Great things in life happen by accident. So has been my journey to find something that I am truly passionate about and love doing. Six months ago I started working with a group of 40–50 students coming from remote parts of India. Their mission: Build a Machine Learning product to improve solar adoption. Challenges were […]

By Amy B What’s the most common answer to the question, ‘What’s your biggest weakness?’ Of course, it’s, ‘I’m a bit of a perfectionist.’ For many of us, perfectionism is a humble brag. My only fault is that I’m too perfect. Serious question: how well do you think you could function in sales today without […]

By Patrick Hall Avoiding costly pitfalls and time zappers. Marketing is the simplest idea with the most difficult execution in any area of business. At its core, marketing is simply identifying and speaking to a receptive audience. But in practice, getting the attention of would be customers has ballooned this simple idea into a $600 billion […]

By Alex P In the early days of your startup, there may be no decision you make as a founder that will be more critical than your initial hires. I’m talking about your first client engineers, server engineers, product managers, salespeople, designers, etc. If you hire the right people for these roles, your company, future employees, […]

By Patrick Hall In a 1986 speech, then president Ronald Reagan lamented that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” This statement epitomizes the neoliberal view of how Silicon Valley became a global beacon of high-technology ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. For followers […]

Anyone would agree that starting a business is no easy feat. It’s a job that demands your attention 24/7. Now imagine doing it while you are in school. Full-time. That’s what Michael Brenndoerfer, founder of cryptocurrency brokerage platform Cryptonite, did when he was pursuing his Master of Engineering (MEng) degree at UC Berkeley last year. […]

By Patrick Hall Lessons learned from creating new product categories in technology One of the best ways to accelerate the growth of your business and create a highly defensible market position is to create a new product category, and establish a leadership position in it. This is the grand slam of Go-To-Market plays that captures most […]

Why Ads Are Toxic To Early Stage Startups If you just started a company for the first time and you’re using ads to get your first paying customers, you’re doing it wrong. Unless you’re a repeat successful founder, you’ll be out of business in 2 years. I’m sure of it. I often times post about my […]

We all know that social networks and digital content distribution is controlled by a small number of large companies. The strength of these companies lies in the content that millions of users create and share on a daily basis. In platforms like Facebook and Twitter, users are not only customers who consume advertising or pay […]

By Patrick Hall In 1987, a representative of Michael Jackson approached the modest Sycamore Valley ranch house and knocked on the door. The owner of the ranch was shocked by the visitor’s message. He told the homeowner that he represented someone who wanted to purchase the ranch at a substantial premium over its current fair market […]