While I was hunkered down surviving Hurricane Florence, I had further opportunity to reflect on my principles as an entrepreneur. In the first part of this brief series on Mindful Entrepreneurship, I laid out my keys to the entrepreneurial process. In this second part, I will focus on culture. Entrepreneurship Culture Culture matters a lot.Continue reading “My Entrepreneurship Principles: Culture”
Category Archives: Leadership & Entrepreneurship
My Entrepreneurship Principles: Process
I have recently been reflecting on the principles that I believe make entrepreneurial ventures successful. Today, the 56th anniversary of JFK’s famous moon speech, a speech that inspired a nation to accomplish an impossible goal, seems like a good day to try to distill those principles down into a succinct post. I won’t claim toContinue reading “My Entrepreneurship Principles: Process”
Startup Fundraising: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
One year ago today, Smart Office Energy Solutions closed a $1.3M angel round of funding. We’ve accomplished a great deal since then – expanded the team, finished gen-1 product development, obtained all the requisite certifications for our hardware, and built a large sales pipeline – but I find anniversaries to be a good time toContinue reading “Startup Fundraising: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Last week I was invited to give a talk on a topic of my choice to the team of a high-growth startup in Durham. Because leadership challenges often cause friction during times of high growth, I chose to address the topic of entrepreneurial leadership. Check out my video below and let me know what youContinue reading “Entrepreneurial Leadership”
Leadership Journey
Twelve years ago today – 1/3 of my life ago – I accepted my first chief executive role. While I had been elected to and selected for leadership roles during my scholastic and athletic careers, this was the first time a Board of Directors actually hired me for it. That first chief exec role wasContinue reading “Leadership Journey”
A Visit to OwlSpark
Last week I was in Houston and took advantage of the opportunity to spend some time at OwlSpark. OwlSpark is Rice University’s tech startup accelerator, providing funding, space, connections, and mentorship to budding Rice entrepreneurs. It actually began as a project in the lean startup course I taught during my tenure as EIR and I’mContinue reading “A Visit to OwlSpark”
When to Listen to Investors
One of the best – and worst – aspects of being a startup founder is being inundated with a nearly constant stream of advice. Advice comes from everyone – friends, business partners, professors, customers, competitors, journalists, employees – but especially from investors. This makes sense as investors have a lot riding on the outcome ofContinue reading “When to Listen to Investors”
Entrepreneurship at Rice
As I wrapped up my role as the inaugural Entrepreneur In Residence at Rice, I was asked to summarize what we accomplished during my time there in this article, published in the trade journal of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. The article is on pages 29-31 of the journal but, for those who don’t wishContinue reading “Entrepreneurship at Rice”
Startups Should Never Pay to Pitch
Several times a week my startup is solicited to participate in pay-to-pitch events at which we are promised access to a smorgasbord of wealthy, capable investors who are just chomping at the bit to invest in companies like mine. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it is. This has been covered by manyContinue reading “Startups Should Never Pay to Pitch”
The First Follower Principle in Action
Anyone who has seen the famous TED talk on “first followers” knows the speaker’s argument that movements aren’t just started by leaders; the first follower is just as – and possibly even more – crucial to the spread of a movement than is the originator of the idea. The first follower shows everyone else A.Continue reading “The First Follower Principle in Action”