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In 2002 I wrote a detailed business plan and created the investor presentation deck for MessageRite, my first startup. One of the key slides, or so I thought, was the gratuitous “Exit Strategy” slide. In my slide I described how MessageRite would one day be acquired by one of precisely four companies I cited by [...]
Continue Reading →Recently there was some interesting news that online shoe retailer Zappos offers new hires $1,000 to quit at the end of their first week on the job. In that same spirit, I think companies would be better served to gracefully accept resignations without trying to talk an employee out of it. Early in my career [...]
Continue Reading →In 2004 when I was CEO of MessageRite we received a very fair offer to be acquired by FrontBridge Technologies. This wasn’t the first acquisition offer we had received, but it was the first offer that boldly proclaimed “we see you as strategic to our goals.” I wrestled with the idea and did what I [...]
Continue Reading →Please forgive this slightly more personal post; it’s Saturday. It highlights an important issue for startups – having good life balance and weighing opportunity costs. blist is my second startup, so my family has lived through the long hours and dedication it takes to get a successful company off the ground. My wife, Karen, is [...]
Continue Reading →Next week I’ll be at the Paul Allen Center at the University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering department at a recruiting event. One of my two objectives is to meet a few top notch computer science students who might want to come work for blist as summer interns next May. To a startup, May [...]
Continue Reading →This morning was fun. I was interviewed by John Cook of the Seattle P-I, who tracks the Seattle VC and startup scene. He wanted to dig in and learn a little more about blist now that we are starting to share more detail about what we’re doing. You can read his write-up here. Sooner or [...]
Continue Reading →I spent 6 years as CIO of an investment bank, followed by 3 years as CEO of a company selling software-as-a-service to hedge funds, investment banks and brokerage houses. Two terms you hear often in the world of high finance are buy-side and sell-side. Buy-side analysts usually work for mutual fund companies and help decide [...]
Continue Reading →Last night I went to a sneak preview of ClayValet.com, hosted by founder and all around wonderful guy Mikhail Seregine. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so. Before the event got into full swing I was chatting with a couple of other entrepreneurs. Two different entrepreneurs – in totally [...]
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