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Posts about Business
On September 24th
covering Business, Music, Music Ensembles
It was bound to happen. I’ve been noticing the similarities between bands and startups as self-led creative teams. This item describes a band taking funding from an Angel Investor in return for 30% of future revenue.
This is a way of replacing one role of the record label, which was a source of funding during the formative days. It could go either way.
My question is whether the angel investors are competent to predict the success of a band — or whether they are dabbling in this as a high-risk hobby investment, the way some people invest in Broadway plays. Read more »
On September 6th
covering Business, Consulting, Group psychology
Here I confess one of my junk-food type indulgences. I’ve enjoyed the “reality” show featuring Chef Gordon Ramsay. Not the silly competition one — the one where he visits a restaurant in trouble and turns it around.
Never mind the foul-mouthed tough-guy persona. I’m impressed with how the show presents a case study in consultation. In each episode, the case is presented of a foundering restaurant. The consultant comes in and makes a rapid assessment. There is a tense meeting where he presents his diagnosis and treatment plan. He encounters resistance and overcomes it, and there is a happy ending (usually). Read more »
On August 8th
covering Business, Creativity, Culture, Leadership, Teams
Y Combinator is a Venture Capital group led by Paul Graham. It’s named after a mathematical function that I can’t come close to understanding. Something to do with recursion, I gather, probably an inside joke for LISP programmers. They provide seed money for tech startups — small amounts that allows them to do the initial work that will attract larger funding.
More importantly, they ask their sponsored groups move to Cambridge or the Bay Area for an intense 3-month sprint (they don’t like calling it a boot camp) where they receive lots of mentoring and work like their very lives depend on it. Read more »
On July 4th
covering Business, Conflict
Here’s something I see all the time with couples, families, music groups, and businesses of all sorts.
Somebody has an idea that will affect everyone, and some risk is involved. The idea could be “let’s go to a movie” or “let’s go camping” or “I think we should approach X manager for representation” or “let’s make this capital investment”.
All of these ideas require agreement form the other parties, and all of them could go badly or well. The movie could be lousy, it could rain, the manager might be the wrong one, the investment might turn out to be bad. Got it? Read more »
On December 19th
covering Business
Because they seem better than dealing with insurance companies.
