Entrepreneurs
Around the World
Entrepreneurs are changing the world, and I mean all over the world. China, SE Asia, Africa, South America and more.
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs are changing the world. In some of the most remote places, people are taking control to build better lives, a cleaner environment, and more equity for all. Entrepreneurship gives people a mission, meaning, and hope. In this section, we venture out to find entrepreneurs and people who are doing amazing things. Let’s go find some amazing entrepreneurship stories together.
I will also share some skills that I have developed. Sharing my experiences to entrepreneurs on their own journey is very rewarding. I hope to bring in some guests to discuss their experiences as well.
Entrepreneurs
Due Diligence and Questions Checklist For Potential VC Investors
Potential VC Investor Due Diligence and Questions Below you will find a list of our due diligence and questions by category for my book Navigate to the Lighthouse: Value Proposition: Key questions What are the biggest pain points experienced and what value propositions are implied? By ecosystem stakeholders, e.g. merchants, consumers, card networks, banks, etc.…
Read MoreBusiness Negotiation
Communication Class with Jessica Notini Jessica Notini, negotiation coach, breaks down business negotiation into 3 functions: the process, relationship building and the negotiation/transaction. Too often, negotiators jump into negotiation mode without even having established some type of guard rails. The process sets the ground rules and sets expectations on how to work smoothly together, relationship building…
Read MoreLearn Jocko’s Leadership Skills and Apply to Your Startup
Jocko’s Leadership Skills Training Course Humility. Balance. Ownership. Teamwork. According to Jocko, these are the four attributes that make a great leader. He learned that at the Battle of Ramadi in Iraq. Now, he shares it with others, so you can learn Jocko’s leadership skills. This is particularly important for entrepreneurs following our KDAlive Entrepreneur…
Read MoreHow PickFu Helped Me: It Can Help Your Book Title and Cover Decisions
How PickFu Helped Me: It Can Help Your Book Title and Cover Decisions PickFu helped me to determine my title and cover by surveying over 100 users. Are you pulling your hair out because you don’t know what cover or title to use for your book? That’s because, your friend says X but you think…
Read MoreThe Future of Work is Remote
The Future of Work is Remote No need to monkey around a cube any longer; technological advancement and institutional encouragement forces a false choice to fade away. If you have dreamed of sailing away to a faraway island where the cocktails flow freely and the seaside villas are cheaper than your fifth-floor walk-up, but hesitate…
Read MoreHow to Break Into Technology
How to Break Into Technology It’s possible to have no college degrees and break-in “Fake it until you make it” Learn some hard skills that are easily hireable Don’t: Compare, Envy, be careful not to be something else someone wants/needs Tell people what they want to hear We are well into the digital age, and…
Read MoreBangladesh: An Unexplored Country of Cuisine, Commerce, and Cricket
Bangladesh: An Unexplored Country of Cuisine, Commerce, and Cricket Being hosted by E-generation was an amazing experience and taught us much about the local culture. Most Exciting Experience: Playing cricket with the team! Other meaningful experiences: – Celebrating the Day of Language – Experiencing the Muslim prayer time as a calming and meditative action…
Read MoreEnlightenment in the Kathmandu Valley
Wellbeing insights from Kathmandu, Nepal: • Understanding Nepalese Culture: Meeting truly genuine and humble people who do their best and stay happy on the journey. • Entrepreneurship: Focusing on the environment and betterment for all. • Perspective: Hearing about the caste system and realizing how lucky we are in the USA to have an equal…
Read MoreGhana: Accra and Teaching at Meltwater
Exploring around Accra and Teaching Accra has a great scene of music, bars, and food Most Meaningful Experience: The entrepreneurs I worked with were driven by creating jobs, solving local problems, and making a better Africa. That left a lasting imprint on me. The first thing that struck me when crossing into Ghana at its…
Read MoreKakuma Ventures: Building Companies in a Refugee Camp
Starting Kakuma Ventures to Empower Refugees Kakuma is a small city of 200k people where displaced people want to create opportunities through entrepreneurship by building companies Most Meaningful Experience: Discovering some of the challenges people had in the refugee camp and being able to lend a hand to people who really want to learn. To…
