Google Voice Disconnected
I was using Grand Central long before Google bought them. Grand Central was an exciting concept as it brought advanced telephony features to existing phone services. You could not use Grand Central unless you already had a phone. Ater Google re-launched Grand Central post acquisition as Google Voice, the world was prepared for Google to [...]
Should You Consider Replacing Yourself as CEO?
My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. I have talked about this publicly a great deal – how I prefer “missionaries” over “mercenaries.” But lately I’m more swayed by [...]
Why I hate acquihires (unless I’m doing the selling)
The always insightful Mark Suster recently tackled the subject of acquihires–the practice of large companies buying small startups simply to acquire their people. Mark lays out an excellent argument for why the acquiring companies are actually losing out when they make acquihires: “You have been at Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo! for years. You have worked faithfully. [...]
What Makes Cloud Transformation So Hard?
Transformation is not a new concept, and has been around a long time before cloud and big data. It has always been a pretty nebulous term, but generally has referred to the fundamental reinvention or redesign of a business or function. From an enterprise-wide perspective this typically has meant redefining everything from target markets, products [...]
Pulse 2013: A Full-Day Conference on Customer Success on May 30 in S.F. I Think You Should Go.
As SaaStr readers know, I think people put a little too much into sales, and not quite enough into customer success, especially as they hit first Traction. It’s natural. It’s the hunt. The hunt is the new logo, the new
Node PDX – Introducing Adam Baldwin, James Halliday, Ryan Jarvinen, Mike McNeil and Horse JS
This is it, last string of introductions. Hope you’re registered. Adam Baldwin is presenting… Introducing NodeSecurity.io Adam Baldwin Adam Baldwin is a web app hacker, team lead at ^Lift Security and the CSO for &yet. Adam has presented at various security & dev conferences in the past including, DEFCON, Djangocon, Toorcamp and RealtimeConf. The node.js [...]
If You Get Acquired, You’ll Need to Learn to Move from Persuasion to Alignment
I’ve had a chance to semi-objectively watch a number of folks go through the M&A process over the past 18 months, and compare and contrast their experiences with mine. Some acquisitions thrive. YouTube, PayPal, Android. Others of course die. GeoCities, Broadcast.com. Perhaps most actually meander in the middle. Flickr. Take a look at this interesting [...]
Unpicking the multi-cloud at GigaOM Structure
Image © Mission Bay Conference Center Last month, RightScale’s State of the Cloud report got me thinking about the rise of multi-cloud solutions. Next month, I’ll be moderating a Mapping Session at GigaOM’s Structure event to work out how, where, when, why and if this trend is going to prove significant. Hybrid clouds, in which one [...]
Discussing Virtual Machine interoperability with the Open Data Center Alliance
The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) is holding its Forecast event in San Francisco in June, and I’ve been invited to moderate the panel discussing Virtual Machine Interoperability. As moderator, I’ll be far more interested in facilitating insights from panel and audience than in wittering on about what I think, so I wanted to use this [...]
The One Word That Shouldn’t Exist in an Entrepreneur’s Vocabulary
No. The one word the best entrepreneurs never accept. I said it. Now let me walk you through a broader story because avoidance of the word in and of itself will seem cliche. Stay with me. When I was little I had a role model for entrepreneurship – my mom. She was a natural leader. [...]
By The Time You Give Them a Raise, They’re Already Out The Door
There’s an endless amount written on the ‘net about hiring Rockstars. Finding them, not settling, and all that. That you need to spend 20%+ of time recruiting (I said that myself here). That the #1 most important thing you can do is put together a great team. Which is absolutely true. But the #2 most [...]
Node PDX – Introducing Zach Bobb, Paul Jungwirth, Forrest Norvell and Charlie Key
…and the fifth iteration of Node PDX Introductions! Zach Bobb is presenting… Building a Computer In Your Browser Zach the TriMet Ticket Man! Zach is a mobile engineer with GlobeSherpa working hard to bring you the app that will let you buy TriMet tickets on your phone. Want to learn how computers work under the [...]
5 Key Essentials of Cloud Workloads Migration
The benefits of migrating workloads between different cloud providers or between private and public clouds can only truly be redeemed with an understanding of the cloud business model and cloud workload management. It seems that cloud adoption has reached the phase where advanced cloud users are creating their own hybrid solutions or migrating between clouds [...]
Node PDX – Introducing Adam Ulvi, Aron Racho, Christopher Meiklejohn, Max Ogden and Brock Whitten!
…and the fourth iteration begins! Adam Ulvi is presenting… Put a Sensor On It! Adam Ulvi Adam is a Portland native (straight out of the Simpsons) with a penchant for software and systems integration. 8-bit gamer, seasoned professional, perpertual noob. Specialization is for insects. Learn how easy it is to create your own monitoring system! [...]
The Corrosive Downside of Acquihires
For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And to keep up with the Jones’s it seems that Yahoo! has now employed the same strategy. And who cares, right? A couple of tech giants throw millions [...]
