Year End Reviews Year end reviews are usually terrible. It's a long complicated form from Human Resources that seems designed to be a complete CYA move. My last form had "demonstrates ethical behavior" on
management Delegation and Verification One of the fundamental challenges of management is understanding the key balance between autonomy and micromanagement. At the root of it, this is about trust. I was just reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and
hiring Take Charge, Hiring Managers I've written a lot about hiring. Hiring the right people is one of the most important things a leader can do in business. (Closely related: firing the wrong people and coaching people.) Yet,
The Daunting Odds of Venture Capital Startups The first truly massive startup win for Los Angeles: Snap, Inc. For at least my part, I hadn't expected a social network from our media- and business services-centric community. Although, to be fair,
Startups Five Things About Fundraising I've been asked a lot about my fundraising experience. With the latest e-mail, I figured a blog post would be a productive answer, by making it available to all. In no particular order,
The Perils of the Counter Offer This year has been a year of hiring. In April, we completed a reorganization fully integrating Wallaby Financial into Bankrate, Inc's Credit Card Division. When you sell your startup you know that day
High Standards, Difficult Feedback, and Letting People Go I'm way behind on my Instapaper queue, so on this week's flight I finally made it to an article from April about Donald Trump that spurred some interesting thoughts on how managers do
Hiring is Job #1 Ford used to say that "Quality is Job #1" It's a good approach, despite your viewpoint on Ford's quality control (which, even as a Ford fan, probably wasn't ranked #1). As
Home Water Usage in The Drought As a New Mexican, water conservation has been a part of my life since well before California's recent drought. Yet, despite best efforts, I have had a hard time decreasing usage, until recently.
Why I Pay Interns and You Should, Too While it seems that summer internship season is far away, recruiting events are just around the corner. Every year, around this time, I have a discussion with other CEOs about paying interns: why
My Zero-Turnover Team Originally posted at Innovate Pasadena A lot has been written about company culture. Many entrepreneurs love to coin sayings, write a mission, value statements, and the like and post it on the walls
Startups How to stay semi-independent after selling your startup Note: Venture Beat first published this piece of mine.Last December, my cofounder Todd Zino and I sold our startup, Wallaby Financial, to Bankrate. We immediately went from being a team of nine,
history Ghosting A few thoughts on switching everything over to Ghost. My first personal website was built by hand, probably in Notepad, in 1996 and existed as part of the website of the Los Alamos
Product Simplicity A lot has been read about simplicity in product development. Go ahead, Google it. My lesson in simplicity is the outcome of my experience at Wallaby.I founded Wallaby to produce the Wallaby
Venture No, Notes, No Lots of good discussion on the interwebs this week about yet another problem with Convertible Notes as an early stage financing tool. See Mark Suster’s and Brad Feld’s posts. When I
P2415Q Dell P2415Q and MacBook Pro (Retina) A quick post for others who may be look at this. Yes, the Dell P2415Q does work in full Retina display mode with your late model MacBook Pro with Retina graphics. Ever since
Startups The Negative Side of Negative Advertising As a startup, you are engaged in a competitive battle for investments, customers, revenues, employees, and more. You have to decide how to go to the competition and what tactics you will use.
Apple's pitch for replacing the wallet is basically a Telebrands-style "Aren't debit cards such a PAIN?" video. Not pictured in the Apple... Apple’s pitch for replacing the wallet is basically a Telebrands-style “Aren’t debit cards such a PAIN?” video. Not pictured in the Apple Pay demo is the process of taking out your
Apple Will Apple Pay Work? Apple just announced ApplePay. It’s a mobile wallet. Is it enough? It has two new features that differentiate it from existing mobile wallets: Fingerprint authentication Tokenization Apple is proud of some
Startups Vote for my SXSW Panel: "Regulated: Startups That Have to Follow the Rules" Software is eating the world. Startups are fighting decades old laws to build new business models that are more efficient, serve users needs, and grow profitably. Regulated industries remain a huge open space
Startups Disrupting the Male-Dominated Startup Culture There is probably no way that this post comes off well, but I’m going to try it anyway. Credit first to the anonymous author of What It’s Like Raising Money As
Who is a Founder? There has been a lot of talk lately about the definition of founders and co-founders. I think that the recent Tindr fiasco has spurred this round, but lawsuits and arguments are frequent issues
Startups Why My Team Doesn't Look Great on Paper Left, Ashvin, CEO of Themer. Right, Me. Claremont McKenna Graduation, May 16th, 2004. There is a really interesting article today in TechCrunch today about credentials and Silicon Valley. Great work by Danny Crichton
Why Wallaby Hires Slowly There’s a lot of advice out there about how startups and entrepreneurs should hire fast and fire fast. Fundamentally, I think this is backwards. I am not surprised by this advice for
Who Gets to Graduate? Who Gets to Graduate?Who Gets to Graduate? One if the most important things I’ve read this year. Education changes everything.
