Start-ups – Page 4

Engaging Talent and Resources beyond your Company’s Four Walls

April 20, 2011

Last week, I met with a CEO who is looking to create an advisory board for his company. After the CEO had gotten comfortable with me and what I could offer, his questions switched to "selling me" on why I should want to join his board. As we were wrapping up our meeting, he asked ...

830,000% ROI

April 17, 2011

We often think of Start-ups as "penny-pinching, cheap rent, used furniture" organizations that need to scrimp and save to meet their next payroll. This is often true, especially in their very early stage. A few weeks ago, I heard a presentation by Brian NeSmith, the Chief Products Officer of Blue Coat Systems. He said that ...

Meatball Surgery and other interesting practices of Start-ups

March 28, 2011

One of my favourite phrases from the M*A*S*H was "Meatball Surgery". It referred to the shortcuts that the surgeons of the 4077 developed to keep their patients alive while they quickly performed surgery. While there were better ways, "Meatball Surgery" allowed them to finish with one priority case so that they could move on to ...

Improving Sales: The Excuse Department is Closed

March 25, 2011

Improving Sales: The Excuse Department is Closed: by Mark Suster started circulating a few of weeks ago but I was too busy to do anything with it at the time. Nevertheless, its wisdom demanded that I come back to it and comment. Mark has done a fabulous job of succinctly articulating the challenges of managing ...

Five Questions to test if your start-up will be successful?

March 15, 2011

I have a new job, or at least one more job to add to my time-slicing life. A few weeks ago, I began as an Executive-in-Residence at the Innovation Factory, the newest Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation sponsored Regional Innovation Centre. In this role, I will be mentoring and advising early stage companies as they ...

Starting a Start-up Part II

February 11, 2011

Wow, Howard Gwin and I must have been sharing a brain over the last couple of weeks. I just read his blog "Left and Right Brain: The Execution Factor". I was looking at the problem of starting up a company in terms of domain skills: Technical versus Sales versus Business. Howard adds a complexity ...

Starting a Start-up

February 3, 2011

It has been two weeks on the job as an Executive-in-Residence at the Innovation Factory and I have met with about a dozen entrepreneurs looking for advice. The meetings range from companies with a management team in place and a product or prototype ready to launch; to single entrepreneurs with an idea or technology, looking ...

Making Big Bets #2

February 1, 2011

I was reading a blog by my friend Jim Carroll "Why thinking big could save you in the 21st century". He talks about companies that are using "Big Bets" to drive stunning levels of innovation such as Wal-Mart's goal to completely eliminate packaging. I am a big fan of "big bets" and "shoot for the ...

Will my product sell?

November 23, 2010

I have been engaged in a email exchange with a young entrepreneur over the past couple of weeks. I met him at the C100 Accelerate TO event. Like any good CEO, he was trying to get exposure for his company by pitching it to senior execs and investors in attendance. I gave him some coaching ...

Why is the start-up world different? (or How to choose your advisors and employees)

November 10, 2010

I recently had coffee with a colleague who spent many years with large global consulting firms, specializing in large complex projects involving strategy, restructuring, governance and project management. He now has his own consulting firm which focuses on strategy, and primarily works with medium to large organizations. Over coffee, he wanted to pick my brain ...

Category: Start-ups