The “cobra effect” occurs when a solution actually makes the problem it is trying to solve worse. Named for a bounty program that went awry in colonial India, there are many examples of incentives leading to more of the very thing that should be reduced. Interestingly, when you search, the…

What a time to be alive. I was inspired to write this based on seeing a friend’s work get some new attention (more on that below). …

Multiple program formats, 100+ companies, tens of millions in funding, lots of customers, exits, all across three continents. — This past July marked five years I’ve “formally” led startup programs. Here’s a synopsis of those five years and an intro to what I learned along the way. The beginning. Hong Kong Startup Bootcamp. Cohorts 1, 2, and 3. 2012 — 2013. 13 companies. I was living in New York City in 2011 so you might ask yourself why the first startup program I ran was…

Pope Francis drives an old Ford Focus. He wears cheap orthopedic shoes. He took the bulletproof glass off the famous popemobile, saying it was better to be close to the people and take his chances. He never moved into the official Papal quarters in the Vatican and instead lives in…

It’s top secret. — [Note: I wrote an update to this Disposable Startup piece.] Today it seems every college student is either working on a business or knows someone starting one. But when I was in college, no one I knew was starting a business. No, when I was in college, people started bands. …

Why pitch events reinforce the wrong things and what we could do instead. — In this post, by “pitch event,” I mean an event where a selected group of startups make presentations to an audience, often with a panel of judges. Quite a common occurrence in startup land. A year ago I co-founded and began to operate a startup accelerator. That means that I’ve…