SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 About this Blog Ive been thinking about doing a blog with my thoughts on technology and whats happening in the Los Angeles area technology scene for a while, but it was Ben Kuos recent start of a blog that inspired me to actually go ahead and do it. Thanks Ben.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2016

Every new entrepreneur who has not spent years in corporate life has the advantage of an unbiased look at business opportunities, but at the same time has the disadvantage of missing critical business experiences that can cost them dearly in their first startup venture. Building a startup is more about love than money.

Entrepreneur 64

Entrepreneur Training Startup IBM 64

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 8, 2020

Every new entrepreneur who has not spent years in corporate life has the advantage of an unbiased look at business opportunities, but at the same time has the disadvantage of missing critical business experiences that can cost them dearly in their first startup venture. Building a startup is more about love than money.

Training 144

Training Entrepreneur IBM IBM 144

InfoChachkie

MAY 6, 2013

This is the "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" approach to investing. Fortunately, there is a key difference between startups and baby turtles: entrepreneurs can make their own luck. Customer dollars - Sophisticated entrepreneurs understand that the ideal source of capital is from customers’ wallets. Share and Enjoy.

Entrepreneur 246

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Capital 246

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

IBM , and the Los Angeles Times. The effort is applying language analysis and language software from IBM to try to distinguish positive and negative tweets about films, actors, and actresses, to predict the possible winners of an Oscar.

USC 182

USC IBM IBM Southern California 182

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2012

I was reading an article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. Six years later, he managed to land a contract with IBM to provide their IBM PC base operating system. He later changed the name to Facebook. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Yahoo IBM IBM 105

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2015

How is it that only a few business leaders and entrepreneurs seem to drive exceptional results and disruptive innovation in this rapidly changing market economy (marketquake)? A classic IBM Global CEO study listed integrity and trust in the top three characteristics leaders must have in today’s business landscape.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur IBM IBM Summary 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2021

The entrepreneurs I see are always talking about “disruptive innovation” ideas, but the plans I read are more often linear extensions of a current hot offering, like one more social network with the best of Facebook and Twitter, one more dating site dimension, or another “must-have” accessory for smartphones.

Ideas 117

Ideas Entrepreneur Netflix IBM 117

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2021

As I “grew up” in business in big companies, including IBM, I always wondered why the real innovations seemed to come from startups, while we had more resources and more experience. Effective brainstorming is all about defining and executing a process for creative ideas to create a big impact.

Marketing 117

Marketing IBM IBM Resource 117

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. Entrepreneurs talk to customers and competitors talk to each other about the new trends and technologies they see.

Marketing 105

Marketing Startup Search Engine Optimization Ideas 105

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2014

Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. If you really believe that IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle are your competition, you probably don’t have a business. business entrepreneur focus startup' Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Competition Technical Review Oracle 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2020

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. Entrepreneurs talk to customers and competitors talk to each other about the new trends and technologies they see.

Search Engine Optimization 174

Search Engine Optimization Ideas Startup Customer 174

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2022

You will be pivoting your business in your lifetime, whether you are a new startup, or a mature company like Motorola or IBM. Resurgence begins when entrepreneurs and top executives stop trusting only themselves, and build a coalition with customers to see what is and isn’t working. Reinvent the vision for change.

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Course IBM IBM Social Media 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Funding sources for this stage extend from grants to large private fund incubators, such as the IBM Watson initiative a while back. While all forms of technology research and development will always be required, entrepreneurs need to understand that the funding for these efforts comes from many different sources, depending on the stage.

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Help Research Startup Funding 165

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2019

In the entrepreneur world, it’s still a popular misconception that the “idea” is everything. Even though investors, like myself, have long made it clear that we invest in people, not ideas, new venture owners insist on talking about their latest “ million dollar idea ,” rather than their “ million dollar team.”

IBM 87

IBM IBM Ideas Technical Review 87

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2009

Hint: He was an entrepreneur. A writer is someone who writes, not someone who goes about telling their friends that they are “a writer”. The same is true of entrepreneurs. These would-be entrepreneurs are best classified as Wantrepreneurs, as discussed in Entrepreneurial Enterviewing. Entrepreneur Does Not Equal Inventor.

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Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Startup 153

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. I once met with an entrepreneur who had developed a new algae strain to cure world hunger and make him rich.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2019

I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. Six years later, he managed to land a contract with IBM to provide their IBM PC base operating system. But that's no excuse to move slowly.

Startup 111

Startup Yahoo IBM IBM 111

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

As an advisor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I find that many assume that their passion and their innovative solution will define them as a leader, and customers, as well as team members, will follow them to the ends of the earth, assuring business success. Be transparent, yet positive, about the challenges ahead.

