Almost exactly three years ago I attended the first Startup Weekend in Perth. 100 plucky individuals bought tickets to attend. 40 or so got up on Friday night to make a 1-minute pitch (if they went one second over, they were stopped in their tracks). From these 40 pitches 15 or so teams formed by 9pm...Read More
The latest newspaper circulation figures for Australian media organisations make for more sorry reading. Every title, no matter how they try to dress it up (and, boy, have they tried) is in the red, as the graphic above shows (courtesy: ABC News). Fairfax media seem to have totally given up on print’s future, calling the newspaper...Read More
Jonathan Stuart Lebowitz (aka Jon Stewart), from New Jersey, the world’s foremost satirist, did his final ‘Daily Show’ this week, after 16 years spent poking fun at, and laying bare, political absurdists, buffons and bulls**t artists. Not a hard job, you may ponder, but done with the precision of a supreme Zen master. Jon used...Read More
Click the animation to open the full version (via http://pennystocks.la/). This animation keeps things in perspective! Watch as the number of tweets, youtube posts and watches, Linkedin searches, Skype calls, Instagram photo uploads, Google searches, App downloads, Facebook likes, emails sent, Dropbox files saved, Amazon items purchased, Netflix views … and much more, changes in...Read More
I’ve had to pitch in my time, and I’ve seen a few pitches (real and for competitions), and occasionally someone comes to pitch their startup business idea to me. When judging the value of a pitch, here’s what I look for… 1. Solves an existing/large customer problem The first thing I look for – is...Read More
I was lazily scrolling through LinkedIN the other day and got to that bit where people who you may know are served up to you as in some professional speed dating site (not that I know what that looks like). You know, the rows and rows of people who are linked to people you are linked...Read More
One of my favourite quotations from economist John Maynard Keynes was “in the long run, we are all dead.” He made this quip to pour scorn on those who thought the problems of the day were insurmountable and impossible to cure in the interim. He argued for the government to take the lead, and ‘prime the...Read More
Having just returned from his hometown of Chicago, I must declare that I have long admired Barack Obama. I was (frankly) amazed, and delighted, when he was elected President of the United States in November 2008, for it seemed to be a heralding of a new age, and a resolute about turn from the years...Read More
The passing of Alan Bond this week has made many think back to the decade of the ’80s with its big hair and even bigger, brasher entrepreneurs. It was the decade that saw a new generation of leaders in Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Richard Branson come into their own (their companies still hold sway to this...Read More
I’ve been a David Letterman fan since I first saw his shows in the late 1980s. I loved the irreverent send-ups, self deprecating humour, the sharp quick wit. It was New Yorker wise cracking, stand up delivered with a huge smile. It was fresh. David was having as much fun as everyone else. In January 2010,...Read More
