If You Don’t Have a Truly Great Founding Team, Just Take a Pause. Don’t Start Your Start-Up Yet.
Ok I know this post and its title seems like the most obvious thing in the world. But empirically, I can tell you isn’t. Over the past 12 months, I’ve met with friends/colleagues/partners/ex-customers who are total rockstars and working on starting a company. I mean, total rockstars. (Yes, I know that’s an abused team). What [...]
Unfortunately, We (Probably) Have No Idea If Your SaaS Idea is Any Good
Here’s the thing in SaaS: I appreciate you asking me. But, honestly, generally speaking — I probably have no idea if your pre-launch SaaS idea is any good. So no need even to show me any deck, any static demo, any mock-ups of your product-to-be. Because I have no idea if it’s truly a great [...]
Palo Alto is Finally, Totally, Fully Back After 4 Years. What Does it Mean?
Do you remember 2008? Lots of people don’t seem to, but I do, and it was rough. The stock market fell 60%. And never seemed to stop falling. VCs stopped funding everything. There was even this little October 2008 memo called R.I.P. SomethingOrOther from Sequoia Capital that said fire everyone, the world is over, it’s just [...]
Disruptive Cloud Start-Ups – Part 1: NimbusDB
Being at Under The Radar (UTR), watching disruptive companies present and network with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and venture capitalists is an annual tradition that I don’t miss. I have blogged about disruptive start-ups that I saw in the previous years. The biggest exit out of UTR, that I have witnessed so far, is Salesforce.com’s $212 [...]
It’s 1999 Again: The Bubble 2.0 And Talent Wars Of The Silicon Valley
I have been living in the Silicon Valley for a while, and sure enough I haven’t forgotten the dot com days. A few days back, on my way to the San Francisco airport, I saw a billboard by aol advertising that they are cool (again!). I also observed that …
Software is Roadkill
The fastest way to become roadkill to venture capitalists is to become a software company. Software may not be inherently evil (it has created wealth for many people that is in proportion to the pain it has provided to many customers). Software and specifically on-premise enterprise software, however, is clearly…
On Startups, and Influence, and Messaging
I’ve spent over a month in the past three in the US, split between three different trips for different events, and over this time I’ve met with dozens of startups, many of who are from outside the US and are making their first tentative forays into the US scene. I’ve had conversations with a bunch [...]
