Sep 29
Good Strategy / Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters —
Good Strategy / Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters
[https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-difference-matters/dp/1781256179/ref=asc_df_1781256179/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312407247347&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8131963954033570292&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=
Aug 01
How Coffee Meetings Power Silicon Valley —
I just had a coffee meeting with a friend in San Francisco today.
Well, he’s not quite a friend, more like a guy I find smart and interesting, who I’d like to stay connected to. We first met when he was working at Twitter and applied to work
Jul 17
Earning Co-Founder Trust —
I recently heard the story of how my friend met his cofounder and had to share
it. I think there are some great lessons here for business folks looking to team
up with smart technical people. I changed the names and am vague about certain
details because they don’t
Jul 04
Listen to everyone, then make up your own mind —
> “Don’t take too much advice. Most people generalize whatever they did and say
that was the strategy that made it work.”Ben Silbermann, cofounder of Pinterest
[http://web.archive.org/web/20170514110114/http://allthingsd.com/20120313/pinterest-ceo-ben-silbermanns-lesson-for-start-ups-go-your-own-way/]
When we raised our seed round for Ridejoy
[http://web.archive.
May 21
26 —
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to get
worked up about.
I generally side more with the latter – but
May 12
A Request (and Giveaway!) for My Twenty-Sixth Birthday —
Photo credit by Solo [http://www.flickr.com/photos/60648084@N00/2234406328/]
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to
May 12
26 —
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to get
worked up about.
I generally side more with the latter – but
May 12
A Request (and Giveaway!) for My Twenty-Sixth Birthday —
Photo credit by Solo [http://www.flickr.com/photos/60648084@N00/2234406328/]
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to
May 08
Eleven Compelling Startup Pitch Archetypes —
Over the past few weeks, I’ve helped a handful of startups work on their YC
applications and interviews. I spent much of the time brainstorming with the
founders on the best way to explain their business in the most clear and
compelling way possible. These founders knew a lot
Apr 05
Gymnastics Lessons: Performing Under Pressure —
Gymnastics is a sport about delivering under pressure. Even though you can make
it a team sport by aggregating scores and swapping out players, there is
actually not interaction between your teammates outside of them cheering for you
and helping you prepare for your performance, or even between you and
Jan 18
How to be Relentlessly Resourceful —
Relentlessly resourceful.
This is the essential quality of a good startup founder according to Paul
Graham, cofounder of Y Combinator. When asked by Forbes what he looks for in
founders, four out of the five elements [http://paulgraham.com/founders.html]
relate to resourcefulness. He’s written two essays (Relentlessly
Dec 21
Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite it All —
Summary: Great by Choice describes the results of a deep investigation into how
young companies can survive and thrive in chaotic, turbulent environments to
achieve spectacular results. The book is of great value startups and
entrepreneurs seeking to build enduringly great companies. In this blog post, I
look at how
Sep 30
How to Give Your Product Personality —
There’s a really great post on Fred Wilson’s blog (AVC
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160320050249/http://avc.com/]) about building a “
Minimum Viable Personality
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160320050249/http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/minimum-viable-personality.html]
“. Of course, this is a play on
Jun 28
Getting Your Groove Back —
Photo byPim Chu
[https://unsplash.com/@pimchu?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText]
onUnsplash
[https://unsplash.com/search/photos/lying-down?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText]
Dear Friend,
How’s it going? Alright? You don’t look alright to me.
Jun 07
Taking Cold Showers —
This post is about why you might want to start taking cold showers.
I’ve been doing it for over a month now and I really like it.
The seed was planted in my mind afterreading an article about it
[http://gettingstronger.org/2010/03/cold-showers/]on a blog called
Apr 12
How Blogging Can Increase Your Luck Surface Area —
Every month I get to engage with some interesting people on an email list/group called Really Think, which is run by my friend Derek Flanzraich. Last month we talked about a number of topics including our thoughts on Color.com, what kind of apps we use each day and
Mar 29
What Gymnastics Taught Me About Facing Fear —
Most competitive gymnasts would consider pain and fear our twin companions. I
certainly did. Gymnastics requires that athletes constantly challenge themselves
to do more, much more. Routines that were performed in the Olympics in 2000 are
being done by 15 year-olds in 2011. To learn new skills, you have to
Mar 15
What Gymnastics Taught Me About Acquiring and Mastering Skills —
In 1996, Men’s Health published an article
[https://web.archive.org/web/20161016033530/http://www.stickitmedia.com/mens-gymnastics-the-worlds-toughest-sport/]
where they used some ridiculous mathematical formula using variables such as
fitness, skill, pain, brains, etc to figure out the toughest sport in the world.
Gymnastics came up number one. Here’
Jan 19
How I Blew Out My Knee and Came Back to Win a National Championship —
On January 19th, 2007, while competing for Stanford Men’s Gymnastics at the UC Berkeley, I suffered a total knee dislocation while performing a double-twisting Yurchenko. My ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL and meniscus were instantly torn. It hurt a lot.
I underwent multiple surgeries, required the use of crutches for
Nov 10
The Rejection Therapy Challenge – Final Review —
Wrapping up the 30 day challenge