Note: This is not investment advice. At heart, I’m a value investor, and Tesla is no value investment. I view it as a binary venture-type bet. I am a shareholder. This is part 1 of my exploration of Tesla. Read part 2 here. I believe that Tesla is one of the most misunderstood (and most…
Tag: Innovation
Hell Yeah or No
Four words. This is the simplest and most useful decision making concept I have come across. I reflect on it regularly and it helps me to say “no” with more conviction. If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no”. When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That…
What I learned from Sam Zemurray, America’s Banana King
My learnings from The Fish That Ate The Whale about Sam Zemurray: Fire people who can’t get the job done, and replace them by people who can. Fast decisions. Don’t nibble. Get things done. Get your hands dirty. Work hard. Go out to the fields with the machete. “We are here, they are there.” Make…
Alternative VCs
I love the idea of reinventing venture capital. Here are some great examples: Patagonia’s venture capital fund: invests in environmentally and socially responsible start-up companies, providing long-term, patient capital. I highly recommend reading Let My People Go Surfing by founder Yvon Chouinard. Y Combinator: invests small sums at the seed stage, but in large batches…
The Edison Technique: The Best Way to Invent Anything
How to innovate: Build a prototype, and then keep iterating. Each time, only change one single thing. Then you see exactly what caused the improvement or failure. That way you build a huge bank of knowledge, and after many iterations, end up with something unique. James Dyson used this method to create over 5000 prototypes…
Call your users
I’ve written about Y Combinator‘s mantra before: Talk to your users! Here is what I have done recently: I’ve written a short email to 100 of the most active Exsila users and asked them if they would like to do a short phone call with me. I asked them to send me their phone number and their availability….
Why I started using twitter
First of all, this interesting podcast with twitter co-founder Evan Williams (and co-founder of Blogger.com) made me sign up. Things I learned: #1: Twitter is so freakin’ easy. It just answers one simple question: What are you doing? #2: Twitter is like mini-blogging. Because its so easy that I can do it whereever I am…