NorCalUrban

I've learned a lot from  Guy Kawasaki over the years. His book, 'The Art of the Start" taught me much about starting things, raising money and making presentations. He recently did a blog post that contrasts two types of approaches to venture capital. One is with up front money is one is raising money after a product is brought to market. You can read his thoughts on 'Plan B' fundraising here. To me there are many parallels to the non profit sector. Many of us think 'money first, programs after.' We like to project what we feel will be the best case scenarios, articulate the community need are then try to build the capacity around the idea. In my career I've started things only to find the need was not what I expected it to be, and had to go back to donors or stakeholders and explain what happened. That's not too fun. Staffing in non profit work is as or more important than in the for profit world because of the relationship factor. Staffing is als...

Picked this up at (where else) Guy Kawasaki's blog. Oh man - has this been true for us as we've started NCUD . Here Guy quotes Glenn Kellman, the CEO of Redfin . This speaks volumes to me - many of the things he addresses are things I've thought, said or worried about. As someone who has been involved in four start up works and many re-engineering projects in the ministry / non profit world, Glenn's comment ring true. I've edited comments - you can see the full article on Guy's website. Like the souls in Dostoevsky who are admitted to heaven because they never thought themselves worthy of it, successful entrepreneurs can’t be convinced that any other startup has their troubles, because they constantly compare the triumphant launch parties and revisionist histories of successful companies to their own daily struggles. Just so you know you’re not alone, here’s a top-ten list of the ways a startup can feel deeply screwed up without really being that screwed up at ...

Borrowing more stuff from Guy Kawasaki's blog. Guy is quoting a book by Lois Kelly called, "Beyond Buzz, the next generation of word of mouth marketing." One of the key questions for those of us in the non profit / church world when approaching potential partners / donors / members is how to crate a buzz and how to capture people's attention. What captures people's attention? How do we get our potential constituents talking? Guy has some great thoughts: If you’re pitching your company to investors, customers, partners, journalists, vendors, or employees and you don’t use at least one of these types of stories, you probably have a problem. 1. Aspirations and beliefs. More than any other topic, people like to hear about aspirations and beliefs. (This may be why religion is the most popular word-of-mouth topic, ever.) Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy’s point of view about ending the digital divide is aspirational as is Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s views abou...

Good ideas from the folks at FROG via Guy Kawasaki. I'm rethinking some of the ways my organization does things. I need to look more into google docs. and other free web applications. Any of you used google docs? What's been your experience?

Sometimes I think I should just link directly to Guy Kawasaki's blog. His blog consistently makes me think. Here's some excerpts from a recent post where he interviews Richard Sterns, the President of World Vision. Question: You had a nearly seven-figure salary, a corporate Jaguar, moved and took a seventy-five percent cut in pay. Why did you leave the corporate sector in 1998 after twenty-three years to run an international Christian humanitarian organization? Answer: It wasn't something I planned. At the time, I didn't even want the job. I had been a donor to World Vision for fifteen years when, through a long series of circumstances, I was approached by World Vision, interviewed and offered the position. As a committed Christian, I felt I couldn't say no. When God gives you an opportunity to serve, you obey. I had "talked the talk" of being a Christian for many years, now I needed to "walk the walk." It has turned out to be the greatest pri...

Guy Kawasaki interviews author Seth Godin on his new book, "The Dip" Apparently, the book deals more with start up issues - but it has implications to life. When is the right time to call it quits? Question: Other than hindsight, how does someone know when it’s time to quit? Answer: It’s time to quit when you secretly realize you’ve been settling for mediocrity all along. It’s time to quit when the things you’re measuring aren’t improving, and you can’t find anything better to measure. Smart quitters understand the idea of opportunity cost. The work you’re doing on project X right now is keeping you from pushing through the Dip on project Y. If you fire your worst clients, if you quit your deadest tactics, if you stop working with the people who return the least, then you free up an astounding number of resources. Direct those resources at a Dip worth conquering and your odds of success go way up. What’s the worst time to quit? When the pain is the greatest. Decisions made d...

Here is an excerpt from Guy Kawasaki's blog. It's a good post of an interview of a new book called "The Sticking Point". Ever wonder why some ideas 'stick' and others don't? Question: What separates ideas that stick from those that don’t? Answer: We spent lots of time researching sticky ideas—ideas that people understand, remember, and that change the way people think or behave. The ideas we studied ranged from the ludicrous to the profound, from urban legends (no, there is no kidney theft ring) to great scientific theories (yes, the land we walk around on does ride on giant tectonic plates and when they collide they cause mountain ranges and earthquakes). We found there were six principles (“SUCCES”) that link sticky ideas of all kinds. Sticky ideas won’t always have all six, but the more, the merrier. For example, JFK’s idea to “put a man on the moon in a decade” had all six of them: 1. Simple A single, clear mission. 2. Unexpected A man on the ...