One of the common themes has been coming up in a bunch of the work that I have been doing (in personal development work, in reading, as well as answering some of the questions on the business side of entreprenuership… e.g. what is your personal brand / competitive advantage). The theme is this… the answer [...]

Over the last few days, I was at the SxSW Interactive Conference and had time to stop by the SxSW Trade Show. At the trade show, one booth stood out out of all of the ones that I went to… and after thinking about it over the last day, I realized why this one booth [...]

At SxSW (South by Southwest Conference) Tom Brown, Bijoy, David Bluestein, and I (with other bootstrappers) announced the launch of the BootKarma system. BootKarma is a complementary currency system meant to allow bootstrapping entrepreneurs leverage their time, especially in the early stages of their venture where cash is short. Essentially this is a formalization of [...]

At SxSW (South By South West Conference) this year Bijoy and I gave a talk on Bootstrapping Your Startup. The talk was well received, and we got lots of interest in taking the Bootstrap Network to other parts of the US and the world. We have refined our model to a level that we both [...]

This blog is about “going exponential” with a community of fellow entrepreneurs. It is through building strong communities (or some would say ecologies) that a group of entrepreneurs can create the greatest shared outcomes with each other and for themselves. (In this case, I am using “entrepreneur” to refer to both traditional entrepreneurs and in-company [...]

This weekend I tested and received my blackbelt (“shodan”- “begining dan”) in Aikido.  I started Aikido back in August of 1997.  Almost ten years of practice three to five times a week have resulted in this accomplishment.   Aikido informs much of my life.  I greatly appreciate what I have learned along the way;  In a [...]

Recently I was asked about my background, and what I had worked on- what the common theme had been across the many companies that I had been involved with.  My answer, that I ended up presenting in a power point slide as part of a longer response to the questions that had been asked was [...]

A recent article that I was reading from Verne Harnish had me thinking as well of a conversation that I recently had with Ed Perry… about finding one’s calling, not just one’s mission.  First the quote from Verne: The power of purpose — George Lucas, Film Director and Producer — “You have to find something [...]

This quote from Edison just came to me… and is a good reminder for all of us as entrepreneurs to keep the faith: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~ Thomas A. Edison Keep the faith.  Get the right people involved.  [...]

I recently received a link to the following article on “What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial?”.  This is a great paper- with at the author Saras D. Sarasvathy‘s analysis of two types of reasoning- causual reasoning and effectual reasoning.  Causual reasoning is what I would call more traditional “MBA” reasoning… that is, a given, specific goal is [...]

Over the holidays I found out that my friend B.J. “Billy” Stanberry has been busy with his solar power startup, called HelioVolt.  Billy has come up with a new way to both increase the output of solar cells, as well as a method for making it very easy to apply / install / almost “paint” [...]

At the beginning of most books, there are acknowlegements and dedications.  As I start this blog to share my insight into building communities of entrepreneurs, I would like to start with a dedication… to my grandmother who passed just a few months ago. She has been many times the inspiration that has supported me along [...]