If you’d met me about a decade ago, you would’ve quickly found out that I was deeply devoted to a few things: meditation, a raw food diet, and reading various versions of the Tao Te Ching. I had been on a very intentional path of self improvement for a little over two years. Since then,…
Tag: operations
Your Ideas Don’t Matter
Yes, that’s a bombastic title. However, the prevalence of potential entrepreneurs who fixate on ideas over execution is also extremely outsized. In this post, I’ll start to explain why that’s wrong-headed, and will write more on this subject in the future. I think this epidemic has been around for a while, and it’s likely that…
How to Scale Startup Operations
Let me start with a trite statement, so we can all agree with it and get it out of the way. Change is hard. There are, however, fundamental steps and considerations that you can take to smooth out these transitions. In this post, let’s focus on developing and implementing process into a startup that has…
Developing and Growing Corporate Culture
I see some version of the following questions crop up fairly frequently, especially in the startup community, so I figured I’d take a moment to share a few thoughts. The questions go something like this: How should we take steps to implement a healthy corporate culture that will strengthen as we grow? If we’ve taken…
Leveraging The Endowment Effect
Why individuals or teams thinking that their projects are most important, can be excellent and incredibly damaging at a growing company In business, the endowment effect means that someone thinks that his or her work, project, or deadline is what’s most important and must be resourced and prioritized as such. This is often discussed as…
On Building Credibility
Being credible at any stage, but especially as a startup Credibility manifests itself in different ways, whether in reference to a person or an entity, with values that are shared or unshared, and any sort of historical context or existing relationships between the parties. Webster’s defines credibility as–I’m kidding, I’m only kidding! Read on, discerning…
What is Operations at a Startup?
Or, what does a COO, VP, or Head of Operations do at a growing company? Given my idiosyncratic background, having touched a lot of different business functions (product, project management, marketing, people or the dreaded “human resources”, recruiting, talent management, sales, partnerships, client success) and operated as a director, manager, founder, president, and department head…
Got Hired At A Startup? Begin By Learning
Startup people are productive go-getters that know how to scrape and grind their way to making things happen. In nearly all situations, this is an awe-inspiring attribute to have. If you’re this type of person, or you hire these types of people, there’s one time that I’d watch out for these tendencies: being newly hired…
Startups: The Case For Keeping Things Simple
Yes, this blog is very simple and that’s on purpose. Decluttering and getting back to fundamentals is a theme in my life; and I impart that on this blog very intentionally. What you’ll find below is not a framework for avoiding difficult or complex situations. You will, however, find suggestions for making the complicated seem…