Feedback is typically focused on the past, and on what someone did wrong. The problem is that most people don’t like to give negative feedback, and even fewer people like to hear negative feedback. Uncomfortable topics—the ones that need the most attention—are either avoided, or the feedback is not heard. Tweet. MORE >>

Your company, SpiderNet, is in the final stages of defining the go-to-market model and pricing for the product. The company has spent a great deal of time debating the benefits of doing a freemium model versus paid. Even though the base of users will be smaller, every user is a real customer. What Now? The freemium model must offer…. Sales Strateg MORE >>

How do you make a billion dollars in two years? Here's a narrative look through the brief, hectic, (and lucky), 14 months of Kevin Systrom's life growing Instagram. News of Facebook's acquisition of Instagram boomeranged around the Web yesterday with near-light-speed velocity. The interest made complete sense. And it all seemed to happen overnight. MORE >>

Two common discussions in the startup world right now are 1) the increasing speed at which new apps/websites can gain mass adoption (Instagram, Pinterest, OMGPOP’s Draw Something, etc), and 2) the rise in seed stage valuations. These two trends are real and related. billion dollar hit pays for a lot of misses. startups MORE >>

How office design anarchy worked for one software firm looking to apply lean ideals to its workspaces. The lean philosophy is all about building a minimum viable product , failing fast, learning fast, and evolving fast—and doing that all quite cheaply. It's quick, dirty, and very hot at the moment. Who cares about office design? MORE >>