Reunion from the Internet Boom - 12 years later

In June 1999, I moved to New York City and took a job as a Site Manager working Agency.com. The job was to manage a team of front end coders responsible for taking a Photoshop design and turning it into a web site. Agency.com had some amazing design folks and really strong client management/strategy, so they had big time clients and did quite well. It was the stereotypical Internet Boom company from that time period: It was located in a great location - 665 Broadway (right around the Village... [More]

My Willingness To Fail Gives Me The Ability To Succeed

I was watching the LiveStream from the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, and I heard  co-founder of Sun Microsystems and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla say the title of this post: My Willingness to Fail is what allows me to Succeed Khosla was referring to the high risk, high reward investments as part of his multibillion dollar fund. In his world, one really good exit can offset a hundred less successful ones - and he has been pretty successful in finding ambitious tech companies that have ... [More]

Is the Right Selling Price an Optimized Price?

I think every person running a business needs to regularly ask themself the following question: Given our operating constraints, what is the best mix of products and/or services for us to produce and sell in the period, and at what prices, to generate the highest expected revenue? Whether you are selling penny candy or you are a retainer lawyer with a huge hourly fee, the basic concepts are the same. You need understand your constraints (cost structure, liabilities, resources), your market, an... [More]

Are You Swimming in a Red or Blue Ocean?

I am quite fascinated how people/companies are able to innovate, make the most of their opportunities, and disrupt the established norms. It amazes me how some companies can tackle a small nuance differently than their competitors and win market share. I remember reading an interesting quote that stuck with me: play a different game on the same field as the competition. Last year a colleague introduced me to the concept of a Blue Ocean after hearing about it in as part of his MBA program ... [More]

There’s a big difference between routine and commitment

I am a very big fan of the New England Patriots. In the early 1990's, they were terrible (going 1-15 twice in 3 years). Then Bill Parcells was hired as the coach and turned around the fortunes of the team. In 1995, he let go of the team's best running back Marion Butts and used a third round draft pick on Curtis Martin from Pittsburgh. Martin immediately became his starter, went on to have 3 really great years in New England (including a Super Bowl run in 1997), and then followed Parcells to pla... [More]

Framework for making Big Decisions

Choosing a fulfilling career path is such a difficult task, and I see many people have no idea where to even start (including myself). I routinely find myself asking my friends and coworkers "what do you want to do long term in your career" or "what do you want to be when you grow up". I seem to hear the following responses repeatedly: I am OK with what I am doing now (most of the time this is not actually true) I don't know / I am not really sure I want to get to the next level (be pr... [More]

Methodology for Building a Product Valuation Platform

As I have mentioned in previous posts, understanding pricing and market values has been a passion of mine for over 20 years. With many problems I encounter (especially those related to business or technology), I try to follow these steps borrowed from agile software development methodology: DEFINE - Define the problem/goals, identifying clear and measurable requirements.  ANALYZE - Analyze the each requirement to identify or design potential solutions.  IMPLEMENT - Establish/Impl... [More]

Is Searching eBay a reliable way to determine Market Value?

Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of eBay and the significant disruption they brought about for buyers and sellers. I have been a frequent buyer and occasional seller on the site since 1998 and continue to use it every day. Nothing in this post is meant to put eBay (the company or marketplace) in a negative light. I have seen a good many people base their selling and purchasing decisions solely on data they can find from the closed listings from the past 60 days for a particular search on eBay. ... [More]

My Introduction to Pricing Variation

When I was 10 or 11 years old (around 1985), I remember going to the local baseball card store with my friend Adam.  He was gung ho to buy some older card of Steve Carlton and he told his father how much it would cost and how much he thought it was worth. It followed with the following back and forth: Adam’s father: “Why is that card worth $15?”Adam : “because the printed price guide book says so”Adam’s father: “Why does that matter? What if I told... [More]