FamilyLink Becomes a Top 100 US Web Property

For years, one of my goals has been to help create one of the 100 most popular web properties. Since last August I have been privileged to spend much of my consulting time working for a client named FamilyLink, the world’s largest family-related social network.  FamilyLink operates the We’re Related Facebook application, which is the [...]

The Flying Car

Many of us who have been stuck in rush hour traffic have wondered when auto makers will finally develop a flying car that can drive on the roads and fly just above the roads.  We’ve seen this on television shows such as the Jetsons, and movies such as Star Wars, but I’ll bet most of [...]

The Mother Teresa Principle – Looking at the One

I recently finished Made to Stick, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath and thoroughly enjoyed this book.  One of my favorite portions described the “Mother Teresa Principle”.  One of this saintly woman’s famous teachings was, ”If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”  
 
Made to Stick talks [...]

Facebook Strengthening its Position in the Next Generation of the Internet

A little over a year ago Facebook empowered web developers to create applications that could run on the Facebook platform.  This simple decision has propelled Facebook to become one of the most popular sites on the Internet.  Now, Facebook is expanding that vision and hopes to allow web developers to use their platform to develop [...]

Improving Life for the “Bottom Billion” World Citizens

I just watch an online video clip of a speech given by Paul Collier, an economist and the author of “The Bottom Billion”. Paul advocates four steps that we can take to help the one billion people who are trapped in poor or failing countries. He calls this group the “bottom billion” and [...]

Bill Gross, the Genius Behind IdeaLab

Bill Gross is the founder of the IdeaLab business incubator, with sales exceeding $435 million. It is one only tech incubator that survived the dotcom crash in its original form. IdeaLab has built many different ventures, such as:
· GoTo/Overture (became Yahoo Search Marketing) – paid inclusion search engine that was renamed Yahoo! Search Marketing after [...]

Trying a Lot of Things and Keeping What Works

In Built to Last, the authors said:
In examining the history of visionary companies we were struck by how often they made some of their best moves not by detailed strategic planning, but rather by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and–quite literally accident.
This week I read an interview in Founders at Work with Paul Buchheit of [...]

Google’s Innovation Secrets

Marissa Mayer is the Vice President of Search Products and User Experience at Google.  FastCompany recently published an article titled Marissa Mayer’s 9 Principles of Innovation detailing the strategies which have given the Internet’ innovation leader its edge.  The following is a summary of the 9 principles:
(1) INNOVATION IS THE GOAL, NOT PERFECTION
Some programmers prefer [...]

Walt Disney Was a Failure (Which Helped Him Succeed)

Disneyland and Disneyworld are the most famous and successful theme parks in the world. The Walt Disney Company is now the third largest entertainment company in the world with 133,000 employees and $60 Billion in revenue. According to Fortune magazine, in 2007, Disney is America’s most admired entertainment company.
According to Newsweek, the Disney brand is [...]

Google – The #1 Angel Investor for Small Businesses

What did small businesses do without Google? In this blog entry I’m not referring to the Goolge search functionality, although that has revolutionized the accessibility of information. I am instead referring to the lesser known tools that Google has made available to small businesses. Nearly all of these tools are available for free, [...]