10 Keys to Exponential Growth

A few weeks back I read a great post from Hiten Shah on mentoring. In it he calls out that 99% of mentors are doing it wrong. At first it got me thinking about how I go about mentoring. At Amplify I’m in a position to do this on a regular basis for the first [...]

So it’s been just about three months since we launched Amplify. I can’t fully express in words how fulfilling the experience has been, but I’m going to try. I’ve started and built several companies; some have succeeded and some have failed. I’ve learned a lot over the years. I’ve come to know what I’m good [...]

One of the interesting things about sitting on the receiving end of lots of Amplify applications and pitches is that I get to see trends unfold in real-time, on a micro level. Looking across the 100+ applications we’ve reviewed thus far, I’ve seen a handful of commonalities among companies; many oft them trying to solve [...]

#4 of the 10 part series on Docstoc and it’s about running lean. When it comes to getting far on a little, most of it is common sense. But when you’re in the thick of things, you need to be deliberate about it. Remember, it’s not just you building things, it’s your team. The key [...]

Yesterday my wife and I took our twins (who will be 3 next month) to Disneyland for the first time. It was wonderful and fascinating to watch them experience all that is Disney for the very first time. I could probably write a short essay on that alone, but for this post I want to [...]

What a day. My inbox was as full as it’s been in my entire life. I feel like I had two days in one today. Launching a new company is a very satisfying thing. The first time you go out to the world and announce yourself is liberating. You know you’ve been working hard, building [...]

It’s been way too long since I was in the thick of things at a very early stage startup. I’d forgotten how many things there are to do, fundamental things and strategic things. It’s like there are a million little Lego pieces strewn about the ground and it’s my job to pick them up, one [...]

#2 of the 10 part series on Docstoc and it’s about recruiting. Getting the smartest people (yes, smarter than you) to join your company in the early days should be obvious, but it’s not easy. Here are 3 tips that have worked for me. Link to DocStoc: 3 Tips for Recruiting Your First Superstar Employees

This is the first video from my 10 part series on Docstoc. I like the style of the videos they produce, they’re short and to the point with good nuggets; not just mine, all of them, and there are hundreds from other smarter guys than me. That said, the stuff in my videos is pretty [...]

What’s more important, great engineering or insane product management? Well, seeing as I’m not an engineer for shit (although I think I might have been in a past life), I’ll say the passionate product guy. I don’t think this has been the common thinking for some time, at least as long as I can remember. [...]