Planning your startup’s objectives, the Steve Jobs way

Those of you who’ve read Steve Jobs’ biography may remember the stories about his annual “company retreats” — trips organised in a remote location where his entire (management) team could focus on product, strategy and stay away from…

How to attract A-players

As a company, you’re only as good as the quality of your team. That’s why A-companies are almost always run by A-teams, backed by A-investors and work for A-clients. And by A, I mean Awesome. The problem is though that Awesome is hard. Hard to find, hard to motivate and hard to…

Man’s search for meaning, by Victor Frankl

We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man…

Why I stopped attending conferences

I used to go to a lot of events. SXSW, The Next Web, Dublin Web Summit, Le Web, DLD, Founders Forum, f.ounders — you name it, I was there. Networking away, pitching, talking and having drinks with everyone from Jack Dorsey to Reid Hoffman (see how subtle my…

Big data, big paycheck

If I had a 10 year old today (which to my knowledge I don’t) I’d encourage her to start learning statistics. Looking around, a good data scientist nowadays can make a fortune while solving fascinating problems. Some of our generation’s fastest growing technology companies — Google…

Ars gratia artis, no more

A couple of months ago, I was trying to convince a friend that going to art galeries, museums and the opera can help him become a better entrepreneur. He argued that there’s absolutely no ROI for spending time in such places, that they bore him to death and he’d rather spend the…

The only intuitive interface is the nipple

I’m not sure who coined this phrase initially but I think it perfectly describes what’s natural and what’s not for people when it comes to user interfaces. The keyboard & mouse were an incredible leap forward in the early ’70s, but the reality is that…

Acting like a grown-up

One of my investors gave me a good slap today. She does that every now and then and I love her for it. While discussing about managing investor relations and dealing with my team and my board, she sent me this email:

You are no longer CEO of a little startup that…