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….
Angel investors have the most sexy name in the industry. They provide startups with money when nobody else does. Some aren’t actually angels, but that is another story… Many people ask me if I would like to invest in their startup. Time for some reflections on what to look for in angel investors. 1. The most important…
There are four excellent companies who dominate how we search, how we shop, how we communicate, and which gadgets we use: Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. The first three of these companies also are among the top 5 of the Fortune Magazine’s 50 most admired companies in 2010. (Facebook is not in this list and this…
I spend quite some time these days coaching friends, former colleagues or fellow entrepreneurs about “what should I do next“. There are some interesting parallels in these discussions. Strikingly, the self-imposed limitations of what people feel they can do constrain people’s choices in an amazing way. And this is true for any income group. Despite…
I deliberately took a while while to decide how I want to work and where to get involved. I pondered to join a VC (too far away from the business) and looked at direct investments in other people’s ideas (sometimes felt I could come up with better ones myself). I enjoyed the last couple of…
Cem Basman brought this interesting article from Harvard Busines School to my attention: There is a new study out that measures the success of first time entrepreneurs versus repeat entrepreneurs. Quote: Successful entrepreneurs in the study had a 34 percent chance of succeeding in their next venture-backed firm, compared with 23 percent for those who…
Whenever I work with web entrepreneurs, the discussion quickly goes onto one point: What is it that your company does better than anybody else? In an era with unprecedented low barriers to entry, and where competition is absolutely global, answering this question correctly and then executing on it becomes more important than ever. And it…
Finally getting to talk to people again. Discussing ideas, market developments, the underlying trends, barriers to entry, business areas worth disrupting and all these things just plain fun for me. I will get bored eventually as I prefer to do things instead of talking about doing things, but for the moment I enjoy the conversation….
