There are many ways to define success. I didn’t start in a mud hut and I am not Bill Gates. Still, the first decade of my entrepreneurial career can, I think, be described as going from a fairly basic start* to success as a technology entrepreneur**. The following five strategies got me there: 1. Understand the “Average” Average work hours, average commitment, average education and average financial management leads to an average lifestyle ($45k family...

A lot of undergraduate students ask me whether they should pursue an MBA or a technical PhD as a foundation of their entrepreneurial career. I have pursued both at some point, and frequently meet (and invest in) entrepreneurs with both degrees. Each has advantages but overall I’d recommend a PhD for most tech entrepreneurs. Here is why: Education: Both degrees will teach you something. The MBA focuses on case studies and financial concepts (e.g. accounting)....

A few days ago I was at a “high society” party amongst captains of industry, political leaders and artists of renown from around the world (clearly as a “+1” to my spouse…). The crowd had two things in common: cowboy outfits (it was on a ranch), and pale skin. Out of about two hundred attendees and maybe fifty staff, I spied four people of colour (including my wife and a nanny in the corner). It...

At TandemLaunch, we invest in multi-media concepts but ultimately we are trying to disrupt the university technology transfer space. I wrote about the benefits of improving this highly inefficient $50billion+ market earlier. It’s big; it’s inefficient; and we believe that it is ripe for disruption. Technology transfer is a high risk commercialization venture like any other. Success therefore depends on three factors: - Product-Market Fit (quality and market relevance of the product/service/intellectual property) - People...

“I have a world-changing, disruptive idea in the multi-media space! Can you sign an NDA so that I can tell you more?” I get variants of this every week. And it never works. Non-disclosure agreements (NDA) are legal documents that require effort to review and create long term liability. The vast majority of traditional venture investors will categorically refuse to sign any kind of NDA for the latter reason. It’s just not healthy for their...

The most frequent comments about enterprising.ly is about the value of the services. Why should I get it from enterprising.ly? Why do I need it? Is the listed price fair? After all, enterprising.ly is an open marketplace where anyone can sell and register their services. Because it's important, we've designed a unique system where services are validated by the community before being offered to members. After registration in the system, the service provider needs to...

University degrees are a great way to gain additional knowledge and accelerate your career (rightly or wrongly, it’s still a fact that a degree will statistically lead to higher salary). On the other hand, earning the degree also takes time which off-sets some of the acceleration. So why not do both at the same time? I am a big believer of coupling theoretical education with practical experience. I took this approach probably a bit too far in...