Taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act in Contra Costa County

After the success of The Future of Diablo Valley conference, for which I chaired and did the bulk of the organizing, I was approached by a friend in the local sustainability community. She asked me if I'd like to help organize a conference focusing on green tech in Contra Costa County. I enthusiastically said yes!… Continue reading Taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act in Contra Costa County

Platforms versus point solutions

This winter break has been a big one for Shovels. Despite having my kids at home, trekking out to Hawaii, and getting swept up in the Southwest chaos getting to and from Disneyland, I put a lot of deep thought into Shovels. This exercise brought out some gut-wrenching paranoia, deep frustration and confusion, and then… Continue reading Platforms versus point solutions

Business evaluation: Alumnify

I like B2B data businesses. I learned how to write web applications by building Toofr.com (now FindEmails -- they kept my "oo" logo after I sold it). Toofr found email addresses for business contacts. I wrote a book, The Parallel Entrepreneur, about my experience building, running, and selling Toofr while I kept a day job… Continue reading Business evaluation: Alumnify

I’m fundraising this time — and here’s why

If you read this blog, I mean really parse through it and find my stuff from 2017 and 2018, you'd be surprised to know that I'm eagerly, enthusiastically, passionately fundraising for my startup this time around. Yes, me, the guy who wrote Don't make a mountain of a Sand Hill (Road). I wrote that. I'm… Continue reading I’m fundraising this time — and here’s why

Business evaluation: Shovels

TL;DR I'm now working on https://www.shovels.ai. I’m going to evaluate a business that I’ve already started working on. Perhaps I should have done this earlier, but for better or worse, this project has evolved far faster than expected! To back up a bit, I’ve been looking for a good idea for a while. I was… Continue reading Business evaluation: Shovels

Why it’s good to befriend your competitors

Here's a bit of contrarian advice: Be nice to your competitors. In fact, befriend them, because you just might make a pile of money as a result. I've always taken this road and it has never backfired. I'm going to describe a bunch of examples here and then generalize the approach for your own situation.… Continue reading Why it’s good to befriend your competitors

Business evaluation: Ahoy

Edit: Ahoy is now live so I've included links. I'm still working on the web3 project I previously wrote about. In November 2021 I wrote this description of a fundraising tool that I hoped could be used to influence votes on climate legislation. Rather than collecting signatures, this project would collect cash, real dollars, and… Continue reading Business evaluation: Ahoy