Larry Gagosian: Building An Empire On Niche Knowledge
The New York Times is running an interesting story today on Larry Gagosian’s influence within the world of art. It struck me that the service Gagosian offers and business he has built a lucrative and scalable career by exploiting niche knowledge and leveraging social capital. Importantly he’s built a brand with massive moats that is […]
Startup Mind: Finding the 2%
A while back a friend in San Francisco drew me the diagram pictured above. We were talking about some of the projects and people I was involved with and he put this up on a whiteboard to explain who entreprenerus should surround themselves with to maximize chances for success. The outermost ring represents 90% of […]
Paul Graham, Y Combinator And The Future Of Credentialing
Paul Graham has another thought provoking essay this month titled, After Credentials I am going to quote extensively from Paul’s article (italics) and then add my own thoughts after each paragraph (non-italics). — A few months ago I read a New York Times article on South Korean cram schools that said, “Admission to the right […]
Evergreen Gift Guide for Entrepreneurs and Founders
I have updated this gift guide for entrepreneurs (+ founders, makers, etc) originally published back in 2008. The updates should now make this list evergreen and perfect for gifts and Holiday ideas going forward. Support a great cause or charity’s founders gravitate toward: Charity Water Membership to SF & NYC MoMAs Performance Improving: Anything that […]
Startup Mind: Seasonality
As we move into the Holiday season I thought I might point out an often-overlooked aspect of startups: seasonality. More than many other businesses startups can be greatly affected by seasonality for four primary reasons: Fundraising. Many entrepreneurs think that raising money is raising money; the time of year does not matter. This is wrong. […]