The Trouble With Protecting Special Interests

If you have a special interest in something, especially if it is your job, you will fight very hard to protect it.  Let’s say that some outside force threatens your job, which is the source of your income and livelihood and how you feed your family.  You’d fight to protect it right?  You might even ask the government to step in and provide some regulations and rules that would protect your job right?… read more “The Trouble With Protecting Special Interests”

LAPD, HP, Costco Don’t Care About Stolen Goods

I bought a computer on Craigslist really cheap.  Suspiciously cheap.

So I was curious if it was stolen and called the LAPD, HP, and Costco.

Not one of them had any records or even cared if it was stolen or not.  What was most surprising was to find out that the LAPD didn’t keep a database or records of goods that have been stolen.… read more “LAPD, HP, Costco Don’t Care About Stolen Goods”

Big Banks Squish Individual Lenders

The financial crisis which supposedly was going to get regulations through on big banks has done the opposite.  The powerful lobbyists at the big nationwide banks have changed rules so that individual residential lenders now must set their rates up front each month instead of setting it on a per deal basis.  Individual lenders must become certified in each state rather then nationwide like the banks are allowed to do.  … read more “Big Banks Squish Individual Lenders”

Reading About 25 Failed Startups

Here’s what I learned from reading about 25 failed startups (Thanks for the link Jordan http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/startup-failure-post-mortem/):

-make your product simple & easy as possible
-give immediate gratification (even if it is somewhat false)
-never recruit an “outside ceo”
-avoid hiring top execs without experience founding or running a company themselves
-control your expenses like a maniac
-ignore conventional wisdom, do what you think is best
-turn contractors to employees & demand nights & weekends
-you need an awesome awesome team of crazy smart hard workers working cheap
-iterate constantly to improve
-never ever quit
-dont get distracted by small problems/clients
-keep someone around to question my decisions, give feedback, counter decisions
-never bring on outside investors of any kind or give away any ownership or control
-don’t use technologies without significant technical adoption
-location of startup can influence success (go somewhere with startup culture, low costs, like silicon valley)
-paying customers are vital
-extensively research your ideas up front
-tackle market problems not technical problems
-build off open source when possible
-if highly skilled workers give birth to a product and lose control over its direction, they are likely to get frustrated and quit
-locating in a college town provides lower rent & low cost, smart & hungry workforce
-only build “needed” services/products, not “nice to have”
-recurring sales are better than one-off sales
-recognize when to pivot and do it hard & fast
-don’t do something you don’t love
-customer acquisition is most important thing, customer retention second most.
… read more “Reading About 25 Failed Startups”

American Government Squashing Entrepreneurs

The American government (and governments everywhere) have long been known for it’s large size, opposition to change of any kind and corruptly giving benefits to its supporters.

This trend is going stronger than ever in America. Over a trillion dollars in subsidies are handed out each year to incredibly poorly run organizations like Boeing and old school farming companies and banks.… read more “American Government Squashing Entrepreneurs”