How do you measure, compare and aggregate the impact of organizations that aim to do good in the world? Measure, whether in a nonprofit project or for-profit social enterprise? Compare, using a universal measure to easily compare a rooftop of solar panels vs. an acre of re-planted forest vs. 500 vaccines vs. jobs vs. food vs. happiness? Aggregate, as in taking the sum of any or all impacts...
Why does one startup get picked over another for funding? From the entrepreneurs point of view, the answer to that question is often asked in frustration, as they are turned down by yet-another investor, or passed over by yet-another accelerator program. I feel for those entrepreneurs, as I spend most of my life on their side of the table. However, periodically I step over to the other side...
A startup died today. (A thousand other startups died today too, but just as we mourn our own family and friends more than strangers, so we mourn the startups we know more than the masses of others.) In mourning, those of us who knew this company started asking the question, “Why?” Why did this company die? On the surface, the reason is simple. The company ran out of money. No money, no payroll...
If you build it… they will come is an exceedingly common expectation of naïve, first-time entrepreneurs, who have yet to learn the “real world” difficulties of finding and selling to customers. Similarly, for funding first-time startups too often entrepreneurs expect a good idea and 80 page business plan is sufficient for an investor to invest. I call this erroneous expectation, If you think it…...
Sometimes others take the words right out of my mouth…
Last week, blogger Michael S. Malone asked the question, What is “The Purpose of Silicon Valley“? Seems quite a pertinent question to those of us who have left the world of tech to embrace the world of conscious companies, where our startups are truly changing the world.
Read the whole story on MIT’s Technology Review.
