This week we are joined by Philip Smith, Executive in Residence at the Plug and Play Tech Center and advisor to startups in Silicon Valley. Philip discusses a number of startup topics including:
The Plug and Play center in Sunnyvale
Why your startup demo and presentation is so important
In this week’s long overdue episode we are joined by Chia and Alex from 23andMe.com. We chat with Alex and Chia about their startup experiences at 23andMe and at their previous employers. In addition we talk about:
The 23andMe Research Revolution which allows a discounted $99 rate for your own genetic testing and health traits
Chia’s role as community manager and how tools like Twitter and Facebook can be used to engage your customer and grow your business
And why any startup should have good air conditioning.
In this episode, we are joined by Zohair Hyder, founder of Dabbleboard and creator of almostmeet.com a collaborative group meeting application. Zohair joins us in the studio to discuss his issues in starting his company, developing his products, and the ongoing challenge in marketing and sales that every startup faces. We also discuss:
The danger of populating your site or other sites with fake reviews
The Techcrunch decision to publish documents from Twitter
Zohair’s newest product almostmeet.com
and other topics
Please leave questions or comments below. Please also accept my apologies for the audio quality. This issue has been fixed for future episodes.
oDesk is yet another outsourcing application. oDesk differentiates itself by offering a frequent view of the contractor’s desktop so the hiring company can keep tabs on the work completed. Invoicing, billing, and other admin functions are provided automatically.
In the “where are they now” category we revisit briefly Zicasso and Retrevo
Many presentations are presented by people who suffer from a disease I call “business speak” which grates on me like fingernails on a chalk board.
“Business speak” words, phases and jargon, tossed around by a writer or a lecturer/speaker/presenter, as shorthand, make the article/presentation tedious to read or to listen. Often the trite terms are used out of context when a more precise word should be used. Most importantly, the use of business speak removes all originality or creativity from the article or presentation. It’s like saying “You know… you know… you know…”
Business speak phrases to be banned:
“thinking out of the box”- this ridiculously overused phrase has become so ubiquitous that its mere use, ironically, now demonstrates that the writer or speaker is not thinking outside the box, but instead, is locked up inside the box, going down the same old rout path.
“siloing”- too often used as a shorthand from describing the problem with individuals or agencies working independently when, for whatever reason, they should be working together, for an integrated solution to some problem. However, the term is most often used to describe a relationship between two or more entities, without diving more deeply into the issues of why there is independence among entities.
“Just north of…” – (to describe a value, number, or figure, e.g. the national debt is just north of one trillion dollars). Use it once in a presentation and I am fine with it. Use it “north of one time” and now you have annoyed me with your lack of creativity.
“mission critical”- again, use it once. Cool. More than once, not so good.
“workspace” (”space”) - just overly used. Often in discussions which are overly general, superficial and vague. If you want to grab someone’s attention, at some point you need to be specific. So focus, focus, focus. Otherwise your article or presentation become business fluff.
“color blind society” – (to describe a world in which discrimination does not exist) As someone who suffers from the affliction of colorblindness, I find it offensive to use the term, in such a heartless manner. All kidding aside, the ironic thing is that it is used in a scientifically, incorrect manner. Even if, arguendo, we were all color blind, we still could distinguish black from white. In other words, we still could distinguish a black person from a white person. So, in fact, the phrase “color blind society” is not only offensive but completely inaccurate to describe a world in which one would not make determinations based on color of ones skin, with the proviso that people are not red-brown or blue-green.
We have a special edition of our startup podcast this week as we are joined by start-up entrepreneur Bill Hunt. L ast week Gabrielle posted a synopsis of Bill’s discussion on fundraising for your startup. We discussed the salient points of Gabrielle’s post with Bill and asked some additional questions on fund raising, venture capital, start-up patents and making your pitch stand out.
Please write in with any questions or comments for Bill or our regular contributors.
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