Skip to content
View Comments

Entrepreneurial Business

I’ve spent a lot of time working with entrepreneurial companies – either building and leading them myself, or helping them apply emerging technologies to build new business models.

Interesting Projects I’ve Worked On

  • Revolutionizing online political communication and fundraising for political campaigns and organizations, including candidates running for Governor of California, United States Congress, California State Senate and California State Assembly.
  • Business operations software that can run every aspect of a company’s operations, including sales, fulfillment, purchasing, inventory and returns, along with software to integrate that system with back-end financial software.
  • Software to organize product and pricing data for durable goods distributors in the small and mid-sized business space, allowing them to sync their sales and ordering systems with thousands of part number and pricing changes that flow from their suppliers.
  • Web-based sales, order processing and commission management software designed for retail and business wireless channel resellers.
  • Building a product development team, creating systems and processes, and integrating marketing throughout the scope of product development for a mid-sized financial services and software company.
  • Developed operational systems to manage a complex portfolio of 25 online learning products delivered over a live e-learning system and captured for later playback and creation of a content library asset.

Areas of Focus

While I’ve led entire companies and delved into detail on almost all aspects of business, these are the areas I’ve been focused on:

  • Product Development
  • Managing Engineering Teams and Projects
  • Marketing (mostly B2B, but recently, have spent more time on B2C)
  • Business Development and Sales
  • Operations (Billing, Back-End Systems, Logistics, Customer Care teams)
  • Finance (less so than all of these other pieces, but I’m very fluent in accounting and finance)

My Personal Rules for Business

I have a list of “rules for business” that I keep on my wall to keep me focused on the right things. These have been developed over time, from ideas I’ve had or books I’ve read. Feel free to take and improve them — as long as you send your improvements back so I can benefit too. :)

  • Review Your Strategy and Planning Every Month
  • Always Take the Red Pill
  • Always Know How Your Customer Makes Money
  • Establish Single Points of Responsibility and Clear Lines of Accountability
  • Set Clear, Actionable Goals and Over-Communicate Them
  • Measure Progress on a Regular Basis and Use Results to Adjust Your Plans

Favorite Books

Some of my favorite business books are:

  • The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Patrick Lencioni
  • (anything else written by Patrick Lencioni — he is one of my favorite authors)
  • Organized for Success, Stephanie Winston
  • Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
  • Execution, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
  • Results, Gary Neilson and Bruce Pasternack
  • Becoming a Category of One, Joe Calloway