an old friend told me a few days ago how much he enjoyed my ebook. i asked him if he bought it from amazon and he said no. it is available free online. i did a search and this is what i found. this is great. i hope more people could read my book. if you want the latest version (3rd edition) where i corrected many grammatical errors, you can go to amazon. i get about 40 cents a book and it is enough for me to cover my wine budget. it would be great if you could write a review. thx.
i love the article and the insight. this could also be looked at a different way. many entrepreneurs think that vc's are their customers. they are not. they don't consume. they re-sell. if you like check out chapter four of my recently published ebook on my own experience with vc's (free download for a limited time). hope you like and good luck everyone.
thank you for the feedback. it is self promotion. but that's not always bad. i hope you take a look anyway and find my book (i.e., experience) useful. thanks.
hi, i sincerely want to offer you my own experience. please download a free copy of my ebook. i hope it helps. life is a bitch when it comes to entrepreneurship but you got to do what you got to do. just hang in there. drag the epub file to your ipad, iphone, android, etc.
this is the second edition of my 99 cents ebook on entrepreneurship. please download the epub file and drag it into your iphone or ipad (thru itunes), your android device, or nook, etc. would really appreciate it if you could review on amazon. thanks.
A humble immigrant from Macau comes to the U.S. and earns his doctorate in engineering at a prestigious university. Frustrated by the politics of academia, he sets out to free his inner entrepreneur. After a solid start, he is fired by the board of his first start-up. Realizing he is basically unemployable in a traditional job, he picks himself up, dusts himself off, and sets out to learn from his mistakes and start another company. The second attempt is a huge success; he cashes out and retires before his 50th birthday.
In "Survival Guide...", Denny tells the story of his failure, the lessons learned, and how they enabled him to ultimately succeed. A thoughtful, sensitive historian with a flair for reading people, he weaves an entertaining tale of VC's, technologists, money and power. Through it all, he never loses sight of the distinction between "lifestyle" and "life."
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If you want a free copy, please email me at denny dot miu at gmail dot com. Thanks.
I did it. I finally published my second book (my first eBook). There are a total of ten chapters which are basically re-edit of my previous LoveMyTool posts. In this short book (50+ papes), I summarize my twenty years experience in high-tech startups, based on my two companies, one VC-funded and one self-funded.
There are no overnight successes. Building a startup is a journey not a race and it is about value-creation not valuation. I write about my survival techniques in creating values for potential customers which is a much slower, much longer, much more demanding but yet ultimately much more financially rewarding journey than creating valuation for potential investors.
The first 100 downloads are free. I am hoping to get enough exposure so that as many first-time entrepreneurs as possible could benefit from this book. If you like the book, as a personal favor to me, please rate and comment on Lulu.com. The more positive feedback I get, the better chance it will be for the book to appear on their recommended list.
I believe Eric Schmidt is stepping down because he believes doing so is what is best for Google. And I believe his reason has little to do with whether or not he thinks that he is the right person for the job or that Larry Page is the better candidate.
I think Eric believes that it is time for Google to get a real CEO because he has been the CEO in name only.
C is for Chief and Eric was never the chief since he was not the person who gets to make the final decision.
E is for Executive and Eric never spends much time executing because he was too busy herding cats.
O is for Officer and Eric was not able to look out for the interest of all the shareholders, just the two largest ones.
Before I was an entrepreneur (and I believe I am one), I had spend nine years as an untenured Assistant Professor at UCLA. And I remembered my colleagues used to spend a great deal of time and efforts subdividing their disciplines and making sure that everyone inside and outside academia classifying them exactly as they wished to be classified. This was a puzzle to me until I read the following quote from Henry Kissinger (after he had left the government but was turned down by Columbia University), "The reason why there are so much politics in academia is because the stake is so low." I believe the stake is very high in entrepreneurship and I think no one benefits from spending too much time worrying about what we should be called. However, I think the article is a very good one, in the sense that there is indeed a whole lot of work in being a "successful" entrepreneur. Good luck everyone.
If you have no income then there is no "income" tax (neither Federal or State). If you have an office and you are meeting customers, you might have to pay City tax (depending on the City). Once you have income, things start to change. First of all, the $800 Franchise tax is a minimum and California actually charges a percentage based on your "gross" income, not net profit. Also, Federal treats any income you incur as an LLC as employment and is subject to self-employment tax (in addition to Federal and State income tax). My own experience is that in the beginning of a startup, you don't have enough that actually warrants hiring an accountant. My advise is that you learn to be your own accountant until you start hiring. It actually is a good exercise to start paying attention to money as opposed to just hiding behind the comfort of being a technologist. Good luck.
I used to run a startup in Southern California so I know for a fact that there aren't too many technology companies down there (other than aerospace and entertainment). The good news is that workers don't tend to move around too much. Jason has done this before. I wonder if his company were in the Bay Area what would happen. I doubt that anyone will stick around to take his abuse. I know I won't.
