Let’s pause – just for a moment – to bask in the revolution that is Creation Crate. For too long, postal delivery box services have been the reserve of fancy fruit and vegetables, small batch wine and beer, and other edible nonsense that we don’t really need. Seriously, how many types of quinoa and kale do you actually want, people? And why must it be delivered, in cardboard and twine, to your houses? Is it to inspire jealousy in your neighbors? Disgusting. Now, thanks to Creation Crate, artisanal products’ tyrannical domination of postal delivery boxes is over.
Creation Crate is a simple enough concept. Aimed at a target audience aged 12 and over (yes, even adults can get in on the action), Creation Crate works ...
Social media is an area where many .orgs come up short. In fact, it’s common for a lot of businesses to stumble with social media outreach. A new organization might have a handle on its social media campaigns, but as its audience grows, social media transforms into something that requires more time and attention.
Organizations often make the mistake of assigning social media to a volunteer or staff member already burdened with other tasks, and they don’t take the time to make posts geared toward the right audience..
Another common mistake is to split the duties across multiple volunteers. This can be effective, but only if you have a very precise and defined workflow, and a team with strong internal communication.
Finding the people with t...
Kim Malone Scott pulls from her years of experience with such notable companies as Apple, Google, Twitter and Dropbox to enlighten us with her unique take on successful management of a team.
If you have the time, check out the video below to hear her great anecdotes firsthand. But if you can’t watch it now, read our summary to learn how to deliver great feedback that will help your employees grow and improve.
It can be tempting to think there’s a proven formula for giving feedback, but Kim asserts that no such formula exists. However she’s of the mind that there are two absolutes.
First, authenticity is paramount. The popular “feedback sandwich” often backfires because you’re actually focused on the negative, so the feedback recipient can ...
As one of the partners of a Ruby on Rails software development agency, I speak with dozens of non-technical startup founders every week who are in various stages of building their first web or mobile application. The range of technical acumen, willingness to learn, and time and resources varies widely among the group.
As a firm, we’re not just competing with other NYC-based agencies for their business, but also offshore devshops, freelancers, and in some cases, the prospective client who may want to execute internally.
At the end of the day, a non-technical founder who has decided that they must build something has two options: pay someone else, or partner with people. Below are the pros and cons.
Obviously, every situat...
You’re a startup founder. An idea machine. But it doesn’t matter how many ideas you have; those are a dime a dozen. What matters more is how you’re going to turn ideas into reality. So there’s a fork in the road: Pursue your side project (e.g. your passion), or keep your full-time job?
Delaying your side project could save time and money. Then again, going through with it could add color to your life and massive value to your company.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be an either/or scenario. You can make room for passion projects without ditching your post. Almost all the companies I’m running today started as side projects.
A few years ago, I was working as a hedge fund manager and a CTO of a Hollywood church. I was doing a little side con...
Imagine sitting in a room where every person across from you is dealing with the same crazy startup shit that you are.
Everyone is worried about making not only payroll but their mortgage payment. Everyone is wondering how to deal with annoying investors. Everyone feels like a total fraud, not just you. And most importantly — everyone is willing to talk about it — honestly.
Welcome to Founder Therapy.
There's a growing trend among Founders to begin talking openly and honestly about the issues we face, beyond online rants and in private spaces where we can get back to being real people.
I've been hosting these sessions for over 20 years all around the country, mostly in my home, and have sat with over 1,000 Founders in that time. What I'...
There's a lot of talk these days about "Work/Life Balance" within a startup.
We're supposed to believe that we can build a world-changing startup from nothing while simultaneously traveling to exotic places and enjoying our "best life".
For most of us, that just doesn't add up. What's blowing us up, though, is how we approach the problem.
It can be.
While it sounds amazing to build something from nothing with plenty of time to spare, that's rarely the case. A startup is an all-consuming torrent of time, which means if we let it, it will absolutely take every second we have available.
Those of us that are beating the system are doing it by brute force hacks on life.
Going digital is now as simple as bringing out our phone to book a ride home. As early as five years ago before Grab hit the market, this was a fantasy for most people. Our world has been changed by digital solutions and the logical question would be to ask: What’s next?
To answer this question, we refer to Cognizant’s survey of over 2000 C-level professionals in Asia to tap on their collective wisdom. Such knowledge will be beneficial to both investors, consumers and even business executives would want to stay on top of things.
The top of the list would be artificial intelligence and this has found commercial applications in autonomous drivings such as the testing of nuTonomy in Singapore. The possibility of...
Entrepreneurs are classic risk-takers. They are continually assessing the world around them, seeking to identify problems in need of a solution. They work hard to address these problems, and transform them into opportunities to improve their world. However, in their haste to identify and seize those opportunities, many entrepreneurs rush into their businesses and forget to establish a long-term vision.
The history of the business world is littered with the empty shells of failed startups that burst onto the scene, but were unable to sustain their business model after their initial appeal wore off. Many of these businesses were started by well-intentioned entrepreneurs who were able to cast a compelling vision for the startup phase. But thos...
When a startup is bootstrapping, every last penny counts. Those early days of no or minimal funding are fraught for founders watching the number in the bank account get smaller and smaller but, unfortunately, most things that startups need cost money.
But what if they didn’t? What if, instead, you were able to trade your services for the services you so desperately need to get your startup off the ground?
That’s the idea behind Currency, a new site that takes a very old concept — bartering — and make it totally 21st century. The site lets companies trade their “currency,” which they can define themselves, for other things that they need. So, for example, maybe you have a company that does stationary...