Marc Andreessen’s brilliant explanation of @claychristensen‘s disruptive innovation theory in 15 tweets: pic.twitter.com/3ic1teQbRW — Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) June 24, 2015 Introduction You can imagine my surprise when I was browsing my Twitter feed one night last month and came across one of Marc Andreessen’s tweetstorms. This time he was tweeting about Clayton Christensen’s Theory of […]
Industry Study: Nanotechnology
Note 1: This is an update of an article that I wrote on a whim in December 2006, while I was on a break from business school at NYU Stern. It was published without update at Tekedia in July, 2011. The announcement by IBM about its new 7nm chip prompted me to dig it up […]
A Story About Startup Cofounder Teamwork: Climbing To The Summit of Denali
On June 30th, 2015, Naira Musallam and her climbing partner, Tim Lawton successfully summited Denali (Mount McKinley). They made history as The First Arab-American Team to ever do so. Naira also became the first Arab woman to stand on the summit of Denali. Standing at 20,320 feet, Denali is one of the “Seven Summits” because […]
Recap: My 3 Days at #PowerMoves.NOLA 2015
I rarely like to travel; I hate having to go through security. I hate going to conferences. Most of the time I come away feeling I did not accomplish what I set out to accomplish. On Wednesday morning I left NYC on a JetBlue flight. I was heading to New Orleans for the 2nd annual […]
6 Things I Have Learned About Building High-Performing Teams
I spend a lot of time thinking about teamwork; how teams function, how they operate, how they fail or succeed, and how the most successful teams make their success repeatable in the face of changing conditions. This post is my attempt to synthesize what I have learned so far. ((Let me know if you feel […]
Notes on Strategy; For Early Stage Technology Startups
Alternate Title: What Can 24’s Jack Bauer Teach a Tech Startup Founder About Strategy? Running a business without a strategy is like breathing air without oxygen. The purpose of this blog post is to attempt to synthesize certain fundamental lessons on strategy that are relevant for anyone trying to build a business. ((Let me know […]