Thanks to Kate Kendall for inviting me to give a talk at the inaugural IndieConf – a conference for startups doing things ‘the indie way’ (self-interested plug: my post on startups vs SMEs vs indie businesses). It was a great conference with some interesting and vastly more qualified speakers than I. For the purpose of… Continue reading
People love to talk about bootsrapped startups. How they succeeded ‘despite the odds’ by bootstrapping, how they ‘rejected traditional forms of capital’, or simply that they didn’t need any money, so why take on investors? At least 50% of the time, it was totally the wrong decision for them and the business. To start, let’s… Continue reading
This last week I’ve been in Boston for the Forbes 30 Under 30 conference. I went to the regional Asia version a few months back, and had a great time so figured I’d head to the ‘global’ edition, which attracts some 3-4,000 people. Below are some of my observations, both from the conference itself and… Continue reading
As I’ve mentioned in the past, being a founder is a shitty, often thankless job. There is a lot of rhetoric in the press about how great and fun it is to be a founder – captain of your own ship1Self-employment is not nearly as fun as others would make it seem, having been on… Continue reading