General Business

Writing this reminds me that there really should be a function in TypePad that allows you to simply elevate a comment to a post  . . . Abhi responded to my post on Thinking in groups with the following comment, which was right on target: tohers), and thus assume that that the correct behavior was inaction). Let me expand on this in the context of venture capital, since I didn’t get into it in my original post.  I think the pressur  around conformity is significantly exacerbated for a non-partner VC .  In a body of equals there’s clearly some pressur  to go with the flow.  Where the group is not all on equal standing this pressure is intensified. Clearly a…

In one of my first posts (The Adventure Reference) I talked about what amounts to pattern recognition – the ability to interpret information and draw conclusions based on experience with similar sets of circumstances. I was thinking about how difficult this can be the other day and, importantly, how easy for groups (i.e., boards) to sometimes lean towards a similar interpretations of events. This reminded me of a classic experiment in psychology that very clearly illustrates this point. In 1962 psychologists Schachter and Singer 1962 performed an experiment that dealt with what they called the two factor theory of emotion. Basically they were trying to show that people’s interpretation of an emotive state can be easily influenced by environmental factors…

“Make original mistakes.”  Someone (Brad? Wendy? I can’t remember) said this in a board meeting about a month ago. I wrote it down on a piece of paper and have been carrying it around with me ever since. The concept is right on and meaningful no matter what you do. For me it is a reminder of two important things: First, we all have mentors and peer groups. As a venture capitalist, for example, I have the partners and principals at my firm; I have partners at other venture firms with whom I have worked with closely; I have the CEO’s and executives at the companies I work with; etc.. These are great resources for me to tap when I’m faced with challenges. Whether you work…

Credit to Brad for this one – I had completely forgotten about it when he sent it to me (I waited for him to blog it, but he’s been out of town so I thought I’d put it up). Remember the wayback machine? www.waybackmachine.org. It lets you search for old versions of web sites. Want to know what Yahoo’s site looked like in October of 1996 – here you go . How about Netscape that same month (makes you wax nostalgic, doesn’t it?) . Google beta anyone? Miss the Nasdaq at 4,800? Here it is. Enjoy!

Sandy Hamilton (one of the key execs at Newsgator) did a nice follow-up post to the note I wrote about taking 100% responsibility.  In it he talks about what that actually means  – how we present ourselves and the importance of taking responsibility not just for what you are saying, but also for what other people are hearing. What a powerful concept.  Thanks Sandy for taking this to the next level. In case the link above isn’t working, here’s the  full URL of his post: http://sandyhamilton.blogs.com/sandy_hamilton/2005/04/did_i_say_that.html

You’re on the right track when your company becomes a verb.  Just add a “d” to your name and you’ve got an idea what I’m talking about.  Google is the best example of this – as in “Have you Googled that?” A couple of the companies I work with are on their way (at least in the markets they play in). I take it as a good sign that they are becoming important enough with their customers as to actually enter their lexicon (as in “Have you Quova’d this IP address?”).

I was reminded (again) today of the importance of clear, open and honest communication. There’s no substitute for it.  There seems to be a 1:10   rule about communication such that it takes about 10 times the amount of energy/effort to communicate something after the fact (i.e., after a communication break-down) than doing it up front.  Not to mention the potential hard feelings, bad karma, etc. With all the ways to get in touch these days (e-mail, phone, cell phone, sms, etc.) it seems like this should be pretty easy. I’m as guilty as the next guy about forgetting this lesson.  Perhaps writing it down here (and on a sticky on my computer screen) will help remind me. . .

Fred Wilson had a great post recently on the problem of analysis paralysis. I completely agree. One of the challenges of business (and entrepreneurship) is that companies constantly have to make decisions based on incomplete information. That’s just part of the game. Successful entrepreneurs recognize that, take in as much information as makes sense, make a decision and then move on. While it’s helpful to look back at these decisions, I completely agree with Fred’s assertion that it’s not really fair to second guess them (although its important to learn from them). So, how do you avoid the analysis paralysis trap? Here are a couple of thoughts 1. on subjects that you are deeply familiar with, your first or gut…

Fred Wilson has done a very amusing series of posts on VC Clichés (see the latest here) Terry Gold takes this to another level with what he has termed Jarbarish (a blend of jargon and gibberish).  Here he posts an absolutely hilarious bit that he used at a recent company meeting.  Thanks Terry for lightening the mood

The New York Times is running a series of articles on the last days of the Enron crisis (actually excerpts from Times writer Kurt Eichenwald’s forthcoming book on the subject).   It reads like a soap opera (by both design and because that’s really what this story amounts to).  The amazing take-away for me was just how far Enron had strayed from the most basic forms of financial management (they didn’t track their cash balance, nor did they track when their debt came due – so they had no idea either what they owed or how much they had available to cover that debt). Take a look at the article here (in case the link doesn’t work the url is http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/business/yourmoney/13enron.html?)…