Remember to ask for the sale. You’ve probably heard these words of advice many times – whether in the context of a prospective deal, a request for a favor, or in an interview prep – and the first time you made the ask it was probably really scary. Asking for the sale is the first…
Tag: entrepreneur
Be right when someone asks.
This essay is written as part of the Startup Edition project – check out the other essays here. Think. When was the last time you were right? Absolutely, positively certain with no chance of being wrong. Now, think of the last time you knew you had the answer, and someone asked you to be right?…
9 Rules for Being an Effective Mentor
photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtyler/ In my experience, having effective, talented, and knowledgeable mentors has been the most powerful startup accelerator that I know. The best mentors I’ve worked with do a lot of the things on this list. You can call these the 9 rules of being a mentor – they will help you provide feedback to…
The circle of startup life
It’s a sad day in a way – today marks the end of Gist, a company I had the pleasure of working for through its evolution from a scrappy startup pioneering new ways to manage social contacts through its acquisition by Research in Motion – the BlackBerry folks. And it’s a happy (albeit bittersweet) day…
Creative Process #1: Why Whiteboard?
What’s your creative process? Reading Tyler Cowen‘s “Create Your Own Economy” and Temple Grandin‘s “Thinking in Pictures” has inspired me to look at my own creative process and to examine the ways in which I do and don’t think like my peers. Let me start by stating that I think that a diversity of views…
