Should you take advice from a guy who draws cartoons for a living? Generally not. Scott Adams, who does the Dilbert comics, is the exception to this rule. His book ‘How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big’ is one of the best books about life and happiness that I’ve read recently. It…
I recently did a couple of speeches for founders. One was in front of 1400 people at the Bits and Pretzels event in Munich. I’ve found that one of the keynotes that gets the most attention is my take on the entrepreneurial roller coaster. With the massive startup advice that is dished out to founders…
I love growing companies. I love this so much, that I have done nothing else for the past 15 years, with companies like TravelChannel, DocMorris, Qype, 9flats, avocadostore. Sustainable growth requires a very basic art: Every business must figure out how to Acquire customers profitably and How to sell to them. People who know how…
A couple of days ago I was keynote speaker at an EO Accelerator meeting. I was sharing my experience as an entrepreneur in building fast growing companies. While preparing my talk I realized how the basic principles for building an organization are very similar to those helping a six year old child cleaning up her…
This text is a slightly longer version of my contribution to the May 2012 edition (http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/05/how-to/scale-into-other-markets) of WIRED UK Taking companies across borders is incredibly rewarding and also sometimes very challenging. Here a brief summary of some lessons learned. There is no right or wrong for all businesses. For some models you need to build…
This is a very short post but it contains an essential guiding principle for investors in dealing with CEOs. At this years Annual Meeting at Berkshire Hathaway, someone asked Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger how they intend to keep their managers of Berkshire‘s subsidiaries. This and another question triggered Warren to explain that he does…
I am a regular visitor to the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. I don‘t go there because I hope that something magic rubs off, but because it is a lesson in sanity and clarity in thinking. I have now more than my fair share of Buffett or Munger quotes that I can…
It is surprising how quickly entrepreneurs tune into the latest trends. As a group, we seem to do no better than other humans in our judgement. Remember “Second life”, or the now gone “beta” era? Here is a personal collection of fads that I grow tired of. Everything in the cloud. Fact is: I travel…
Arguably the most important task of an entrepreneur is to assemble a truly outstanding team. I am proud that I was able to bring many great teams together in the past. And I am grateful to work with so many outstanding people at Qype, at 9flats, and at avocadostore. I made many mistakes on the way….
For most of my entrepreneurial life, I was proud of being able to handle a multitude of things at the same time. And I did get a lot done. Over the past years, my multitasking has become more pronounced instead of less. Phone calls, Telcos, Blackberry, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, handling people, investors, press: All at…
