Posts in Industry

Our little firm was founded with a healthy dose of engineering and design DNA. And it’s not as simple as pairing up an engineer and a designer. Walter loves creating beautiful usable things, and Jenny loves the power of software. We have shared values around a balance between tech and design, and we try to […]

There is a simple lesson that all conferences should learn from TED. It’s not to charge thousands of dollars. It’s not to bring celebrities to your conference. And it’s not to only have one speaker at a time. Those may or may not be good things to emulate, but they’re not the most important lesson […]

The way the term “lifestyle business” is bandied about has bothered me for some time. I’ve decided to try and come up with a new definition. Twitter friendly version: “Lifestyle business” is the patronizing term for businesses unwilling to grow at the expense of the quality of their product or workplace. Twitter unfriendly version: “Lifestyle […]

Paul Graham publishes a series of essays, and i often find myself agreeing with them or inspired by them. His latest talks about the characteristics he thinks startup founders must have. “I was writing a talk for investors, and I had to explain what to look for in founders. What would someone who was the […]

What is it about some big companies that once they get successful, they immediately forget how they got there (innovating, meeting customer needs, moving quickly), and start engaging in all sorts of brand-suicidal tactics that usually involve lawyers. This TechCrunch post shows correspondence from Intuit to Mint (and back) with Intuit lawyers basically calling Mint […]