On May 11, 2017, I had the privilege of addressing the audience attending ATDC’s Startup Showcase and graduation event. I began with a tongue-in-cheek title, “The Four Easy Steps to a Billion Dollar Exit.” After a few chuckles, I moved onto the real (and more practical) topic, “The Seven Hard steps to Increasing the Odds… Continue reading My Commencement Speech for ATDC’s 2017 Graduation Event
Category: Business
Four Types of Innovation in Startups
Startup companies are famously innovative. I was recently asked to talk to a group at IBM’s Watson Research center about the ways early stage companies continuously create new ideas and new business models. Here is an excerpt from that presentation about four sources of innovation that fuel startup growth. By recognizing that innovation doesn’t always occur in a… Continue reading Four Types of Innovation in Startups
How to Avoid a Cultural Implosion as You Scale Your Startup
Earlier this week, I had a chance to speak at one of Silicon Valley’s larger startup events, LAUNCH Scale. Start ups can fail for many reasons. Lack of funding. Insufficient market opportunity. Poor product fit. But the most tragic source of failure occurs when a company survives all these challenges only to implode due to… Continue reading How to Avoid a Cultural Implosion as You Scale Your Startup
Content Marketing is the Fuel That Accelerates Buying
Content marketing creates ideas and perspectives that educate customers and helps elevate technology and services into offerings that directly make the buyers’ companies more successful. It is a lens that shifts the perspective from features and price towards the success of the buyer’s company. Content should be provocative, overflowing with expertise and thoughtfully written for the… Continue reading Content Marketing is the Fuel That Accelerates Buying
Brainstorming Part 4 – Tools and Techniques
On top of a great agenda and great people, I’ve found a few techniques that can really help make the most of a brainstorming session. Introductions that help break the ice – one of my favorite ways to kick things off is asking everyone to tell something about themselves that nobody is likely to know –… Continue reading Brainstorming Part 4 – Tools and Techniques
Brainstorming Part 3 – Rev Up the Creativity Engines
In this post, I’m going to dabble a little bit in amateur psychology and physiology. While your team never wants you to realize it, they are actually just human beings (as opposed to being super-heroes). If you take this fact into account, you can make a good brainstorming session into a great one. Encourage your team to stand up… Continue reading Brainstorming Part 3 – Rev Up the Creativity Engines
Brainstorming Part 2 – Organizing Creativity
I’m a big believer that brainstorming sessions should to be free flowing and somewhat unstructured. Fortunately, there are a few ways to organize a session that can add some structure but will actually allow it to become even more more free-flowing and creative. Consider a few of these ideas: Go somewhere new – force people out of their… Continue reading Brainstorming Part 2 – Organizing Creativity
Brainstorming Part 1b – The Rules of Engagement
The five rules I laid out for my recent brainstorming session… From TED conferences to strategy planning, the best conversations and the biggest ideas are often born outside the meeting rooms. Random, unscripted discussions allow people to connect the dots in totally new ways. Wherever possible, I try to schedule in long breaks and relaxed meals. The original rule… Continue reading Brainstorming Part 1b – The Rules of Engagement
Brainstorming Part 1 – The Rules of Engagement
I’m putting together a 3-day brainstorming offsite for a group of IBM’s top execs. Having run hundreds of these over the years, I’ve learned a few things that I plan to apply to the upcoming session: Invite a diverse set of people – the more diverse the team, the more “out of the box” the… Continue reading Brainstorming Part 1 – The Rules of Engagement
My Favorite Professional Books
I am a big fan of truly fundamental ideas. I call these “First Principles.” Too many supposed big ideas are just symptoms of subtler and often deeper first principles. Remember the business fad that said free back massages were key to productivity? Back massages are obviously great but most businesses will find there are many other… Continue reading My Favorite Professional Books
Bill Nussey's Notes 