Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen A friend of mine is fond of saying that when you start a business, everything has to go right. You don’t have any capital, you can’t get credit, and you don’t have any customers. The conditions have to be perfect for a new venture to work. The same isContinue reading “My Deepest Darkest Fear Around Shared Ownership”
Category Archives: #Sequoias
3 Reasons Why Our Employee Ownership Center Will Fail
Several years ago I read about Jack Dorsey’s strategy for pitching his new startup Square. Although he had already founded Twitter, a unicorn social media app, Square was a fintech company and Dorsey had no background in finance. It was an issue that potential funders raised repeatedly. In response to this opposition, Dorsey explained “WeContinue reading “3 Reasons Why Our Employee Ownership Center Will Fail”
Learn to See the Matrix
There are maybe 10 early stage entrepreneurs in a room with the CEO of one of the biggest tech “startups” in the world. (Which company? Let’s just say, if I tweeted about this encounter, it would be very meta.) One of the entrepreneurs asks the CEO “how do you get your software engineers to reallyContinue reading “Learn to See the Matrix”
Rinse and Repeat
It’s 8:00 a.m. August 18th 2030 and I’m checking my email. Yet another offer in my inbox to sell us their food company and convert it into a co-op. Of course they want to sell to us. We can pay well for their business and it’s in the seller’s interest to get a good exit. Continue reading “Rinse and Repeat”
August 18, 2025
August 18, 2025 Wake a bit before 7 and dismiss the alarm before it goes off. A quick body-weight workout in the basement followed by Greek Yogurt and some berries, sweetened by osmosis from the sugar in a mug of coffee. That one mug from the top of Pikes Peak, where they sell those freshContinue reading “August 18, 2025”
Navigating Conflicts for Harmony
Several years ago I came across a business guru by the name of Eli Goldratt (an eccentric guy), who started a movement called theory of constraints. One of Goldratt’s key insights was that most problems stem from what he calls conflicts. He means something specific when he says conflict, namely: two competing needs that areContinue reading “Navigating Conflicts for Harmony”
Philanthropy as Oligarchy
As frustrating as it can be, Democracy has accountability built in – ultimately through elections but also along the way through transparency, public comment, media scrutiny and rules of ethics. Philanthropy has virtually none of those guard rails except as willingly self-policed by the ultra-wealthy and their advisors. If a wealthy donor starts a privateContinue reading “Philanthropy as Oligarchy”
The Problem We All Live With
The image above is a painting by Norman Rockwell titled “The Problem We All Live With”. It’s a portrait of Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old girl that had to be escorted by US Marshals into her newly desegregated elementary school in 1960. A white mob threw things at her and screamed threats and racial slurs.Continue reading “The Problem We All Live With”
