Technology, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Category: Entrepreneurship
We attended Polaroid Day at MIT Museum this weekend and were reminded of the genius of Edwin Land, co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. "Like visiting a shrine" is how Apple co-founder Steve Jobs described meeting Land. Polaroid's Board did a great disservice to Land and his company. Film Forever Polaroid's original instant camera - 1947's … Continue reading Polaroid Day & “Polavision” Instant Video
Over the past several years as I've read articles about Uber, WeWork and a number of technology startups, my takeaway is that many of these companies lack focus. They lack a focused mission. They lack strategic and operational focus. I understand the argument that institutional investors want growth in the absence of yield, but too … Continue reading Growth at All Costs Leads to A Lack of Focus
We are working on a project that has me thinking about the "long tail". For those who took Statistics you may recall that the long tail is the portion of the distribution where occurrences appear far away from the distribution's center. A long tail business strategy is one where the service provider makes hard to … Continue reading The Long Tail Will Differentiate You
Incentivize Prospective Participants with A Seat at the Table MoviePass shut down on September 14th. We do not have first-hand knowledge of MoviePass’ ever-evolving business model. However, we do know that MoviePass never quite figured out how to properly incentivize movie theaters to drive audience participation. When building new network businesses, it makes sense to … Continue reading If You Build It They Won’t Necessarily ComePremium
Magna International (tkr: MGA), got its start as a machine tool shop. Today, Magna is automotive supplier to major Auto OEMs, Tier I suppliers, Heavy Equipment manufacturers and Rideshare companies such as Lyft. Humble Beginnings Magna counts BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Tata, Tesla, Toyota, a number of the China-based Auto OEMs as well as a … Continue reading Competition Comes from Below: Part II
When considering enterprise technology purchases – regardless of industry – corporate buyers would do well to think like investors. There are three legs to the technology evaluation stool: 1.) What is the technology provider’s value proposition? 2.) Who is the technology provider? (corporate buyers often pay insufficient attention here) 3.) What is the total cost … Continue reading Technology Buyers Would Do Well to Think Like Investors
The below content is comprised of excerpts from an article previously published by the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Charles A. O’Reilly recalls the time that his wife encountered Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the Whole Foods market parking lot in Palo Alto. “She was walking out when he was walking out, and when he … Continue reading Narcissistic CEOs Carry Greater Legal Risk
The CEORater Technology Founder CEO Index outperformed its peer group Year-to-Date through September 18th 2018. The CEORater Technology Founder CEO Index returned 32.3% and 28.5% on a Weighted and Unweighted Stock Price Return basis respectively (click here for detail) during the January 2nd 2018 – September 18th 2018 period. The S&P 500 Information Technology (TKR: S5INFT) returned 16.0% on a Weighted basis over … Continue reading CEORater Technology Founder CEO Index Continues to Outperform
Cryptocurrency firms fell from grace (Chain and Lightyear merged to form Interstellar) as valuations and expectations got too far ahead of themselves for both the various "coin" firms as well as for blockchain - the distributed database technology that enables digital currency transactions. We are long-term bullish on each - particularly blockchain. The crypto space … Continue reading Don’t Believe The Hype
Every founder CEO begins as a “creator”. Not every founder CEO graduates from “creator” to “builder”. Creators eventually self-implode (Elon Musk, Tesla and Travis Kalanick, Uber) whereas other founders are able to scale over the long-term. For example, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos are builders (We provide a list of Builder CEOs … Continue reading Founder CEOs: Creators vs. Builders
