Chris Yeh
VP Enterprise Marketing for PBworks, first investor in and previously interim CEO of Ustream.TV. Chris is an active angel investor and the founder and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association (HBSTECH). Chris earned two degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His personal blogs are Adventures in Capitalism and Ask the Harvard MBA.
Will Mobile Kill The Web? (Hell No)
Square honcho and legendary angel investor Keith Rabois said some provocative things about mobile versus web at the VentureBeat Mobile Summit:Keith Rabois, a startup veteran who’s now president and chief operating officer at Square, didn’t mince w…
If you don’t have time to explain, you’re not decisive, you’re unfocused
One of my pet peeves when it comes to management is when someone tells me, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to explain.” When that happens, I think that person has been watching too many action movies. If you’re on the run from a secret government conspiracy, you probably don’t have time to explain [...]
Little Bets = Greatest Hits Of The 2000s
I’ve just completed reading Peter Sims’ new book, Little Bets. I’ll admit that I’m horrendously biased because 1) Peter is an old friend, and 2) he quotes me on page 75 of the hardcover edition, but I think that Little Bets is a great book. (Apparently the world agrees; Amazon has 17 customer reviews for [...]
The Power Of The Extreme Example
One of the entrepreneurs I’ve advised called me Yoda, because he said I was always using Jedi mind tricks to persuade him. He must not have minded, since he presented me with a Yoda bobblehead, which I keep on my mantel.One of my favorite tricks is to …
The Death of the Feed
I remember in 2001 when I first heard about RSS. Back then, we still called them weblogs, and there were so few blogs that it was news when a new one started. For example, I distinctly remember reading excitedly about a promising new VC blogger named Jeff Nolan from SAP Ventures. At first, I just [...]
What If Every Developer Focused On Lifestyle Businesses?
I recently ran across this post from Justin Vincent, where he argues that entreporn–the overwhelming focus on chasing “the next big thing”–holds developers back from their full potential. Instead, he writes: “The absolute truth is that each and every one of us can build a business that can support us.” That’s bullshit. While Vincent makes [...]
Investors Are Job Applicants
Start thinking of investors as job applicants. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of investor promiscuity–they’ll get in bed with anyone with an open wallet. You need to be as picky with potential investors as you are with potential employees, if not more. Remember, you can’t fire your investors. Conversely, investors should figure out how they [...]
Can We Ever Have Too Many Startups?
My recent post on the diatom bloom in the startup ecosystem prompted calls for me to dig deeper and provide more data. Far be it from me to disappoint!Chris Tacy asked, are we seeing too many startups? It’s a loaded question, but a good one.My instin…
Silicon Valley > Boston (The Data)
I love Boston. I lived there for five of the best years of my life, when I was working at D. E. Shaw & Co., and then when I attended Harvard Business School. If anyone asks, I always tell them, “if Boston had the same weather and career opportunities for me as Silicon Valley, I’d [...]
How Do *You* Choose Between Job and Family?
My friend and HBS classmate, Lindsey Mead Russell wrote a great article for the Princeton Alumni Weekly last year. In it, she meditates on one of the fundamental dilemmas that faces women: Job or Family? Lindsey followed a path that many would envy or consider the ideal–she worked part-time managing recruiting for a private equity [...]
Free Event Thursday: Founder/CEO Succession
If you liked my recent post on How To Avoid Getting Fired From Your Own Company, you’ll love my upcoming panel on founder/CEO succession issues, What Color Is Your Parachute?The good folks at Orrick and I have assembled an All-Star panel with three fou…
Silicon Valley Posers And The Inevitable Bust
This morning, my friend Erica Douglass wrote about why Silicon Valley is broken, and why she moved away:This conversation was a microcosm of the reason I left the Valley. No doubt, this guy had a good-looking website, and two co-founders who had sign…
Time Allocation > Goal Setting
Every personal productivity guru preaches the importance of goal-setting. But of you’re like me, your problem isn’t a lack of goals. It’s a lack of time.I often feel like I have too many goals, all clamoring for my time. Setting all those goals becomes…
To Make Money, Be A Garbageman
Plumbers and garbagemen make a good living despite their lack of PHP coding skills. That’s because they’re willing to do the necessary but unpleasant.Basic economics teaches us that prices are determined by supply and demand. Scarce skills like being …
Why I’m 10X As Influential As Ashton Kutcher On Twitter*
It’s all a question of influence intensity. Of course Ashton Kutcher can influence more people than I can–he has about 2,500 times as many Twitter followers. But I have more influence over my average follower than he has over his. The average Ashton Kutcher tweet generates 12,500 clicks on Bit.ly–that’s quite a bit of influence. [...]
