But can you sell water?

posted on

A few years back, I did an extended Q&A session at Techstars Chicago. Great group, great questions. I really enjoyed it. Before the talk, Troy, the guy who ran Techstars Chicago at the time, showed me this board they had propped up on an easel outside the office. The board listed every company in the… keep reading

Give a little, get a lot

posted on

How generous should you be as a leader? “How generous should I be?” Perhaps you’re considering how much time, energy, or money you should give to your coworkers, employees or customers. I remember reflecting on this distinctly at the end of last year… After less than two months on the job, our new Head of Business Development… keep reading

Enough

posted on

This guy never had enough, is that really you? The underpinning tenet of chasing exponential growth is that anything less than “all of it” is never enough. If there’s more possible, more out there, then it’s your gawd damn duty to hunt it down and make it yours. Such a pursuit is undoubtedly exciting in its… keep reading

If It Ain’t Baroque, Don’t Fix It

posted on

Illustration by Nate Otto Ben and Larry are longtime owners of two different music-related businesses, a payroll service for musicians and an auctioneer of rare classical LPs. They don’t know each other, but they have something in common: They’re both still running their businesses on custom software written in the 1980s by the same developer. This… keep reading