There is an old saying in my home country that basically says, "getting your hair wet.". The idea is that as you are washing your hair, you will slowly come to a point when you have shampoo on your head. That's when you know you are fully committed and there is only one acceptable outcome, otherwise you look silly no matter how much you try to explain your predicament. In my experience as an entrepreneur, the hard part is getting to that point of no return and the even harder part is to get out. Most people who wants to be entrepreneur but never do is because they are too rational to put themselves in that predicament. But as Yoda would say, "you do or you don't, but you must get wet first." I love this article. Good luck everyone.
I agree with your comment. But this is a matter of timing. I have to believe that within 12 months, they will incorporate apps in the new Apple TV. For a family of four, I spend close to $150 per month on cell phones. Apple is now getting a piece of that and I am happy they do because cell phones used to suck until they came along. I am also spending close to $100 per month on cable and I can't wait until Apple gets a piece of that as well. Nothing sucks more than Comcast Cable. That's a lot of money per month for apps. Go west, young man, go after the money.
One of the mysteries with today's Apple TV announcement is why they didn't incorporate Apps Store (which is very obvious given that ATV2 nows runs on the A4 processor and IOS4). My guess is that Apple is saving its dry powder (to compete with Google TV). I am convinced that when Apps Store become available, Boxee would be a fantastic app (and as such, would benefit from Apple as opposed to competing with Apple). On the other hand, Boxee Box is a piece of hardware and would be a direct competitor and a strategic mistake (which explains why D-Link is dragging its feet).
I went to the gym today and jumped into the pool as I do five times a week. I always picked the right most lane which was wider than the rest (so I have more room to do breast strokes). After a few laps, I noticed the lady who was sharing my lane kept giving me the stink eye. I thought nothing of it until she stopped me and started giving me a lecture on pool etiquette. She thought I was a complete ass for not greeting her before I jumped in and for not asking for her permission to share. Besides being impolite, she thought I was also unsafe. I paused for about 10 microseconds and I decided to apologize. As an entrepreneur, those are your choices. After many painful lessons, I finally learned how to pick my battles and getting in an argument with an old lady in my shorts was a good use of my argumentative skill. As an entrepreneur, it is often best to just let it roll over your shoulder so you can save your dry powder for the real fight.
I have been an entrepreneur for over fifteen years, with one mild success and a few spectacular failures. And I must say I enjoy this article more than the rest of the articles combined in terms of explaining why entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs. The reason has nothing to do with hardship, wealth or upbringing. Anyone can become an entrepreneur. You must first possess a demon deep inside that needs to get out. The author clearly has one and my own experience is that entrepreneurship is his only cure. Good luck.
Then the issue isn't about the LLC but that only three out of the six original founders are active. I would try to find a way to reduce the 80% ownership of the LLC and give the difference to the active founders. Or to find a way to buy out the three non-active partners. If that's in fact the objective, then keeping the LLC might actually be quite useful. Keep in mind that when you start to make money, all proceeds distributed to the LLC is subject to self-employment tax, something that might not be optimal for the non-active founders. In short, find a knob and start turning. Good luck.
Jason, you need to understand the difference between your persona and your reputation. What you write on your blog, your email newsletters, your facebook and your tweets is your persona. What people think of you behind your back when you thought they were not watching is your reputation. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation. It only takes one tiny miscalculation to throw it all away. And you have been throwing it all away, first with stealing contributors from Digg, then with hijacking Leo Laporte's brand, and now beating up on some young kid who just wanted to better his life ... Horribly disappointed in you.
That's exactly the point. If Mahalo was a restaurant and I am a dish washer, I probably won't think too much about who I work for and who I work with. But if I am a technologist then I would have to choose to work for a startup. Life is too damn short to be working for a dick.
Jason needs to chill. It is not clear to me if Evan has damaged his brand as an individual. But it is clear that Jason has damaged Mahalo as a brand. As the CEO, Jason has responsibility to his shareholders. If you promote someone and still he leaves, you need to find out why and you need to ensure that the team left behind is still motivated. A good CEO does that by inviting the departing employee to a face-to-face in order to provide a reasonable explanation to the rest of the company. It is all optics, but it is important optics. How Jason feels emotionally is not important. What he does to maintain shareholder values is.
This article points to one of the most important survival skill of any struggling entrepreneur, which in the past I have summarized as follows, "Make the hard stuff look easy and the easy stuff look hard."
I notice that whenever this is a discussion about LLC, the supposely downside is always that the VC's prefer a C-Corp and therefore if one wishes to eventually take VC money, then one should be proactive and not form an LLC. That is simply not true and has not been my experience. It is true that the VC's prefer C-Corp but they never insist on investing in companies that are C-Corp. The best way is actually for the entrepreneurs to form an LLC to take advantage of the tax structure and flexibility, then when you are ready to take VC money, just let them form a C-Corp and acquire your LLC. It is not complicate and don't let any lawyers/accountants tell you otherwise.
I am an entrepreneurp and after a few shows, i eventually unsubscribe Jason’s podcast. I think he is trying to make startup into a gong show and he is doing a disservice to the profession. Leo, on the other hand, is a class act and we have much to learn from him. http://buzz.dennykmiu.com/be-a-magnet-be-leo