CES 2012 set records for exhibitors, space and attendance.   More than 3100 exhibitors were spread out over 1.8M square feet.  A record 153,000 attended including 34,000 international visitors.
2012 began the same as the 2011 show – the crowd was huge and crawling over all the major booths on the show …

 
One of the skills of good executives is pattern-recognition, formed through experience. When it’s working, a single event triggers a chain of experience that leads to an experience backed decision. 
A recent week was filled with face-to-face meetings with startup companies.  The best teams had done their homework and research on …

If you’re an experienced entrepreneur, investor or limited partner, please skip this posting as you’ll find it obvious.
What’s not obvious is a number of company founders and startups don’t research companies they are considering for investment. Today, I read another email about how we are the perfect investor for …

Simply stated, the Entrepreneur’s Dilemma is how to strike a balance between an exciting plan and one that is practicable.  This idea applies to the plan in its entirety as well as the constituent parts.  Failure to negotiate the razors-edge of the dilemma leads to dull or unrealistic expectations between …

There are three forms of a start-up business plan, an executive summary, a presentation and the business plan itself. Each serves a unique purpose.
1) The Executive Summary. The summary should include the relevant points of the proposal, and be interesting enough to encourage a potential investor to seek more information …

re·con·nais·sance re·con·nois·sance (rĭ-kŏn’ə-səns, -zəns)  n.
An inspection or exploration of an area, especially one made to gather military information.
[French, from Old French reconoissance, recognition, from reconoistre, reconoiss-, to recognize.]
Venture capital is best practiced in the field, not in the office. An investor can’t sit behind the desk and read business plans, analysts’ …

Trade shows run in life cycles, just slighty lagging their respective industry, technology or market.  Some observations about technology events that signal the maturity of the industry, and influence investor assessments.
1) Run by engineers, technologists and academia.  This is the formative stage where competing ideas and approaches are fighting to be the …

Google’s deadline for responses to the Broadband for Communities Project passed March 26th.  Over 1000 municipalities responded throughout the USA http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/.  They will announce the finalist communities by the end of the year.   Recently, a discussion started during coffee at CTIA – will they actually build it?
First, the naysayers speak up.  …