Entrepreneurship

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 [...]

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 [...]

#3 of the 10 part series on Docstoc and it’s about motivating some of the most important people in your company, engineers. It starts with the environment; they’ve got to love it there. Then pile on challenging and though provoking projects and your own the right track. Here are 4 things I like to do. [...]

#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

In my experience it’s the exact opposite. Sure, there are those that have a passion for money, but for most people, like me, passion is about things we just love to do; and we don’t always see dollar signs when we think of doing it. But there is a lot of evidence to support that [...]

I heard this last night; I’ve heard it before. It’s so true. So many people, including me at times, hesitate to say what they really mean, and often when they really mean to say is NO. For the person asking, it’s binary and that makes life easier. Sure, maybe the answer you want is yes, [...]

So I’m a big fan to Twitter, partly for reasons I can explain, which I have, but also for reasons yet to be discovered. I guess that’s what intrigues me so much, that there is so much still to be created on that platform. To that avail, here is my opinion about what Twitter should [...]