Not all Investment Money is created Equal There’s no two ways about it, we’re in a tech bubble. It has cooled down a little but there is still a lot of dumb money floating around just looking for somewhere to go. What is dumb money? Dumb money is money provided by people who can bring no other value to you other than money itself. Its often the easiest type of money to get in bubbles [...]

If you want to call yourself an entrepreneur, show me your battle scars. Show me how lonely you’ve become. How the only people you talk to are your team and your immediate family. Less than 10 people a month maybe. Tell me about how your friends don’t even bother calling you anymore. Show me all the things that you’ve missed out on while sacrificing everything for a dream. Tell me  how bad it hurt when [...]

When people ask me what I do, I’m often guilty of not telling them the full story. I usually just say, “Oh my friends and I have a business that we do..” and hope that that answer is good enough for them. If they prod for more I’ll say we teach ukulele on the internet. Which is the what, of what we do. I guess I just don’t want to seem arrogant, or self aggrandizing [...]

I was fortunate to be flown to Oahu to last month to attend a software industry skills development panel. It was a great experience as I got to meet a lot of people who are passionate about the same things as me; entrepreneurship, tech startups, developing a software based industry to transition Hawaii away from its heavy dependence on tourism (which I personally have a long standing beef with).  It sadly was the first time [...]

Something strange happens as we grow older; we become deathly afraid of failure. Though brought into this world fearless, we’re conditioned over time that failure is bad, failure is something to be avoided at all cost, that failure can be avoided if you “just do your homework”. This fear often prevents us from doing the things we always wanted to do. We may get very excited about something yet after spending a little time talking [...]

I have to admit, when I first started hearing all this buzz about Jessica Mah a few years ago, I didn’t really get what all the hype was about. Sure, I guess she’s a girl…who’s really young, who can program and launched a few web startups with very little money… but I didn’t see the difference between her and all the guys who have done the same. Not only that, others have done it and [...]

I’ve been tossing around an idea in my head for a while to create something that will help inspire and guide a new generation of entrepreneurs, artists, and movement leaders. Inspired by the work done by Andrew Warner at Mixergy.com and Jason Calacanis at This Week in Startups, I want to start interviewing entrepreneurs who’s ventures were built on passion. I hope to accomplish a few things by doing these interviews: I want to champion [...]

This is an excerpt from a web series called This Week in Startups or TWiST hosted by Jason Calacanis (episode 47 if you want to check out the full program). I love this video. I love it because it is 100% true. My generation has grown up in one of the most prosperous times this country has ever experienced. Everything was great in the 90s. This has lead my generation to become soft. We’ve been [...]

I’ve been fortunate to meet and study many successful entrepreneurs in this world. What I find fascinating is that nearly all of them share a few unique characteristics. Most things that you would not think would lead to success, yet some how the combination of these traits do just that. When I first started noticing it in the first few people I met, I thought, well maybe its just coincidence. Person after person, the same [...]

I can honestly say that my one of my strongest passions in life is business. More specifically the early stages of business. The genesis, and creation of something tangible from basically nothing. Although I am not anywhere near what I would consider a success yet, I feel I’ve accumulated a ton of knowledge and experience from my many failures and few successes throughout my professional life. I think many of my friends realize this as [...]