barrow-dot-me

In today's world of constant self-promotion, it's pretty easy to fall into the trap of thinking that -- to steal an old saying -- your shit don't stink. For individuals (and startups) trying to get noticed in an ever-crowded landscape, a little overt promotion never hurt. In fact, it is required in order to get access to the air, water, and sunlight the nascent enterprise needs to succeed. The point here is that it's ok to exude confidence or even braggadocio as conditions merit; just don't let things get to the point where you believe your own hype. Throughout my career, I've been in roles where I was the purveyor of reality. In short, this has meant that I have had to tell people "NO!" or at least tell them that their baby was ugly. I don't enjoy doing this, but it is a necessary evil when people start to drink too much of their own Kool-Aid. Let's say that there is a startup company that launches a successful product. After a while they ...

Overall, I am pretty happy to see the high level of interest in entrepreneurship these days. I actually think that we need more of it and wish that more teenagers were getting into it instead of just being passive consumers -- but that's another rant for another time. Out here in Silicon Valley, practically everyone here has a side job doing something entrepreneurial -- even if it's just writing mobile applications. As I wander about the Valley meeting people and asking about their startup efforts, they all comment that they're starting (or have started) a "company." Some of the ideas behind these efforts are really compelling while others are -- shall we say -- not so compelling. Perhaps I'm a harsh grader because I lived through the extravagant excess of the dot-bomb era. If you weren't in the game back then, let me take a brief detour to explain... Back in the mid to late '90s, everyone and their mother was crapping out a company. B-schoo...