Read MoreESHIP Summit: Growing Start-Up Ecosystems Beyond Silicon Valley
ESHIP Summit: Growing Start-Up Ecosystems Beyond Silicon Valley How to grow startup investment outside of Silicon Valley I spent two fulfilling days in Kansas City at the 2nd annual ESHIP Summit hosted by the Kauffman Foundation. They led a group of 650+ people to discuss building and accelerating entrepreneurship in their communities. It was an exciting…
Read MoreNegotiation Strategy: Find the Opportunity in Differences
Negotiation Strategy: Find the Opportunity in Differences I just completed a negotiation class at Duke’s Executive Education Center. I just completed a negotiation class at Duke’s Executive Education Center. The money spent will surely yield multiples in return. https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/programs/executive-education/business-negotiation-skills Thirteen years have passed since I last took a negotiation class at the now, Fuqua…
Read MorePR & Communications that I Learned from the Perspicacious Dorie Clark
Communications that I Learned from the Perspicacious Dorie Clark Read her books Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You, and Stand Out. She has also written over 170 articles for Harvard Business Review. I spent 3 days taking a PR&Communications class at Duke’s Executive Education Center with Dorie Clark https://www.linkedin.com/in/doriec/, an Author, Speaker, and Professor who specializes in communications, re-inventing careers, and…
Read MoreWhat Tim Cook said at Duke’s Graduation May, 2018
What Tim Cook said at Duke’s Graduation May, 2018 Key Points Find the Fearlessness to change the world Regardless of your chosen field, follow a Vision and find a deeper purpose/meaning to achieve it. Don’t just follow a winding path that may yield you astray; follow a deeper purpose to drives you to it. Be…
Read MoreForeign Investment and Entrepreneurs in Zambia’s Startup Ecosystem
Foreign Investment and Entrepreneurs in Zambia’s Startup Ecosystem. Zambia’s open-investment policy is causing a boom in economic activity Most Meaningful Experience: Making friends at Bongohive.co.zm and working with Entrepreneurs Flying into Zambia, I was still hustling to get my presentation together. This would be the first time I’d be teaching again since my stint in…
Read MoreNigeria: Hustling from Yaba to Makoko
Nigeria: A Country of Hustle, Rich Culture, and Genuine People Exploring all of Lagos from Makoko to Victoria Islands Most Meaningful Experience: Going through the slums of Makoko with Funmi who is trying to enrich the poorest lives in the world. Travel Tips • Lagos is infused with energy. Wake before sunrise…
Read MoreSingapore’s Government Funded Innovation
How Singapore Built an Innovative Economy The Government fueled the transition from manufacturing to skills-based economy Singapore has developed an economy based on real technical innovation. From mid-90s, the government invested heavily in research centers to develop the skills and knowledge of its local people. It is the easy-to-do business hub for the emerging South…
Read MoreTurkey Mobile Payments: From Gold Coins to Carrier Billing
To facilitate trade between the east and the west in the 4th Century, Constantine the Great established the gold solidus as the standard of currency. This coin retained its status for about 1,000 years. In its most flourishing periods, the Byzantine state may have produced as many as several hundred thousand gold coins and a…
Read MoreCreate a Startup State: What American Politicians can learn from Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland
Short Summary: • Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland have created active startup communities and produced successful startups like Rovio, MySQL Supercell, and Skype. • American States — the same size as these countries — have been much less successful in creating startup companies and communities. • American state economic development officials can learn from these countries. A template exists to…
Read MoreHow the Warriors Used Business Development Tactics to Close Kevin Durant
How the Warriors Used Business Development Tactics to Close Kevin Durant Closing Deals as a Team is Powerful Did the Warriors land superstar Kevin Durant because of a last minute call by Jerry West, and chess-like player moves to make room in the salary cap? Contrary to popular reports, no. The Warriors spent years running…
Read MoreDefining the Sales and Business Development Roles in a Startup
