Music & Startups
May 10, 2016
You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
There are a few good nuggets of wisdom in those Kenny Rogers lyrics. There are also some good lessons from Kenny Rogers the CEO, including how to hold on to great people. This weekend I was in Nashville visiting my cousin Mike Zimmerman, the drummer for Kenny Rogers. Mike joined four years ago to replace Kenny’s retiring drummer of 30 years. Kenny has kept his road team together for decades.
May 3, 2016
Start with the E.N.D. in Mind
Have you been 100% clear and honest with yourself and partners about your expectations for your new startup? Do you know exactly what it will take to achieve those expectations? Based on my anecdotal experiences I’ve found that many founders could do a better job defining their expectations in qualitative AND quantitative terms, and then ask a lot of questions to develop a reality-based view of what is required to get there.
May 2, 2016
Playing the Carnegie
How do you get to the Carnegie? Practice, practice, practice! On Saturday, June 18 and again Saturday, June 25, I’ll join 40 business and community leaders to the stage at The Carnegie in Covington, KY (nope, not NYC) for the 9th Annual Suits That Rock concert, benefiting The Carnegie’s education department. All “Suits” by day, performers are trading in their business attire and briefcases for microphones to Turn the Radio Up!
April 22, 2016
Cracking into the Top 5 Fastest Growing Startup Cities
What factors determine the success rate of a population of venture-backed startups? And how is success measured? We can learn something by looking at the Top 5 fastest growing cities whose startups are collectively raising at least $200M.
April 18, 2016
If Data is the Answer, What is the Question?
How does bigger Big Data correspond to better products or services? Armed with the latest analytics tools, will data scientists now have all the answers? And who are data scientists anyhow?
March 30, 2016
Ready to Rock!
In the last couple years I’ve had the opportunity to re-discover my hometown startup community. Since becoming a founding member of Cintrifuse in 2013, I’ve met with a majority of the 250+ Cintrifuse member startups.