Harkaview

10 Reasons why Boston was a great start-up town in 2011 – Looking forward to a great 2012

In alphabetical order: Artisan's Asylum  – now with 31,000 square feet on the Somerville/Cambridge line, wood shop, welding shop, machine shop, lots of how-to classes and a great mix of artists, machinists, electronic hobbyists, carpenters. You can finally, for little … Continue reading →

Before You Start a Business, Plan Your Exit

Not usually the first thing you think of when starting a company, but where you want to end up impacts everything you do. I sit on the board of ChatThreads, where we are in the process of raising an equity … Continue reading →

Why 10 slides, 5 minute pitches and one pagers really matter

Fred Wilson wrote a good post recently on the optimal size for a slide deck. His thesis was skip the slide deck and do a great demo.  I believe in demos, mockups, product samples or any other devices entrepreneurs use … Continue reading →

What will the fall of 2011 look like for entrepreneurs?

It is that time of the year again — the dog days of August when I wax poetic about the prospects for start-up companies in the coming months. This post is a follow-on to my   Summer time or is business … Continue reading →

Carnegie Mellon Entrepreneurs Group Boston Early Stage Funding Breakfast

As a proud member of the Boston Carnegie  Mellon Entrepreneurial Group, I helped organize and present at a panel session last week at TechStars/Dogpatch Labs in Cambridge. We had a great diversity of investors on the panel, Bob Crowley, B. … Continue reading →

Bubblicious – Warning, Entrepreneurs! Social media valuation bubble distorts the entire market

Color raises $41M in a series A round with no revenue.  Twitter is valued at $7.7B with $45M  revenue (171 times revenue) in 2010. Facebook is now valued at $65B up 30% over 6 weeks relative to the valuation when Goldman … Continue reading →

Is first to market really a good strategy ?

Looking at the recent crazy high  $15B  (yes billion) valuation of two year old Groupon got me thinking about why? What did Groupon do correctly? Are they winning because they were first to market with group online discounts ? I … Continue reading →

What if you stopped tweeting and dropped Facebook?

What if you stopped tweeting and dropped Facebook? My last two tweets were Oct 12 and Oct 20. I was not a huge Twitter emitter before that, but I did tweet every day or two during the previous couple months. … Continue reading →

Bending iron in a facebook world

I like software companies. I really do. In fact, I sit on the board of a software company, consult to another, advise a couple more and I am in the early stages of building a web based business. Super Angels such as Ron … Continue reading →

Summer time or is business slowing ?

I started conceiving this blog post in August when things were indeed slow. My consulting business had very little new sales activity and I got to thinking: is it me, the economy or just summer. My first approach was to … Continue reading →