Strategy
« Previous EntriesParallel Startups - Should You Put All of Your Eggs In One Basket?
Sunday, October 21st, 2007Startups fail at an alarmingly high rate. Not just tech startups, but new businesses of all kinds. The logical response to any risky strategy is to balance the risk through diversification… but does that apply to startups too? If your business is likely to fail, should you have 3 “small project” style […]
Why Viral Online Marketing Rarely Works
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007Most of the startups we see here on OTV don’t have a marketing budget. They plan to go viral. They plan to get blogs to talk about them. They plan to spread via word-of-mouth. That’s all fine and good, except that it rarely works. Why? Well, a new study […]
Will High Profile Internet Entrepreneurs Venture Outside The Valley?
Monday, June 11th, 2007Rob recently covered Mahalo, the new brainchild of infamous Valley entrepreneur Jason Calacanis. While the startup has garnered a lot of attention for their interesting approach to search, another notable aspect of the company is its home base of Santa Monica. In a recent interview with Wired News, Calacanis expressed his reasoning for […]
The Entrepreneur in the Next Cube
Friday, June 1st, 2007In the valley, it’s much easier to get funding for something that is just an idea. For the rest of us, we often have to start ventures on the side while we hold down “day jobs.” That is why, no matter where you work, you may have an entrepreneur in the next cube.
Once […]
CBS Buys Wallstrip - Is The Future of New Media Outside the Valley?
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007The rumors were true, CBS has acquired web stock show Wallstrip for $5 million. I think this is the first acquisition of a web show by a major media company. If not, it’s certainly the largest. It raises an interesting question as well… as “new media” grows at the intersection of tech […]
Core Business Models
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007What is life like as a student/entrepreneur/business owner around Finals time?
Hell..
Although I have been putting my time to good use. I just finished a 31 page paper on a full out, competitive analysis of Yahoo, and I came down to one crucial difference between profitability and mediocrity - core business models.
Google reigns supreme in search […]
Cumulative Advantage and OtV
Thursday, April 19th, 2007Just read a very interesting and thought provoking article from the NYTimes — Is Justin Timberlake a Product of Cumulative Advantage? by Duncan Watts. It reminds me of the perception altering experience of reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.
Techmeme points to Mathew Ingram’s great synopsis. Apparently the article has already received a lot […]
The Venture Process When You’re Outside the Valley (Part II)
Saturday, April 14th, 2007Securing an investment:
This is the second installment to my “The Venture Process When You’re Outside the Valley” string. You can find the first post here. (Adam wrote a great follow-on post on how to get your foot in the door which is worth a read.) In this post, I’ll discuss the […]
Six Startup Lessons
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007Read/Write Web wrote a fantastic list of lessons that any entrepreneur should take a close look at before they start drilling down their target market.
Niche markets tend to be one area that people have a lot of problems with. A very common question I hear is, “Why limit a customer base? Why not target the […]
Steve Ballmer’s Take On Strategy (and Google)
Thursday, March 29th, 2007Steve Ballmer, the energetic CEO of Microsoft, recently visited the Stanford Business School to discuss entrepreneurship. Luckily CNET captured a highly entertaining video of the event.
Along with some interesting criticisms of Google’s approach to growth, Ballmer outlines the four stages of business strategy:
Stage 1: Invent something
Stage 2: Get the idea/product/application/service to critical mass
Stage 3: […]
