Curt Doolittle

Category: Business, Organization, and Management

  • THE ARISTOCRATIC DOCTRINE OF CEO’S “I don’t care who is in charge as long as the

    THE ARISTOCRATIC DOCTRINE OF CEO’S

    “I don’t care who is in charge as long as they’re not even worse at it than I am.”

    Source date (UTC): 2012-10-11 14:00:00 UTC

  • KIEV (KYIV) UKRAINE Well, everyone who gave me advice was right, and the interne

    KIEV (KYIV) UKRAINE

    Well, everyone who gave me advice was right, and the internet data was accurate. It is the wild west at a discount. Employees cost $400 (admin) – $2000 (dev lead) per month. An upper end apartment costs 2k per month. Dinner for four at the best restaurant in town is about $80 including alcohol. A 45 minute cab ride cost $25. Coffee and pastry at a good shop costs $8. The people seem intelligent, honest and capable, but risk averse – albiet less risk averse than your average working and lower class Brit. Overeducated but hopeful young people litter the streets. Everything is done by relationships. Micro entrepreneurship is everywhere, and trying to circumvent the corruption of the state. Yes, the government is openly corrupt, but it’s possible to circumvent it. Yes, the women really are beautiful, and they’re everywhere, but the careful eye will notice two things: they do not eat processed foods, and they believe women are women, men are men, and the femininity is beautiful. Of course, I am meeting my Fullbright friend’s circle, which is quite sophisticated, but it’s still a sampling none the less.

    This week: trial ads for staff, office space.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-10-07 10:18:00 UTC

  • Startup Skills Vs Startup Ideas?

    I’ve started eight companies, invested in about an equal number, and pitched more times than I can remember or count.

    The idea only matters if other investors are following it.  Investors are sheep. They follow trends in business ideas because trends mean over-investment that they can participate in.  Instead of ideas, they care about the returns on the idea. And most entrepreneurs spend too much time on their idea and not enough on  how they will market, sell, distribute and create their product and service, and who they can exit to if they succeed.

    Ideas are cheap, and plentiful. They are everywhere. The problem is not coming up with an idea. it’s coming up with an idea that customers will pay for and which provides an exit strategy.

    After you have that idea, the next problem is execution. Can your team demonstrate an ability to execute by getting customers, and producing results. The most common problem I come across is confusing learning with producing results.  No one will pay for learning. That’s just a cost. They pay for products and services. For “deliverables.” Customers and investors included.

    And then there is  the problem of cost.  Can you execute and create enough profit that an investor can see a way out, by tripling their money in three years?Or do you not expect to need an investor?

    I’ve probably answered this question a thousand times in my career, but people keep asking it in the futile hope that someone will provide them with an alternative answer.  But that won’t happen. 

    And, using facebook is an interesting analogy.  They started by making a dating tool for exclusive universities, and ended with one of the worse IPO scams in recent history.It’s an outlier.  Outliers don’t teach us anything. It’s the thousand companies that follow a fairly standard path that we learn from.

    https://www.quora.com/Startup-skills-vs-startup-ideas

  • Startup Skills Vs Startup Ideas?

    I’ve started eight companies, invested in about an equal number, and pitched more times than I can remember or count.

    The idea only matters if other investors are following it.  Investors are sheep. They follow trends in business ideas because trends mean over-investment that they can participate in.  Instead of ideas, they care about the returns on the idea. And most entrepreneurs spend too much time on their idea and not enough on  how they will market, sell, distribute and create their product and service, and who they can exit to if they succeed.

    Ideas are cheap, and plentiful. They are everywhere. The problem is not coming up with an idea. it’s coming up with an idea that customers will pay for and which provides an exit strategy.

    After you have that idea, the next problem is execution. Can your team demonstrate an ability to execute by getting customers, and producing results. The most common problem I come across is confusing learning with producing results.  No one will pay for learning. That’s just a cost. They pay for products and services. For “deliverables.” Customers and investors included.

    And then there is  the problem of cost.  Can you execute and create enough profit that an investor can see a way out, by tripling their money in three years?Or do you not expect to need an investor?

    I’ve probably answered this question a thousand times in my career, but people keep asking it in the futile hope that someone will provide them with an alternative answer.  But that won’t happen. 

    And, using facebook is an interesting analogy.  They started by making a dating tool for exclusive universities, and ended with one of the worse IPO scams in recent history.It’s an outlier.  Outliers don’t teach us anything. It’s the thousand companies that follow a fairly standard path that we learn from.

    https://www.quora.com/Startup-skills-vs-startup-ideas

  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP Money itself gains one status. And money is made by providing o

    ENTREPRENEURSHIP

    Money itself gains one status. And money is made by providing others something that they desire, and will pay for. Too many aspiring entrepreneurs look for opportunities that are fashionable and from which they can obtain status directly from the association with the endeavor, rather than possession of wealth.

    So while opportunities lay about on the ground ready for anyone to pick up, most people search endlessly for some opportunity that inspires them, but that the market does not need because its in low demand, or is in over supply.

