Author Archives: Andrew Starks
Part III: Starting Your Own Business In Less Than 3600 Words
In last week’s post, we covered the depressing topics of failure and venture capitalists. We continue this series by talking about pressure, partners and niches.
Step 4: Along with Failure, Get to Know Pressure
As we illustrated in parts of Step 3, you need pressure. Having a wife and kids is no excuse to not start a [...]
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Part II: Starting Your Own Business In Less Than 3600 Words
Last week I started this four part series on starting your business. I talked about the importance of being unemployable and becoming an unreasonable person. Hmm….
This week, we’ll continue the happy thoughts with…
Step 3: Get to Know and Love Failure
The only lessons that you ever truly learn come from failure. Since you’ve never [...]
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Part I: Starting Your Own Business In Less Than 3600 Words
A friend of mine asked about starting his own business. All he really wanted to know was how to register a business name, which I thought as odd. Our approach to starting a business was:
Sell the product
Make the product
Deliver the product, fixing it as you try to get it running.
Make up an invoice in [...]
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An Open Letter to PEG: Tightrope’s Commitment to Open Source Software (OSS)
Tightrope has been involved in open source projects for several years. What are we up to now and where are we going with that effort?
Over Selling and Economic Profit
In established markets, everyone gets paid pretty much what they are worth. Marketing can skew this and there are always temporary exceptions on specific sales, but when you're talking about putting cables in walls and hanging monitors in public areas, there is profit, but generally no economic profit. In theory and on average, one dollar less and I won't send my tech out to your place to do the work. One dollar more and I'm ahead of the game. We all want to be ahead of the game.
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Tightrope Appoints Eric Henry as CEO and Jim Morical as Chief Business Development Officer
JJ and I are happy to formally announce that Eric Henry and Jim Morical from the audio visual manufacturers representation firm Kodo James have joined Tightrope Media Systems as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO), respectively.
Eric and Jim, through Kodo James, have represented Tightrope Media Systems in the upper Midwest [...]
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In Defense of Windows as Digital Signage Players
I read Gary Kayye's summary of the DSE show, which was very nice. I was particularly interested in his comments about the absurdity of using Windows XP and small PCs as a platform for players. While I have a great deal of respect for his opinions, here he was completely off base and I would like to know where he got his data. :)
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Andrew Starks’s Simulated Worldwide Operational Computing Power Index (ASSWOCPI)
John Montagu was an accomplished person. In his lifetime he held various posts in English government. He was First Lord of Admiralty three times (accused of extreme incompetence the third time), an ambassador to the Dutch Republic, staged musical performances at his estate and was the heel in this famous exchange between himself and John [...]
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Whatever It Takes
My wife and I were having dinner at one of her favorite spots, Tucci Benucch. A couple was seated very close to us, so it was hard not to notice what was happening at their table. Near the end of what I presume was a fabulous meal, the woman spills her wine into her plate [...]
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Part IV: Starting Your Own Business In Less Than 3600 Words