Mobile is eating the web
Marc Andreesen famously said that “software is eating the world.” Now it looks like mobile is eating the web. Back in 2010, Mary Meeker and Morgan Stanley predicted that within the next five years, “more users will connect to the Internet over mobile devices than desktop PCs.” We’ve arrived at that milestone. The shift from desktop […]
Jelly app: the challenge of immediate primetime
When Jelly launched a week ago, it was amazing to see how quickly the app got traction – over 100K questions were asked during the first week. Certainly, Jelly’s high profile team (co-founder Biz Stone, and individual investors like Jack Dorsey, Bono, and Al Gore) helped spark widespread speculation and buzz leading up to the […]
How to stay nimble as you scale
I recently spoke with a founder and CEO of a start-up that had just crossed the 200-employee milestone. Like so many others lucky enough to reach that level, he was complaining about how progress was coming to a halt as the organization grew and became more complex. I myself experienced this as COO at AbeBooks. […]
Does your product pass the toothbrush test?
Repeat usage is one of the most important success factors for building a large, stand-alone company. It’s hard to grab people’s mindshare and create a loyal user base when people only need to use your product or service occasionally. One of the best metaphors I’ve come across to describe this reality is Google’s “toothbrush test” […]
The only 2 ways to build a $100 million business
With tens of thousands of new start-ups being created every year, the potential of a company to truly scale and become a large, stand-alone business is more crucial than ever before. A great product is always the foundation but a clear distribution strategy becomes essential to cut through the noise. So most early-stage VCs have […]