Wisdom

Pitch: dish.tv is Instagram for restaurants. It’s an iPhone app that makes it possible for restaurants to share a “making of” video and photo link with foodie customers. Collaboratively, they share their passion, over social media, at the level of an individual dish or drink. Imagine a tweet: “enjoying a latte at the Ferry Building…

We love ideas, but we love it even more when they get turned into sustainable, valuable businesses. It’s an exciting time to be alive because, during our lifestimes, innovation is evolving from an art into a science. Elsewhere we’ve written books and blogged about the big picture of the “Ideas Business”. Here, and in a…

Rodrigo Martinez is a serial entrepreneur who has made successful exits from two internet businesses in Brazil. Not every idea he’s tried has worked out and that’s taught him to focus on the ultimate exit, he tells Hugh Mason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwo6dPF5rRQ This post is a video log from JFDI.Asia. More video content is available on our…

The world of wine has Robert Parker. Consumer credit has the FICO score. Companies have Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. What do startups have? Maybe, one day, they’ll have the Frog Score. Yes, we’re standing on the shoulders of giants: YouNoodle tried this (and pivoted). The Startup Genome Compass offers another take. And we know…

JFDI Bootcamp Alumnus TradeGecko launches its service to the public this month. It’s a huge step for the team that came from New Zealand to build a cloud-based inventory and sales management SaaS application for small to medium-sized enterprises. Co-counder Carl Thompson shares the journey. See the Young Woman Baking Pies. See the Young Woman…

In the Nature of Technology W. Brian Arthur defines technology as the harnessing of natural phenomena to useful ends. The better understanding of those phenomena is called science. But, as Davidow points out, technology alone is not enough. You have to productize technology: wrap it in a casing, slap a user interface on the front,…

For the first time ever, the city of Perth, Western Australia mustered a mighty 100 geeks, designers and entrepreneurs for a Startup Weekend. The energy was great and, minutes before the judging began, I picked up a couple of views on the weekend from some of the key people who made it happen, writes Hugh…

We are often asked by business-trained entrepreneurs how they can attract stellar technical co-founders to realize their ideas. JFDI mentor Yvan Castilloux’ journey has taken him from co-founding a successful wifi business as CTO to an MBA at INSEAD, so he’s seen both sides of the situation. Yvan’s advice? Engaging a technical co-founder may be…

They say investors want to hear about the problem first and the solution second. And that’s fine for products that solve a problem. But what about products and services that are educational, entertaining, or experiential in nature? Take Angry Birds. Bejeweled. The Harry Potter franchise. Lady Gaga. What problem do they solve? Boredom, maybe ……

So I was cruising Facebook this weekend and someone posted a note about a new “my first email” app. I have a 6 year-old son, so we gave Maily a try. As a practical service it totally sucks – and I think that’s great. Here’s why. This is what I said to the folk at…