This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 4, 2013

I'll be headed to my seventh and perhaps last SXSW Interactive this year. I've spoken twice , judged at the startup accelerator, been around for the first Garyvee SXSW flashmob wine party , tipped a certain investor off to Twitter , been the investor behind the app that "won" the conference , attended a bike rally , tattooed a 4SQ douchebag badge on my head , played actual foursquare , and funded a guy I met for the first time there (Rob May from Backupify) --three years later.

startup accelerator 283

startup accelerator accelerator networking startup 283

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 3, 2013

For over two years, Larry and Sergey met CEO candidates before deciding to hire Eric Schmidt. Hiring a CEO was a condition investors imposed as part of the Series A terms. After the investment closed, the founders wanted to renege on that part of the agreement , but the board asked the duo to meet some of the valley’s top CEOs. At which point, Larry and Sergey only wanted to hire Steve Jobs.

culture 40

culture pitching board enablement 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

“In 15 Years From Now Half of US Universities May Be in Bankruptcy.” Such was the quote of Clayton Christensen followed by, “… in the end I’m excited to see that happen. So pray for Harvard Business School if you wouldn’t mind.” Who else does Clayton pray for? Apple. Yup! Watch the 30-minute interview to hear why but summary notes below.

education 403

education disruption entrepreneurship venture capital 403

Berkonomics

MARCH 7, 2013

Sometimes it is the first thought you or your managers have when in need of skilled talent, especially for sales or product development. It is not hard to find and observe the best employees of a good competitor at work, skillfully moving the competitor forward in a visible way. And it is a tempting slice of pie – two slices for one price – to take a critically needed employee from a competitor, damaging that firm while building yours.

development 81

development 81

Advertisement

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

technology

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 7, 2013

What makes for company culture? Foosball tables and free lunch Fridays? Is it long hours before launch day? Flexible vacation times? Too often, when people talk about company culture, they fail to differentiate between values and style. All of the above things are style. Working late, not counting hours, blurring social and work life--that's all how people work.

culture 307

culture 307

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 7, 2013

I often wonder about how to measure the success of this blog. While there are many tools to measure page views and visitors, the absolute number of readers is probably the worst measure because it’s a false idol. Feedburner subscribers, retweets, time on site aren’t much better because they don’t measure the true performance of a blog - what fraction of an audience the blog reaches.

startup ecosystem 40

startup ecosystem education startup founder entrepreneurs 40

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 5, 2013

The three tier feature based pricing model is so common it’s almost a cliché. For some businesses it works well. But as Kenny van Zant explained to me, feature based pricing can slow growth in freemium businesses in two ways: first, feature based pricing creates incentives within a company to offer a subpar product and consequently creates unnecessary friction in the adoption process slowing growth.

incumbents 40

incumbents SaaS disruption communities 40