Curt Doolittle

Theme: Productivity

  • THE NUMBER OF HOURS NEEDED TO PURCHASE A GLASS OF BEER Practical cost of living

    THE NUMBER OF HOURS NEEDED TO PURCHASE A GLASS OF BEER

    Practical cost of living differences between countries.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-25 11:33:00 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

  • Is There Any Independent, Third-party Research On The Fiscal Grievance Of Catalonia With Spain?

    Joe: that’s not what the numbers mean.
    Catalonia represents 14% of the population and pays 22% of the taxes.  The tax rate is both unfair, and harmful, since it is the one region of spain that might form an innovative industrial heartland, in southern Europe. Furthermore,  Catalonias speak a slightly different language and have a distinct culture and have tried repeatedly to gain independence from spain, only succeeding for a brief period.

    Federalism only works if a culture is homogenous.  That is the problem for the US, and for Europe,

    https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-independent-third-party-research-on-the-fiscal-grievance-of-Catalonia-with-Spain

  • 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

  • EFFECT: DECLINE OF WINTEL DESKTOPS AND LAPTOPS AS THEY ARE REPLACED BY HANDHELDS

    http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-personal-computing-platforms-2012-9SUBSTITUTION EFFECT: DECLINE OF WINTEL DESKTOPS AND LAPTOPS AS THEY ARE REPLACED BY HANDHELDS

    This chart’s making the rounds again.

    But, why do I care about pointing out the obvious? I care because the Seattle to Redmod region is a ‘green zone’ of concentrated wealth that has an expiration date engraved on Mount Si.

    And while the transition will be painful. And you can already see it in the composition of the stores and other businesses. The reason the region will survive is that for a generation, that wealth will remain, and the large number of engineers are plastic enough to start new businesses. See what happened to Rochester and Xerox by comparison, for precisely the same reasons. And unlike Rochester, Seattle is on a coast, has a port, cheap electricity, a temperate climate and as yet, few racial and social problems.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-15 16:33:00 UTC

  • What percent of US hardwood production is devoted to making pallets? “And yet pa

    What percent of US hardwood production is devoted to making pallets?

    “And yet pallets are arguably as integral to globalization as containers. For an invisible object, they are everywhere: There are said to be billions circulating through global supply chain (2 billion in the United States alone). Some 80 percent of all U.S. commerce is carried on pallets. So widespread is their use that they account for, according to one estimate, more than 46 percent of total U.S. hardwood lumber production.” – Cowen

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-16 18:18:00 UTC

  • CREATES JOBS? My friend Sam Hughes +Gmailed me about this unpublished TED talk.

    http://www.upworthy.com/breaking-you-know-that-nick-hanauer-ted-talk-you-werent-supposed-to-see-here-itWHO CREATES JOBS?

    My friend Sam Hughes +Gmailed me about this unpublished TED talk. And it’s actually true. But misleading. Yes, the super-rich do not create jobs, the middle class creates jobs. However

    a) The middle class ‘hires’ the super rich to protect them from the government. And it works.

    b) The ‘Rich” are almost universally (above 90%) members of the middle class who made their money in small and medium business.

    I don’t support the super rich. I support active constraint, and even dissolution, of the government.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-16 15:57:00 UTC

  • PENCIL – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IN ONE LESSON

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8I PENCIL – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IN ONE LESSON

    Source date (UTC): 2012-08-04 06:14:00 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