no to money. I really really do. But as I’ve understood the value we provide and how much we help our clients, I’ve had to become more comfortable saying no. Ultimately, our business will be huge not just…

Evan Williams of Twitter is not someone I’d read much about before. But he’s been writing a lot more recently, and he’s well worth a read. His recent essay entitled “A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep” is well worth a read. We literally say one company or service is “bigger” based on a single number — specifically, number of…

My wife and I get into these fairly pointless but fun conversations from time to time about what our daughter will do in the future. I think we expect, perhaps foolishly, to have more control and influence on her life than we will, but there is no manual for kids so we’re winging it just…

I tend not to make these but this year I did make some for some reason. Here they are – personal and biz sort of collide. – sleep earlier– try not crack open my laptop at home after work so wifey and I just shoot the shit– don’t pay attention to competitors. Read a great…

Just watched Shark Tank with the wifey.  I still enjoy this show quite a bit despite it being somewhat predictable.  I’m always amazed at the businesses creative, ingenious people come up with.  Tonight had 3 brothers from Nepal pitching Yak treats for dogs. What you say? Himalayan Dog Chew was the name of the company.…