Many startups are lead by technology experts who have never run a sales and business development operation. Many of these executives cannot clearly explain the difference of the two functions. The result is they cannot structure the organization to get the most value out of each function.Lets clear this up, because while they are different,…
Read MoreIsrael: From Jaffa to Jerusalem
Traveling Through Israel:Jaffa to Jerusalem Visiting Israel is an exciting religious, cultural, and overall powerful experience Most Meaningful Experience: Meeting new friends and getting to know the Israel scene Most meaningful experience: The tour of Jerusalem showed me that people are very passionate about their beliefs but its possible to exist together. The city is…
Read MoreAsian Mobile Game Developers Coming to the West in 2015
Over the past two years, the western Android and iOS app stores have been dominated by three major developers: King, Supercell, and Kabam. The next 10 best-selling game developers — a list that includes household names such as EA, Gameloft, Disney — then take the bulk of the remaining global mobile gaming revenues. Chinese and Japanese game makers know…
Read MorePart I: Six Reasons Startups Should Invest in Japan
Six Reasons Startups Should Invest in Japan Japan is an ideal place to open up offices and invest for the long-term. After Japan’s economic crash of the late 90’s, a fog settled over the land of the rising sun. Nearly two decades of deflation, a perceived lack of Japanese innovation, and a rapidly aging workforce…
Read MoreSaudi Arabia — A Secret Mecca for Consumer Technology Companies
Saudi is a place startups should be investing — look at Uber’s success Consumer market is flourishing and technology services are in demand Doing business there is easier than one may presume Demand in Saudi Arabia for consumer software is shockingly high. But most people in Silicon Valley do not understand why nor how to capitalize on…
Read MoreWhat I learned Taking German Colleagues to a Golden State Warriors Game
What I Learned Taking German Colleagues to a Basketball Game Sport can bridge the differences in working with different cultures Most Meaningful Experience: Everyone loves Stephen Curry The Warriors are in the middle of an amazing run, and I was lucky enough to host some of my German colleagues at against the Memphis Grizzlies last…
Read MoreLearnings from RURU — Mobile Payments in Russia
Merchant adoption of NFC has been slow and those who have adopted it are unconvinced. Many experts think that just replicating the ecosystems of Korea and Japan will work in the west. Those familiar with Asian markets realize that consumer behavior and the payments ecosystems in those markets are far too different than they are…
Read MoreTips to Manage International Teams at a Startup Technology Company
Successful companies grow quickly. In just a few years, a startup can grow from a small office in a technology incubator to a multinational operation with employees all over the world. But entrepreneurs are trained to build technology, not to scale and manage a dispersed global team. Here are some good principles to follow if…
Read MoreIndonesia’s Fast Growing Tech Market
Indonesia’s Fast-Growing Technology Market Indonesia is exploding. Catch it while you can. Indonesia has quietly become a great place to do business. The country finally seems to have cast off many of the problems that plagued it for years. Investors are starting to notice. Tokopedia recently raised $100 million from Sequoia and Softbank, Zalora raised…
Read MorePart II: Six Tips for Startups to Invest in Japan
Investing In Japan II Six Tips for Startups to Invest in Japan Japan perplexes foreigners. Stepping out of Tokyo Station for the first time can feel like landing on the moon. Even those who have lived in Tokyo for years can be overwhelmed by its linguistic and cultural nuances. This kind of culture shock is…
Read MoreAn Anecdote About Doing Business in Asia
An Anecdote about Doing Business in Asia People often ask what I think the biggest differences are doing biz in US, China, and Japan. Here is how I can answer. A man walks into an American convenient store and asks for a Pepsi (Note: I prefer Pepsi over Coke so I’m using Pepsi in this…
Read MoreManaging Pitchers; Managing Entrepreneurs
While watching a Knoxville Smokies (AAA for Chicago Cubs) baseball game last night, a phenomenom that I never figured out during my baseball days dawned on me. Why do left handed pitchers wear their hats crooked – not all of them but most of them for sure? It was so apparent that even on the…
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