Category Archives: Business

Some predictions for the 10′s

Prior to Oyster, I spent nearly a decade in the telecom industry. At Epana, we were early adopters of the Blackberry which we used to replace pagers to alert us to network outages and the like; I wish I had … Continue reading

Posted in Business, New York City (NYC), Startups | 1 Comment

Sulzberger borrows a quote from us

I recently wrote about the Titanic. Turns out that I’m not the only one with that large ship on his mind. Arthur Sulzberger -from the NY Times royal family and the current publisher of the New York Times – recently … Continue reading

Posted in Business | 4 Comments

Entrepreneurial training – start young

Why are entrepreneurs often young? (though there is not a correlation between entrepreneurial success and youth) Because You have less to lose when you are young – you don’t have a big paycheck that you’ve come to “need” to live … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Startups | 2 Comments

A few small ironies

Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail has plenty of advocates and detractors, most notably Anita Elberse’s 2008 critique of the concept in the Harvard Business Review article Should You Invest In The Long Tail. My take is that understanding the concept … Continue reading

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Oyster Hotel Reviews is hiring a software engineer

Great businesses need great engineers. That’s almost universally true and Oyster is no exception. The performance of www.oyster.com is not an accident – it’s the result of the diligence and hard work of great software engineers. We are looking to … Continue reading

Posted in Business, IT/Web Technology/Startup Technology, New York City (NYC), Startups | Comments Off

Email is not dead – be careful the Silicon Valley koolaid that you drink

Jessica Vascellaro (of lipsyncing fame), the WSJ’s Silicon Valley reporter, has an article in todays’ WSJ titled “The end of the email era”. The article – aside from being wrong – illustrates the  danger of being too close to the Silicon Valley … Continue reading

Posted in Business | 3 Comments

Would cost cutting have saved the steamship industry?

I’m a fan of the Jim Collin’s books “Built to Last” and “Good to Great” for some of the lessons within including: Getting the flywheel spinning – great companies are built by the marathon effort of being excellent every day … Continue reading

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What problem do you solve? (Pitching VCs and Angels – Raising Money)

This is the first in a series of posts about raising money from investors – whether individual or institutional. Over the years, I’ve given 100+ pitches to raise money and, as both a Venture Partner at a private equity (PE) … Continue reading

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Are you measuring the cause or effect? Beware lagging indicators.

Revenue and profit projections are a fact of life for entrepreneurs and business people. This post is not going to make them go away nor should it. If you are going to invest money – your own or an investors … Continue reading

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Are there startups in New York City?

Obviously, yes. Unlike Silicon Valley or Boston, there are nearly 20 million people who live in the New York metro area; it is far too big a place to be known for just one thing. After all, Madison Avenue and … Continue reading

Posted in Business, New York City (NYC), Startups | 2 Comments