They've got the ideas, the passion, and the follow through, while I offer some experience, basic wisdom and enthusiasm. This week I want to add to my stack of basic Clues with some lessons learned in 1999. When you meet someone, say the name several times and visualize that name on top of some caricatured feature. Grow their nose, squint their eyes, put it in their hairline - whatever works best. Big teams still take too long to reach consensus.
Small teams can change on a dime.
Quickness is still more important than scale in the Internet economy. So know who's on top, keep your core group small, pass authority down and listen to everyone. Bunk - Let's call this one David Ogilvie's Clue, after the great ad man who died last year. An idea is nothing. What makes a business is the ability to follow through on an idea, or the ability to keep coming up with ideas.