Note: This is a remix of The Path To Disaster: A Startup Is Not A Small Version of A Big Company, a blog post I wrote for publication at Tekedia on August 20, 2012. This remix is based on my experience meeting early stage startup founders in NYC since then. Each time I hold office […]
Entrepreneurship
Revisiting What I Know About Intangibles & Startups
This is the third post in my series of blog posts on economic moats. I have already written about Network Effects and Switching Costs. The remaining three sources of an economic moat are Cost Advantages, Efficient Scale, and Intangibles. ((Any errors in appropriately citing my sources are entirely mine. Let me know what you object […]
Notes On Strategy; What Can We Learn From Religious Leaders About Building Early-Stage Startup Culture?
Alternative Working Title: Notes On Strategy; Engineering Your Early Stage Startup’s Culture For Longevity What it’s like to work for Amazon http://t.co/7Nw93JDqz0 — The New York Times (@nytimes) August 19, 2015 Replace Just 2 Words in the Times Amazon Article and Something Amazing Happens @TKspeakshttp://t.co/bk3Y7ZCLCE — Inc. (@Inc) August 21, 2015 The topic of culture has […]
How Studying Bankruptcy And Working On Two Turnaround Assignments Prepared Me To Become An Early Stage Venture Capitalist
When I started business school at NYU Stern in the fall of 2005 my plan centered on taking every class in Bankruptcy & Reorganization, and Distressed Investing that I could. I took 3 elective classes in that area; Bankruptcy & Reorganization with Prof. Ed Altman, Case Studies in Bankruptcy & Reorganization with Prof. Max […]
Notes on Strategy; Where Does Disruption Come From?
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 […]
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 […]