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 […]
Early Stage Startups
Notes on Strategy; Michael Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies for Early Stage Tech Startups
Running a business without a strategy is like breathing air without oxygen. My post Notes on Strategy; For Early Stage Technology Startups led to follow up questions from a handful of readers who asked for additional posts with more explanations and examples. ((Let me know if you feel I have failed to attribute something appropriately. Tell me how […]
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 […]
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 […]