On May 1, 2011 at 11:53am
On April 18, 2011 at 2:39pm
Onswipe’s presentation at TechStars Demo Day. If this doesn’t make your inner entrepreneur smile, nothing will.
“We’re not raising a Series A, we’re raising a Series Awesome” - Jason Baptiste, CEO of Onswipe.
We just installed the plugin on our Wordpress blog and it’s awesome!
Decent presentation, product looks very slick!
On September 23, 2010 at 9:56pm
Accelerated Learning: How to Find and Take Advantage of Smart People
In June I gave a talk at Ignite Boulder 11 on accelerated learning. I’d love your feedback on it. I’m really proud of the talk. I’d never spoken in front of so many people before (around 1,450).
I approached Ignite as a challenge. In Boulder, we have the largest Ignite talks anywhere in the world so this was a bit intimidating.
The short version of the video is this: learn from people who are better than you. It doesn’t really matter what the subject. Business, ping pong, chess…it all works.
Find someone smart who blows you away and learn all you can from them.
Spot on Zack! There’s some great advice here. Have you narrowed your network of smart people to a board and/or found yourself a business mentor?
On June 21, 2010 at 7:48pm
How to Pitch a VC (aka “Startup Viagra”) by Dave McClure
On June 13, 2010 at 8:15pm
Visit → London Launch48.com
This evening you will hear pitches from fellow participants in the Launch48 weekend. Some will astound you with their charm and intelligence, some will be great ideas that are poorly presented, while others will just make you chuckle. Here are three questions that hopefully give you some guidance on what to listen for:
1) Does the idea interest you?
This is a gut feeling - does the concept appeal to you? Perhaps the pitch mentions something that particularly interests you because it’s an exciting new technology that could shake up an industry. Maybe it’s familiar territory and you know a handful of pitfalls that you could help to avoid.
2) Is there one problem that can be solved by the end of the weekend?
Remember that a key part of the Launch48 experience is learning. If you’re a developer, take a look at what is being suggested and think about how achievable building version 1 of this app actually is, but make sure you consider time you may wish to spend on any learning or experimentation of a new language or framework.
3) How viable is it as a business, perhaps after a few months of continued development?
Some of the web apps that take shape over the weekend could become more than just a learning experience, you might wish to continue to work on it and build a company. It does not matter if you are prepared to commit time and effort beyond the weekend, consider that others might and ask yourself how much potential the pitch has to become a successful business.
Remember that all pitches undergo the scrutiny of the audience and that a majority vote decides which ideas go forward - make your vote count!
![attentionindustry:
I think I could use one of these for my cube.
[by Baltimore Print Studios]
Excellent!](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2zdndqu8n1qzd6bzo1_500.jpg)
On May 25, 2010 at 5:31pm
I think I could use one of these for my cube.
Excellent!
On April 25, 2010 at 9:06pm
The video of my presentation about Pivots at the Startup Lessons Learned conference on April 23rd, 2010.
Really useful advice from Hiten Shah
On March 6, 2010 at 5:33pm
Entrepreneurism: The age gap (via venturebeat)
Particularly cool for me to hear how successful entrepreneurs started during their CS studies.
Listen out for the example of a company idea that didn’t win at a school development competition but did succeed as a real world business - that to me highlighted some of the differences (and perhaps the divide) that exists between the academic world and the broader world of business. It’s great that he still pushed to make his idea work after studying.
Also it was really interesting to hear about the chemistry between the co-founders. It’s recognised as extremely important for co-founders to have a great relationship. “It’s like being a married couple” - the core values are trust and transparency.
On March 6, 2010 at 12:47pm
Great points about iterating your product constantly building market share before your product has even got big.
Could not agree more with this presentation. This exactly our philosophy at justFDI - “just start”.
