Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

He was also the first one to challenge my conventional wisdom that it made no sense for tech companies to advertise on television. We both wanted to continue to build a world-class staff at GRP from which to build future leaders in either tech startups or in our investment firm. He walked me through both the logic and the math.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2015

Entrepreneurs need to practice critical thinking to be leaders, rather than following conventional wisdom. World-class entrepreneurship will never be learned totally in the classroom. Critical thinking is not just accumulating information, and should not be confused with being critical of other people.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Mentor Coach Customer 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2014

Entrepreneurs need to practice critical thinking to be leaders, rather than following conventional wisdom. World-class entrepreneurship will never be learned totally in the classroom. Critical thinking is not just accumulating information, and should not be confused with being critical of other people.

Mentor 103

Mentor Coach Entrepreneur Customer 103

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Other installments include: Words of startup wisdom from Jeff Bezos. He overheard me talking about Steve Jobs in conjunction with the entrepreneurship class that I teach at UC Santa Barbara. Just because an established leader in your industry does not see the wisdom in your ideas, do not waiver.

Tips 279

Tips Startup Santa Barbara Entrepreneur 279

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2013

Entrepreneurs need to practice critical thinking to be leaders, rather than following conventional wisdom. World-class entrepreneurship will never be learned totally in the classroom. Critical thinking is not just accumulating information, and should not be confused with being critical of other people.

Entrepreneur 116

Entrepreneur Mentor Coach Customer 116

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

Brad wrote up his answer here – you should read it because it’s very instructive for how I believe communities ought to think about naming conventions. World-class education including Caltech, USC and UCLA. My views are pretty well known. In his blog he says, “I responded that I thought it was stupid. LA should be LA.”

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

You’re not lecturing to a college class, you’re not at a cocktail party and you’re not chatting with a small group in a board meeting. The conventional wisdom is that the audience can only remember 3 simple things about any presentation 10 minutes after they’ve seen it. Show some energy!

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

Conventional wisdom amongst my investor friends is that if the Fed raised interest rates by 0.5% Our investors often allocate across different classes (real estate, commodities, public stocks, bonds and private equity – of which VC is a subset). you would see a sell off in the market. But that was before this week.

Marketing 150

Marketing Venture Capital Startup Invest 150

socalTECH

MARCH 3, 2015

When they were babies and toddlers, there were all of these Mom''s groups and things you participated in, because those needs are pretty universal--finding a pediatrician, a music class, or whatever that might be. But, as your kids get older, those needs become really much more specific to your child.

Networking 100

Networking Startup Cornerstone OnDemand Social Network 100

Frank Addante

SEPTEMBER 25, 2006

I guess this is how a world-class firm like Sequoia Capital finds and invests in world-class companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Think Differently Constantly challenge conventional wisdom. I think this list is spot on. Cisco, Oracle, Apple, Electronic Arts and Atari. Take the contrarian route. Create novel solutions.

Company 40

Company Companies Startup Venture Capital 40

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2011

Even from a young age, my experiences as president of my college fraternity were more formative in my experiences as an entrepreneur than my economics classes were. But poly sci taught me critical thinking and writing skills that I didn’t get in my econ classes. Challenge conventional wisdom. Fight monoculture.

Class 334

Class Writing Web 2.0 Offshore 334

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

You’re not lecturing to a college class, you’re not at a cocktail party and you’re not chatting with a small group in a board meeting. Or take an acting class. The conventional wisdom is that the audience can only remember 3 simple things about any presentation 10 minutes after they’ve seen it.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2017

Conventional wisdom has them looking for a painful problem, a very large opportunity, and minimal competitive barriers to entry. Any money made is typically poured back into the cause, rather than relished for a high-class lifestyle or extravagances by the entrepreneur. Self-control beats passion for long term satisfaction.

Entrepreneur 56

Entrepreneur Mentor Satisfaction Class 56

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Sounds obvious now, but as I wrote the original piece the DJIA had already come roaring back from 6,600 to 9,865 so it was certainly against conventional wisdom. They would need to turn to non-conventional means to spur the economy such as “ quantitative easing.&#.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Background: Joel Spolsky studied Computer Science at Yale University (class of 1991). A lot of it does seem like conventional wisdom today, but back then it wasn’t. But if you like the notes check him out on Twitter or his website. Upon graduating, he went to work at Microsoft. How did MSFT lose the API war?

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285