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Mentor IBM IBM Social Media 145

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2011

Other writers, like Guy Kawasaki, have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent over-enthusiasm or over-confidence that can kill your deal. It always amazes me how an entrepreneur can define his market opportunity so broadly, then assess his competition so narrowly in the next breath.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Funding Innocal Competition 108

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

First-to-market is meaningful for a large company, like IBM or GE, which has the resources to sustain their move, but is not relevant for a startup, when surrounded by “big gorillas.” Whether you are looking for an investor or not, every good entrepreneur better plan for this journey before he finds his backside exposed.

Patents 90

Patents Competition IBM IBM 90

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

“Decades ago, at the peak of Japanese growth as a technology competitor on the global stage, the US government sought to break up IBM. “I don’t think at the end of the day venture capital is worrying about competition from these big platform companies. “That plan is like taking a bazooka to a knife fight.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Startup Chief Technology Officer Social Media 144

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

We spoke with Gary Bishop, the firm's CEO, to learn more about the company. It's nice chatting with you again about your company--you're here in Los Angeles, aren't you? Gary Bishop: One of the things about Los Angeles which I think is very unique, is it's been great for entrepreneurialism.

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Networking IBM IBM Pacific Palisades 214

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2019

Conventional business wisdom tells us that entrepreneurs are today’s main source of innovation. We hear about corporate employees, strangled by slow-moving bureaucracy, that are blocked from making transformative discoveries. Even more importantly, only two of the thirty innovations were scaled by the original creators.

IBM 53

IBM IBM Java Google 53

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2013

I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”. Six years later, he managed to land a contract with IBM to provide their IBM PC base operating system. He later changed the name to Facebook.

Startup 118

Startup Yahoo IBM IBM 118

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Entrepreneurs will have a relative willing to devote time, a school friend with business experience, professionals who charge for the service, investors with a reason to promote your success and more. Photo courtesy IBM Business Coaching. Business coaches come in all sizes and shapes.

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Coach Organization Resource IBM 243

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2020

As an investor, innovation is a term I certainly like to hear these days, but many of you entrepreneurs try to take it to the next level, by claiming to have a “ disruptive innovation.” The disruptive technologies in electric vehicles and artificial intelligence have taken even longer to see any dramatic payback.

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Startup Artificial Inteligence Examples Google 129

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

If this gentleman was such a pivotal player in the early days of the PC revolution, why is he essentially unknown to most entrepreneurs under forty years old? In reality, Gary Kildall was present when IBM came knocking during July of 1980. Kildall did not want IBM employees stationed in his offices.

IBM 124

IBM IBM Software Review Custom 124

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2010

One of Southern California's successful, serial entrepreneurs is Winston Damarillo , who founded Gluecode, which he sold to IBM in 2005. We thought we'd catch back up with Winston to hear about the Morphlabs. The company is about three years old, and we had our first product initially in Japan. We brought that to the U.S.

Southern California 242

Southern California Startup Cloud Computing El Segundo 242

Tech.Co

MAY 25, 2018

If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur, technology has served you well. With a focus on impact investing, their efforts to drive social change are based on three key pillars: revolutionizing philanthropy, unleashing entrepreneurs and igniting civic engagement. Watch our video series at SXSW 2018 with The Case Foundation.

Startup 140

Startup Technical Review Competition Software Review 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

In my experience working with entrepreneurs, once they feel they have a winning formula for their business, they are often hesitant to change or update it. Don’t be the next Xerox who totally missed the personal computer market, even though they had the technology and the processes well before Apple, IBM, and others.

Customer 143

Customer Custom Examples IBM 143

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Editor's note: As we head into the new year, we've been featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. You'll be able to browse all of those contributions here. As I look back on the last 18 months, I realize just how hard it was.

Capital 113

Capital Venture Capital News Patents 113

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

Not just because meeting Clayton was influential in shaping my thinking about markets but also because Derek Andersen (who founded Startup Grind) is such an awesome host and runs a very informative events. ” We talked about my influences as a younger person and what got me started in technology and entrepreneurship.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2015

The entrepreneurs I see are always talking about “disruptive innovation” ideas, but the plans I read are more often linear extensions of a current hot offering, like one more social network with the best of Facebook and Twitter, one more dating site dimension, or another “must-have” accessory for smartphones.

Startup 102

Startup Ideas Entrepreneur Netflix 102

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2017

We sat down with Jamie�who has been part of LA's technology industry, either as an investor or advisor since its very early days--to get his perspective on where we are today, especially as it relates to all of the companies he's worked with over the years on a more global stage and in Silicon Valley, and his advice to entrepreneurs.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Conference Silver Lake Cornerstone OnDemand 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2020

In my role as an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often see struggling businesses trying to be too many things for too many people, resulting in customer confusion, initiatives executed poorly, and high costs, few customers, and slow growth all around. Examples would include ADT as well as IBM. Service businesses to find the best solution.

Customer 123

Customer Custom Technical Review Examples 123

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

One or more of the following parameters are viewed by most investors as traction indicators, but good entrepreneurs are often creative and define their own to supplement these: Start with sales to-date for a priced offering. Signed contracts with big name customers, like IBM, AT&T, or Wal-Mart, is a strong indication of traction.

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Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121