This time of the year, many folks like to look at the year back or the year forward. This old fart has been in and around enterprise software for three decades so I like to take a somewhat longer look. Industry Commentary MORE >>

The entrepreneur’s challenge is to effectively communicate their value proposition, not only to customers, but also to vendors, partners, investors, and their own team. Especially for technical founders, this is normally all about presenting impressive facts. But in reality facts only go so far. What does the audience want and need? Marty Zwilling. MORE >>

We are told that leaders must be strong. They must be confident. They must be unflinching. They must hide their fear. They must never blink. They cannot be soft in any way. The first was that I expressed incredible vulnerability in my talk. She thanked me for that. She was absolutely correct on both fronts. But it doesn’t stop there. Human. MORE >>

Q: In our startup we have 4 founders, two of whom are not full time. We’ve all put in a good sum of cash thus far. The two founders with the least equity happen to be the two tech founders. with the rest for employees + advisors). 32%) seems to think that if we can get funding, the VC will correct this wrong. Am I off base? MORE >>

Actual, fundable, serious startups in a single weekend? Great learning experience? And worth doing? Yes. . Last Sunday night I judged nine pitches from nine groups that started from scratch just two days before, late Friday afternoon. They had some good ideas, good pictures, a prototype or two, some good video … and an entertaining event. . MORE >>