    I don’t care what business I am in as long as it’s not immoral in some way, and the people I would have to work with or employ are pleasant to spend time with. I literally tend to sieze what’s just in front of me, because I see the ground as absolutely littered with opportunities, all of which can be made into something with a little effort. And those opportunities either provide wealth in exchange for ones effort or they don’t. If they do, the wealth confers status, and freedom to do what one wants. And it is more likely that one will obtain wealth doing what others desire, than doing what one desires for its signaling benefits. It would not matter to me if I owned a commercial cleaning service, a garbage collection service, or any other common business, as long as it provided the returns that would allow me the freedom to enjoy what I wished.

    The market serves to provide us with wealth by serving others out of our own self interest. Prices ensure that we do not live illusions about what others desire, and how much tehy desire it. And the opportunities for entrepreneurship are everywhere.

    I’m not surprised at how many people who have worked for me have gone off to create new businesses. It’s the kind of person I’m attracted to hiring. But I’m always impressed with their ideas and achievements. And I’m more impressed with the fact that they seem to be successful.

    Just in the last few years:

    – Live Area Labs (Creative – and good work as well)

    – Tier 3 (IT/Cloud)

    – Salient 6 (Tech Services)

    – A specialty legal services business (which is fascinating) that I won’t name.

    – A financial sector startup (which is really fascinating) that I won’t name.

    And that’s just off the top of my head. I should start collecting a list.

    It’s a beautiful thing. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-18 10:29:00 UTC

  • DISCUSSING CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES TODAY THis plan is just genius. A couple of a

    DISCUSSING CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES TODAY

    THis plan is just genius. A couple of additional ideas:

    1) The master in this plan is elevated by three steps (that’s 3×8=24″). Now, I hate sleeping on the first floor. (No idea why.) But it doesn’t take much to raise a room above the ground level and avoid that feeling other than the windows have to be impossible to look into from the outside. So, with a little work it’s possible to expand the width of the MBR closet, as well as the stairs up to the MBR, as well as the stairs up to the Study, and raise the master up another two to three feet, for a total of maybe five feet above ground level. Be cautious with the windows and make the master doors open to a porch rather than the ground and that’s it. This would have the effect of increasing both the closet (which is too small), and reducing the space consumed in the upstairs loft/study by the stairs, which is also too small.

    2) the house is easily oriented for different approaches by flipping the entry/powder and entering from the opposite side of the house. (The entry way is brilliant and inviting.) And I would make it possible to shut off the entry/sitting area from the rest of the house with something as simple as doors.

    3) My friend Todd Colby, (who refuses to join FB), is a fan of the highly insulated and cheap to heat and cool house. So we discussed how to construct foot-thick (or more) highly insulated walls. This would allow the feeling of mass that comes from stone or timber work, without the thermal mass, but also, without the expense of heating and cooling the thermal mass. Todd is worried about construction of anything other than stick built homes given the problems with finding crews that can work on alternative technologies. Which I completely understand. Although I ‘m not quite sold on anything that I can’t believe will last two hundred years. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-16 20:01:00 UTC

  • “REALITY BY CHANTING” What a great name for a company that produces marketing re

    “REALITY BY CHANTING”

    What a great name for a company that produces marketing related software. lol

    Done. .com, and .net. Trademark submitted. 🙂

    Not divulging the product name yet. But it’s related. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-07 15:42:00 UTC

  • I LOVE DOING DEALS Really. I live for it. The higher risk, the more zeros, the m

    I LOVE DOING DEALS

    Really. I live for it. The higher risk, the more zeros, the more variables, the better. I’m sure it means something. I’m also sure it means something bad. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-27 20:00:00 UTC

  • MORE FUN FOR AN EXTERNAL CEO THAN TURNING AROUND A TROUBLED COMPANY I don’t like

    http://business.time.com/2012/08/02/10-ceos-who-are-new-on-the-job-and-trying-to-do-the-impossible/NOTHING MORE FUN FOR AN EXTERNAL CEO THAN TURNING AROUND A TROUBLED COMPANY

    I don’t like to refer anyone to Time Magazine. It’s been the intellectual equivalent of a producer of hazardous waste for most of my life. But this article on the tough job of CEO’s whose job it is to turn around companies that the market has left behind, is not so much worth the read, but worth reminding us of how hard it is to solve some of these problems.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-03 10:59:00 UTC

  • WANG DOODY SEATTLE I just popped in to visit a friend. Great company. Good peopl

    WANG DOODY SEATTLE

    I just popped in to visit a friend. Great company. Good people. Creative work. Awesome offices with a view of the Sound.

    I’m Envious of the work for Jaguar. I’m not sure I could be more envious of any brand. I’m a dedicated jaguar owner.

    But, you know, I have a reputation for being either devious or cunning. So I tried to stay away from people who had moved on or spun off in order to avoid ill feelings.

    But now that I’m not active in the business I’m free to catch up with people. And it’s really inspiring to see what everyone is up to.

    The spin offs are something even more cautious about. I think people in spin offs tend to have the wrong impression of how I feel about them. And while I have to maintain a certain posture, and I have a responsibility to the current business, it’s how I started some of my own businesses. So I tend to look at spin offs as my offspring and inside I root for them at every opportunity.

    I love entrepreneurship everywhere I find it.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-02 19:10:00 UTC