Displaying All Posts from May, 2009

Hypothetical CEO – What Would YOU Do with YouTube?

Collis Ta'eed 23rd May Hypothetical CEO 33 Comments

Hypothetical CEO - YouTubeSome weeks ago we had our first round of a game I like to call Hypothetical CEO, where you pick a company or situation, place yourself at the virtual helm and strategize away. Our first round – What Would You Do as CEO of Twitter? – netted a couple dozen great ideas and comments and made for some good reading. Now again I’ll pose a current web startups company, give you some background and my own answer and open the comments to hear what you, my fellow netsetters have to say! Read More

What To Look For In A Co-Founder

Collis Ta'eed 16th May Startups 26 Comments

cofoundersLike many things in life, starting a business is a lot harder to do by yourself. In fact, not only is it harder, frankly it’s a lot less fun. That’s why we have co-founders! But how do you choose who to work with? What should you look for in a co-founder? And what should you avoid?

What Co-founders Bring to the Table

Before we discuss the traits that make for a good partner, let’s first look at some of the benefits of having a co-founder. Because there are some drawbacks. One in particular stands out: having co-founders means giving up a share of the ownership pie.

To counter this, your aim should be to find co-founders that bring enough to the table that it mitigates the loss in ownership. In essence you are looking for people who through their contribution will make the overall pie larger, so that a lesser share of this bigger pie is actually worth more than the whole of the original. Read More

Creating Your Own Deadlines and Setting Aggressive Goals for Your Business

Collis Ta'eed 11th May Tips 28 Comments

goalsThe other day I came across a short presentation on entrepreneurship by Larry Page, co-founder of Google. In the presentation Page discusses setting aggressive goals and quotes a rather catchy motto which I think is just brilliant: “Have a healthy disregard for the impossible”.

In this post I thought I’d discuss some of the benefits for entrepreneurs and startups to setting aggressive goals and creating deadlines. But first let me begin with a story from my own experience… Read More

Motivating Yourself – Heroes, Role Models & Rivals

Collis Ta'eed 2nd May Tips 14 Comments

aspireBeing a netsetting entrepreneur is very much about motivating oneself. Unlike traditional employment there is no boss-figure watching over you, making sure you’ve done your job and giving you new tasks to do. That’s an extremely liberating feeling, but it also presents its own challenges. How do you stay on track? How do you keep yourself moving when you’re feeling lazy? And when things are going well, how do you push yourself to grow, to take risks and to be better?

Motivation is a rather complex subject so in this post I’m going to talk about just one motivation tool that I use, namely other people. Heroes, role models and rivals are three types of people that keep me focused.

Read More