And to be honest, it was super fun. : )
We’re a little exhaustipated but feeling good about Small and Special and the tons of great and useful feedback we received. We need to do a proper recap of the event, but that might take a couple of days. Thanks to everyone who attended, participated, spoke, [...]

Hmmm… what to put in a blog post where the title already says it all? If you have a ticket, we’ll see you next Tuesday. If you don’t have a ticket follow @smallandspecial or search #SandS on Twitter for updates from the event.

John Cook over at TechFlash was nice enough to ask me to do a guest post on bootstrapping. This one is on how much runway you need to get your business over the hump.

“The single biggest enemy of an indeterminate amount of time needed for success is a deadline. And nothing gives you a deadline [...]

As we mentioned when we announced our Small and Special conference focused on passionate small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs, a good chunk of our inspiration came from a single book. That book is Small Giants, Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham.

While the conference speaker roster is limited to [...]

I know this is not necessarily on topic, but this blog is sort of about whatever we like anyway so why not. I stopped being a Jay Leno fan decades ago when he decided to stop doing smart political humor and started doing dumbed down middle of the road humor and ass-kissery. I’ve always loved [...]

Your Logo Makes Me Barf. Brilliant.

…Joe Mansfield of Engrave Your Tech. Gorgeous moleskine notebook covers with beautiful original designs is what got our attention. The fact that Joe is making a successful business out of this passionate enterprise is what pushed us to invite him to tell his story.
Joe and seven other passionate small business founders will be speaking on [...]

I wrote three posts over the past while:

A new definition of “lifestyle business”.
The reality of your life as a founder once you take VC
Your odds of making money if you take VC

Thanks to Rajat for pointing me to this video of DHH giving a talk last year. It’s not that I didn’t know the guys [...]

The fantasy goes something like this:

come up with an idea
take venture money
align with the VCs to grow the business as best you can with the firm target of an exit
hold on to enough equity so that when the exit comes you and the VCs both get rich
maybe some of your employees hang on to enough [...]

On Earth Day in 2008 we launched Carbon Grove — it’s an e-mail reminder service that helps you remember to complete carbon reducing tasks. A little virtual tree grows every time you complete your task. And thanks to our inaugural sponsor, Internet Explorer, over 10,000 people not only grew their virtual trees for at least [...]

…albeit I haven’t said it nearly as well as well as Georges van Hoegaerden over at Venture Company.
I’ve been saying, by the time many venture funded startups have gone through their rounds of funding, even the founders are lucky to make any money. And that’s in the rare case that they actually make it to [...]

Conan was interviewed in the New York Times about his shift to the Tonight show. The following quote is about entertainment, but I think it applies to any creative endeavor, or possibly, any human interaction:
“In entertainment, you have to stake out what you think is right, you have to put out that signal, make sure [...]

One of my favorite things about working at Jackson Fish Market is that we don’t have performance reviews. I suppose it’s easy cause there are three of us and we’re all founder/owners of the company. But i believe that even once we do have more traditional employees we won’t have performance reviews. Mainly because [...]

Our mini-conference is just a few short weeks away. Small and Special, an afternoon for passionate small business owners (and aspiring entrepreneurs) is happening on Tuesday June 30, 2009 from 2pm-6pm in the Georgetown Ballroom in Seattle. We’ll have a total of eight speakers for the afternoon, six of which have already been announced. We’re [...]

I am instantly interested in any game that has an Architect Edition. I wish they had the Frank Lloyd Wright game.

The popular and prolific Malcolm Gladwell writes about underdogs in the New Yorker:

“What happened, Arreguín-Toft wondered, when the underdogs likewise acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5 to 63.6. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, [...]

There’s nothing we love more than more companies like us. And we say that humbly hoping that said companies won’t be insulted by the comparison. The criteria are typically that the company is small, tech-focused/savvy, experimenting with lots of new products to see what works, and focused on being profitable and having a great workplace, [...]

“…here’s my conclusions from all of this math (some good, some not so good). The venture capital asset class does not scale. You cannot invest $25bn per year and generate the kinds of returns investors seek from the asset class.”

“Today, Walter Smith is a co-founder of Jackson Fish Market a producer of aesthetically sophisticated web sites.”
A little view into Walter’s past.

I guess Jack in the Box has had this new logo for awhile (Jenny told me) but I just noticed it. I think it’s so well done.

I am a big fan of vegetables. Fresh, flavorful, crispy, juicy vegetables can’t be beat. One of my favorite meals of all time was almost entirely composed of vegetables. (The meal was prepared emphasizing the greatness of the vegetables themselves rather than trying to simulate some sort of meat-based dish.) I would eat a lot [...]

Bryan Zug did an awesome job as usual making videos out of all the ignite talks. For those of you “dying” to hear my Lego talk, it’s now posted for your enjoyment.

Lifehacker linked to an article on the top workplaces in Australia:
“A recent poll in Australian business magazine BRW set out to find the 50 best workplaces, and while the results are Australia-specific, one thing stood out: Companies with great perks consistently topped the list.”
When you’re a part of the tech startup community it’s commonplace to [...]

So funny. I saw this blog post titled:
“Who Cares About Majority Ownership Anyway?”

We’ve always insisted on strict control of our business which is why we constitute a majority of ownership of our company - roughly 100% majority. However, I don’t think our way is the only way.
I thought the gist of the article would be [...]

Great ad. Great web placement. I love how user interface is entering the mainstream as a design language.

“Screw die-cutting. Forget about foil, popups, or UV spot lamination. THESE business cards have two ingredients: MEAT AND LASERS.”

Ignite Seattle has been the best tech-ish crowd startup gathering in Seattle as far as I’m concerned. The crowd is big but the event is still somewhat intimate. It highlights some of the positives of having a smaller tech community in Seattle relative to Silicon Valley for example.
Brady does a good job pulling together speakers, [...]

David Heinemeier Hansson over at 37 Signals re-picks up the torch for people annoyed with the term “lifestyle business”. Their original post was back in 2005. Our twitter-sized definition was posted last month. Some goodness from the latest post:

“When the lifestyle card is pulled from its tired deck, it’s usually meant as a pat [...]

Lego Rock Band or Beatles Rock Band? The answer is clear. I want Lego Beatles Rock Band.

I think currency and other governmental design is underappreciated.