Facebook’s development credo is “move fast and break things”. Uber’s credo is “break the rules, apologise (maybe) later”. The lifeblood of the startup industry is this thing called “disruption”. Apparently all good things come from disruption: Craigslist disrupted the newspaper classified ads industry, Napster disrupted the online (and, by extension, offline) music industry, Apple disrupted … More Here’s a Bad Idea: Uber for Banking
Previous: Things not left unsaid If everything was perfect, you wouldn’t need a contract. Contracts are for when things go bad. Sigh. If only I could impress on you how important this is. “Good faith” negotiations are filled with optimism and the excitement of building something. The paper gets signed. Then reality sets in. Underperformance, … More When Negotiations Go Sour
Previous: Prepare to negotiate Don’t be afraid to say NO. Negotiations are complex and usually comprised of multiple terms. If you’re faced with a condition you can’t – or won’t – agree to, say no. Recently I negotiated a deal with a corporation with sales of over $300 million dollars annually. They sent me their … More Negotiating – and you CAN say…
Without realising it, we negotiate every day. The act can be non-verbal, such as signaling and merging into traffic on the highway, or as simple as a single sentence: “You want fries with that?” You generally wouldn’t think of these situations as negotiating opportunities, but the former is a complex dialogue with other drivers about … More Mastering Deal Negotiations – In Only 12 Easy Steps!
It takes two to Yo, and it’s not as stupid as everybody thinks. Also, the colour purple may be important here. … More The ‘Yo’ Effect
Unicorns are rare beasts in the startup world. Their founders can help make new ones by paying it forward. … More Paying it Forward and Getting A Lot Back
In one fell swoop the IRS just took the wind out of Bitcoin’ sails. From the taxman’s perspective this is a clever move. It matters not what use the owner of a BTC has in mind, the IRS still gets its rather large cut (43.4% of the gain if sold within a year, up to … More Bitcoin Is Now Property
The major grudge against Bitcoin seems not so much to be that it isn’t backed by anything – remember, we’ve already established that most currencies, and therefore economies, aren’t backed by anything – but that it isn’t regulated by any established (read: government) body. Yes, cryptocoin at this stage is going to be used for … More Cryptocoin: Hedge or Grudge?
We’re already comfortable with the idea of a virtual digital currency. Most of the $16.1 Trillion dollars of the US 2013 Gross National Product was not paid out in greenbacks. And we expect that the virtual currency we do own will be well protected and properly accounted for. Such measures include encryption of the information … More Cryptocoin To The Rescue
It’s been used to buy drugs, weapons and all manner of illicit goods. Even though each one has a unique code, it’s anonymous and untraceable. It’s being stored in wallets, safety deposit boxes and slicks, yet it makes its way around the world quietly and quickly. Its fluctuations in value have made paupers into millionaires … More Bothering With Bitcoin
The Digital Tiger 