I thought this was a pretty interesting presentation by Mint CEO Aaron Patzer. The same Mint that just sold to Intuit for 170 Million. He shares his thoughts on selecting co-founders, how to dole out equity, what to pay employees, etc. It's a pretty revealing look into Mint's early days.
The slide presentation, compliments of TechCrunch, can be found below.
Startup Building 101 -
Obama's recent plan to "smarten up the youth of America" by rewarding teachers and lengthening the school year has left me feeling a little queasy. Seeing that I'm only 5 years out of high school, the reverberation of cheese wagons, SAT testing, and home rooms still permeate my senses every now and then. My experiences growing up in the public school system has left a sour taste in my mouth from careless teachers and outrageous "rules," to standardization up the wazoo. Being a youth leader has also helped me keep up on what's happening inside the school walls, as well as the inside the minds of the students. Since the time I graduated high school, it seems that schools have become more…
At the recent TechpointInnovation Summit, held on September 29th, the attendants spent a lot of time talking about not only about what Indiana has done to be innovative, but how Indiana can continue to be innovative. The stars have aligned to create the right financial, structural and human capital environment that engenders innovation, so how can we use that to our benefit to push ahead?
As companies look to begin or continue to innovate in their industry, there are some important questions that they should be considering in their strategy.
What does innovation look like? The Summit’s Keynote Speaker, Clayton Christensen, Harvard professor and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, delivered a rich presentation focused on disruptive innovation–improvements to…
Mad Men’s best boy Don Draper is thrilling us again with his smooth one liners. In the most recent episode (Season 3, Episode 2) of the AMC show, which features the advertising heyday of Madison Avenue in the 1960s, Draper is advising a potential client on how to invigorate a deadening New York with the shiny hope of California, when he delivers this gem,
“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”
No, it wasn’t the start of the “I Love New York” campaign (that’s due in another 10 years), but it was a rather Darwinian response to the vividly increasing social changes of the times. Draper realized that in order to survive in the the new dynamics, you had to control the conversation.
Voting opened up yesterday for the 2010 SXSW panel topics, via the SXSW Panel Picker. Kristian Andersen + Associates submitted a presentation entitled "How to Get Rich Off Your Clients." In spite of the provocative name, it's actually a topic that I believe merits a lot more discussion in the design and consulting community. Below is an excerpt from the submission:
We’ll discuss emerging business models, such as service for equity investing, which allow businesses to share in the success of their clients. By moving beyond fee-for-service, retainers, and fixed-bid projects, consultancies can create sustainable differentiation, make more money, develop healthier relationships with clients, and have more fun in the process.
Make plans to join the Kristian Andersen + Associates team in Austin next March and be sure…
At Kristian Andersen + Associates we bill ourselves as a brandexperience design consultancy. This is a pretty nebulous way of trying to package a handful of distinct, yet deeply connected, disciplines into one cogent, tightly-edited description of our services. As we continue to refine our offerings to clients and partners, we also continue to struggle with how best to articulate those offerings. Ultimately, our mission is to help technology-focused start-ups (and growth-oriented companies) become more successful. The reality of what we do at a high-level is really quite straight-forward.
We help our clients develop their brands and design brand experiences that support the growth of those brands.
This all seems simple enough at first blush, but things start to get complicated when you begin to draw lines…
Continuing in the contrarian tradition that has gained 37 Signals so many devotees (and detractors), Jason Fried shared his views on failure on the Signal vs. Noise blog yesterday. I agree with Jason, in that, while "failing fast" is a neat little concept, it's just not all that useful. So, in place of "failing fast," I offer up "failing well," or, more accurately: iteration.
What exactly is iteration? Its standard definition is: the act of repeating; a repetition. The mathematics definition, however, does a better job of giving us what we're looking for: Also called successive approximation. A problem-solving or computational method in which a succession of approximations, each building on the one preceding, is used to achieve a desired degree of accuracy (definitions from dictionary.com).
I spent the afternoon at a core discussion / panel called 'Venture Capital for the Long Tail'. The panel focused on the need to develop a fundamentally different, economically viable model for creating and funding micro-businesses. The gist of the panel was that venture capital needs a new model to adapt to declining costs to start businesses, the impact of Generation Y and increased personal and corporate transparency and sharing. The discussion was facilitated by Taylor Davidson of Unstructured Ventures.
During the discussion of emergent venture models, we discussed Gravity Ventures and our approach to deal sourcing, diligence, and funding. It spurred some pretty interesting discussion amongst the group about what is happening, what could be happening, and what should be happening in local investment…
I attended a panel this afternoon that was focused on exploring the various hurdles facing technology and entrepreneurial communities outside Silicon Valley and exploring the various strategies that have worked in building these communities around the country.
Admittedly, I'm pretty biased – the whole notion of couching the conversation in terms of the valley vs. everywhere else, feels strangely arrogant and out of touch with the realities of tech-focused entrepreneurialism in this day and age. There were several people "reping" tier-two cities, like: Indianapolis, Portland, and Pittsburgh and I was amazed by the amount of self-deprecation emminating from the crowd.
We discussed Indianapolis' and Little rock's venture tax credits and I made an argument (of dubious effectiveness) about the importance of government enabling and encouraging investment, rather than making direct capital investments.
