We The Masses The line, “The masses will be attended by machines and the rich will be attended to by people” is the one that still stays with me weeks out from reading Cathy O’Neill’s ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’. This will be the outcome of all the technology that we apply to managing (or controlling) our lives. This will be how Artificial Intelligence impacts our lives in all the areas where we apply this technology; the rich will be able to afford the services of wealth managers who cater to their every
The founder of an early stage company, which is still trying to figure out product/market fit, was asking me questions about getting acquired. He’d reached out because of some thoughts I shared in my newsletter. He’d latched onto my suggestion that Big Companies are slow and, suggested, that they hold the bulk of the cash in his industry and were consequently stifling innovation. He wanted to know how he might get the attention of BigCo to get his company acquired. It would have been laughable if he wasn’t so serious.
The day after Christmas 2016 I shared the 10 lessons learned from the 40 books I’d read last year. ~200K views later I knew without a doubt, even in January of 2017, that I would be writing a follow-up post :). This is that follow-up. One of the best comments on last year’s post was that I share this before Thanksgiving to ensure folk can add the books to their holiday shopping lists . I got the chance to read this many books again this year due to a lot
When it really comes down to it, there are only three initial paths you can take as a startup founder. These three, according to Porter (in ‘Generic Competitive Strategies’) are: Cost leadership: low-cost provider in your space Differentiation: providing a unique product Focus/niche: pick a segment (geography, market or product) Three primary approaches to entering a market To bring a product to market with one of these three is not innovative regardless of how you finesse it on a pitch deck. Where it gets more interesting is in combining two of
As a founder, I’m sure you’ve heard ‘build for the long term,’ ‘focus on the long-term’ or some variation of this? As an advisor, you’ve probably given this advice to a founder, haven’t you? ‘Well, stop it!’ ‘Focus on the long-term’ is a trope that advisors, investors and successful founders tend to throw about. What these advisors don’t know is that when a founder is told this, she thinks You, the advisor, aren’t being empathetic know nothing about the founder’s context. You, the investor, are just repeating something you’ve either
We’re hearing of Mark Zuckerberg’s possible interest in running for president. We refer to Elon by his first name. Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. And every college kid dreams of becoming a tech billionaire. There’s a certain ‘hollywoodization’ of entrepreneurship. It’s also much easier to start a business. Throw up a website using one of the many templates out there, host it on Amazon Web Services or GoDaddy, find a pain you think exists and go about trying to solve it. In some cases, folk even
The noise about disruptive tech is deafening; Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) creating crypto-millionaires at a pace causing even governments to worry, brain + machine interfaces and your face replacing your fingerprints/passwords. These, and other propositions that indeed make it seem like we live in a world that is moving faster than most of us can adapt to. But which of these technologies will go beyond the hype and change our lives at scale? Which of these will be a General Purpose Technology (GPT). What is a General Purpose Technology (GPT)?
You shouldn’t be CEO if the title matters more to you than serving your employees and team everyday. And I do not mean that BS ‘servant leader’ stuff. I mean understanding that you have taken on the responsibility of feeding the people you have convinced to join your team. And as much as that thought of failing all these people you have convinced to help you do the work petrifies you, it drives you to sweat for them every day. You shouldn’t be CEO if you get into the office
In 1878, Christopher Sholes was granted the patent on the QWERTY keyboard layout. He’d been granted the patent on the typewriter in 1868, 10 years earlier. His original typewriter had problems with tangling mechanical keys and the QWERTY keyboard was his solution to broken keyboards and frustrated typists. The QWERTY keyboard favored left-handed typists (at a time when most technology favored right-handed users) and placed less commonly used letters under a typists resting fingers. Sholes, thinking very much like a founder who wanted to sell a lot of product, ensured
In 2016 I discovered the library by our new home. It’s been amazing! I’ve been able to avoid buying books while being able to read them. Finding the library coincided with a lot of travel across the world. Throw on top of that a lot of time assisting startups, VestedWorld’s world-changing portfolio, and it’s made for a year filled with learning to do 3 things I love; improving company operations, reading and writing (culminating in Linkedin selecting me as a Top Voice for Technology and my publishing a book I