I Love Social Networking, But . . .

make-haiku.jpg

As the song goes, it don’t pay my bills. So I signed on with a startup that does. Hopefully, I can do both (time permitting). But talk about two different worlds . . . Hardware, not software. Distinctly un-social (for now). Government, not commercial. Business, not consumer. And funded, not — well, self-funded. I’m working […]

Creative Ideas for Capital

stupomitron-helmet2.jpg

A great side-effect of entrepreneurs’ optimism in tough times is creativity. At our OpenCoffeeDC last week, discussions got lively when talk turned to bootstrapping — not just self-funding, but all sorts of alternatives for producing live-giving capital and conserving what you do have. Time to put on your thinking caps. Have you gone through the […]

Damn the Economy — Full Speed Ahead!

damn-torpedoes2.jpg

Random-sampling the mix of entrepreneurs who made it to OpenCoffeeDC earlier this week, the wretched economy has deterred um, let’s see — no one. Gotta love that entrepreneurial spirit! Optimism still reigns — rains, even. Everyone in the group echoed anti-parallels to the dot.com crash (“Back then, ‘Internet’ was a bad word and investors ran […]

Not All Team Players Pulling Their Weight?

pulling-their-weight.jpg

Are all your team members equally pulling their weight? It comes up all the time — I’ve had the issue myself — and it was common enough for a few startup CEOs to throw together an ad hoc session at BarCampDC2 last weekend. Of course, it never starts out that way — but then, the […]

Monetize . . . or Die?

what-we-say-to-dogs.jpg

A few months ago, my pitch to Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) for their GAP funding program was turned down. I actually thought I had a fighting chance, having worked with the good folks there before and produced a plan that set the stage for their first $100k GAP disbursement. But my app-in-progress CHALLENJ […]

Startup Layoffs, Pt. 2 — Two Perspectives

apocalypto-head-chop.jpg

There are two sides to every story, and two unenviable roles to a firing. While I don’t expect newly aroused sympathies to change anything, awareness of each other’s perspective can help make the process a little less painful. That is, if you believe yanking off a band-aid is less painful than pulling it off slowly […]

Best Web Hosting For WordPress