Mission… Startup Cairns Mission 22 Jan 202522 Jan 2025 Startup Cairns helps startups reach their summits. Cairns are landmarks that guide climbers’ ascents. Mountain climbing is a treacherous endeavor. Having scaled high peaks in the Himalaya, Alps and…
books… Why We Read: Innovator’s Omnivorous Content Diet 21 Jan 202522 Jan 2025 Books have taken a beating in recent decades. In 2023, 767 million printed books were sold in the United States, down 2.7% from 2022 and 9% from a record 843…
books… The Executive in Action: Self-Management Book Review 20 Jan 202520 Jan 2025 December 27, 2024: The holiday season is a natural time to reflect on the past year and consider adjustments for the year ahead. A few themes emerge in reviewing my…
Author… THINK: Make Comments Count 18 Jan 202519 Jan 2025 THINK was the one engraved sign that adorned the desk of Thomas Watson, founder of the world’s most powerful technology company. In the 1950s, IBM had over a 50% market…
Author… Founder Fit: Insight Driven Innovation 16 Jan 202523 Jan 2025 Founder Opportunity Fit Framework Venture investors profess preference for industry disruptors, yet this review finds that investors more readily back incremental innovation with credentialed founders than industry disruptors sponsored by…
Business Area… Experience vs. Insight: What Makes a Successful Founder? 16 Jan 202523 Jan 2025 What do Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Michael Dell have in common? These founders of Microsoft, Facebook, Tesla, Google and Dell have created pathbreaking…
Business Area… Superforecasting: Ten Investment Practices to Improve Performance 16 Jan 202523 Jan 2025 Investing requires good judgment, which is blurred by bounded rationality in an uncertain world. Early-stage venture investing is further complicated by scant information in highly competitive, rapidly changing markets. Even…
Business Area… The Checklist Manifesto: Three Practices to Improve Venture Capital Performance 16 Jan 202519 Jan 2025 Summit day on Mount McKinley! Tent bound at 18,000 feet for two days in blizzard conditions, we were eager for our summit bid on the highest mountain in North America.…
Business Area… Investing in Generative Artificial Intelligence & the Gartner Hype Cycle: Is the Hype Worth It? 15 Jan 202519 Jan 2025 “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” Warren Buffett, 1998 Berkshire Hathaway annual report Is now a good…
Business Area… Turning the Flywheel to Reach Escape Velocity 15 Jan 202523 Jan 2025 Achieving escape velocity is essential for startups to deliver venture returns. Escape velocity is a compelling image for an entrepreneur, as it refers to the speed – 25,020 miles per…
Business Area… Startup Pacing: Accelerate Growth to Win New Markets 15 Jan 202523 Jan 2025 Pacing and Performance: Be Quick but Don’t Be in a Hurry As we enjoy March Madness, the college basketball tournament is a clinic in clock management. In games calibrated for…
Business Area… Seeing Clearly: Three Startup Strategies to Survive & Thrive the Gartner Hype Cycle 15 Jan 202523 Jan 2025 Apple Vision Pro, released in February, presents a bold vision for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). AR/VR has promised for decades to supercharge gaming, enhance education, inform work, and enliven…
Business Area… Three Cardinal Sins of Investing: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Identify Founder Fit 15 Jan 202519 Jan 2025 What do Amazon, Alibaba, AirBnB, Bentley Systems, Cisco, DataDog, PagerDuty, Peloton, Pinterest, Robinhood, SquareSpace, Uber, Udemy and UIPath have in common? In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Scott Kupor described…
Business Area… Regulatory Capture: Navigating the Third Rail of Innovation 15 Jan 202523 Jan 2025 Trailing through the darkened corridors of political power are the insidious tendrils of corporate and elite influence. A particularly pervasive and pernicious form of political influence is regulatory capture where…
Business Area… Atomic Habits: Forcing Functions to Fulfill New Year’s Resolutions 14 Jan 202519 Jan 2025 ‘The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.’ Samuel Johnson “Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but…
Startup Cairns 