Why I’d Go Big. And Why You Should Ignore Me, and Most of the Others That Tell You That.
Everything on the web, and in SaaS, these days is about going big. Larry Page at Google I/O wants Google to start doing brave new things that build billion dollar markets. Peter Thiel wants the best of us to skip college and go straight to building the next Pallantir and PayPal, just bigger. Elon Musk […]
Everyone in SaaS Needs to Do Customer Support. At Least Until You Have 50 Employees. But Ideally, Forever.
I’m not sure if you saw the recent rant of David Marcus, president of PayPal. Complaining his employees weren’t using PayPal apps. Well, dude, what do you expect? Yes, you’re right. It’s not cool your team doesn’t use PayPal every day. But PayPal isn’t Google. Or Facebook. It’s not a service everyone is necessarily going […]
Marketing: ‘Context will eat the software industry’
For years, marketers have used the phrase “content is king” to signify the importance of substance and depth in selling to both enterprise and consumer buyers. Meaningful content is a foundation of marketing strategies, influencer programs, and other efforts to attract eyeballs in the digital world. Of course, content as a driver of engagement and […]
The Inevitable Cloud Outage: 5 Key Essentials to Safe Guard Your Application
A while back, I was starting up an EC2 instance on the AWS cloud when it entered an endless restart loop. All the application deployment efforts we’d made (installation and service configuration) over two weeks just went down the drain. So we called support. The support rep redirected us to his team leader who simply […]
What Would it Look Like if Elon Musk Pitched a VC Today?
This week I attended the All Things D Conference in Ranchos Palos Verdes. It is always a stellar event. The good and great of the tech industry were there: Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg, Dick Costolo, Max Levchin, etc. But Elon Musk stole the show. I thought Michael Lazerow’s Tweet best captured the mood of the […]
StitchLabs–Solving SMBs Inventory Woes
Many readers know that outside of technology, I own a business that manufactures apparel and other products and sells them both online and through retail outlets. Having been involved in that business for 17 or so years, I’ve had first-hand experience of just how difficult it is to run a tightly integrated operation with e-commerce, […]
The Workday IPO and ‘F You Money
The other day, a VC asked me about a founder he was thinking of investing in. He asked me if this founder had, quote, ‘F You Money. {I learned how this was spelled when a Businessweek article this week used the term, btw}. I wasn’t really sure if he meant this as a negative, but […]
Is Silicon Valley Really Coming to an End?
By now you probably know that David Sacks, co-founder of PayPal and founder of both Geni & Yammer made some observations on Facebook that Silicon Valley “as we know it” was coming to an end. He says “In order to create a successful new company, you have to find an idea that (1) has escaped […]
Everyone Feels Like An Imposter
I had the good fortune of being allowed to be a mentor at the Unreasonable Institute this year. If you ever get the chance, it’s something you should definitely do. In my two days at the institute, I got to meet a bunch of amazing people who are maki…
Education Bubble maybe or maybe not – the siren call of Peter Thiel
I will agree with Peter Thiel that education as we know it is hard to justify the inputs versus the outputs, especially the costs of education. I have attended many colleges over the years, graduated from two of them, have an advanced degree and feel good about it. The degree has helped me with employment, […]
Don’t Take Sides, Take Issues (How To Think About Wikileaks)
Image via Wikipedia I’ve been following the Wikileaks saga with increasing interest, because it embodies a principle in which I firmly believe: Don’t take sides, take issues. People have asked if I’m pro-Wikileaks or anti-Wikileaks. One of my friends said she was anti-anti-Wikileaks. The problem with taking sides is that its rare that sides are […]
API, API, API, API, API, API
If you imagined a tech CEO or an evangelist or a pundit jumping up and down like Steve Ballmer and shouting “API, API, API, API, API…….”, it may come true faster than you ever expected. In this cloud based world where every service wants to be a platform (see my PaaS Is The Future of […]
Software Marketing Pranks
I envy software marketing types. They get to stay kids forever: pull pranks and even get paid for it.:-) Today’s example comes courtesy of TechCrunch: PayPal competitor WePay dropped a 600lbs ice block at the entrance of the Paypal developer conference. They got chased away and Moscone security removed the ice block. My question: who […]
Are You Still Using Your Real Credit Card Online? You Shouldn’t.
So iTunes got hacked and some users saw unauthorized purchases up to $600 in their accounts. I’m shocked. Not at the fact that iTunes got hacked, but that users exposed their credit accounts to such extent. Websites do get hacked, it’s a fact of life. Users need to change their passwords, consider what other sites […]
It’s All About Support – Granular Is Good
The other day I had one of those nightmare situations that only those who are similarly detail-focused (some would say retentive) as myself can appreciate. Now I’m a stickler for detail – it really offends my sensibilities when things aren’t stacked in order, when things don’t match and, most of all, when the numbers in […]
