Every day. Fast Forward.
Quite often I find that what I set out to do is not the same as what I end up doing. And I believe I see that happen a lot at startups too. The explanation is pretty straight forward: There is NEVER a straight line between the original idea and what you end up bringing… Continue reading Taking stock
What does it mean for a business, a startup or you to 'do your homework'? Does it mean being out there, staying curious about the problem you're looking to solve trying to figure out what potential avenues towards solving it might be. Does it mean diving into existing research to be able to say and… Continue reading Doing your homework
Over the past year I have been spending a lot of time trying to understand how to help researchers at universities bring great research into market through spinouts. And I wanted to share my experiences in a series of posts. The first post on ownership structure is here, and this is going to be about… Continue reading You need mutual respect
The only problem with colleges and universities is that they have become profit machines essentially barring students of limited means from attending. The core of what colleges and universities do have probably never been more important. I fully understand that there is a lot of talk about certification for specific skills being the future of… Continue reading The (continued) case for higher ed
One of the things that I have been spending a lot of time on these last couple of years is the subject of university research and how to transform the best of it into viable spinouts that can go on to solve real problems in the world. There is no doubt that the potential within… Continue reading Short term joy, long term agony
Do customers flood you with support calls when your service is down? Or is it more or less quiet? If it's the latter, you have a problem. Because then all indications are that your product doesn't really mean much to your customers; they can easily do without it. Maybe they don't even realize it's not… Continue reading The crisis test
When you're passionate about something, it is very easy to let passion get the better of you and lose the grander perspective on things. That's the trouble with passion; it has a capacity to leave you blind-sighted during the very times when you need perspective the most. You focus too much on the here and… Continue reading Passion versus perspective
Partnerships in business can be extremely rewarding. But making them actually work can also be super, super tough. While many seem to think that the brunt of the work is in finding and negotiating with the right partner, the truth of the matter is that the real, tedious work begins afterwards. When focus is on… Continue reading Getting partnerships right