Inc.com

Bossholes drive away talented employees and cost your company money.

A bosshole is a combination of a boss and, well, an anal sphincter. Bossholes are workplace bullies who yell at the drop of a hat and generally make their employees feel tired, lousy, and unappreciated.

For entrepreneurs, the primary danger is that you might be a bosshole but not realize it, according to Robert Sutton, author of the bestsellers Good Boss, Bad Boss and The No A****** Rule.

Here are his suggestions to ensure your inner jerk isn't making you (and your team) less effective:

1. Understand the Financial Risk

Bossholes cost companies revenue and profit--big time. "Bossholes drive away talented people and force otherwise useful folk to follow around after and clean up the emotional messes they leave," explains Sutton.

2. Monitor Your E-mail

E-mail is what Sutton calls an "emotionally thin" media that tends to magnify negative emotions. In an e-mail, anything you write that's insensitive or seems angry is likely to deeply offend or wound. So think before you click the SEND button.

3. Cultivate Reality Checkers

Assign your more reasonable employees to be "bosshole monitors." Link their performance evaluation to telling you when you've blown it. Or maybe offer to pay $20 to anyone who points out when you've been a jerk.

4. Exercise Some Self-restraint

When you get angry or find yourself focusing too much on performance and too little on the human needs of your team, cultivate and practice emotional detachment from your own sense of frustration.

5. Get More Sleep

Even if you're maniacally-driven to succeed, you still need your sleep. "Sleep deprivation can turn even a great manager into a grumpy, intolerant jerk," says Sutton. It will also completely ruin your health.

6. Work Reasonable Hours

Every IT manager knows that running a computer center constantly at 100 percent capacity eventually results in system failure. Why would you expect a human being to react any differently?

7. Make Your Atonement Public

When you've chewed out employees or thrown a tantrum (both common bosshole behavior), publicly apologize and make it clear that you don't consider that behavior acceptable.

8. Dump Bosshole Underlings

Google statistically measures whether its managers are acting like bossholes, according to Sutton. "When Google identifies bossholes, the company sends them for re-education, and if that doesn't work, they're fired," he explains.

9. Protect Your People

If your customers treat your people like dirt, drop them as customers if possible. If there are bossholes in other groups in your firm, limit your team's exposure. Give some extra "combat pay" to employees who are forced to cope with bossholiness.

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What began as a social gathering for like-minded entrepreneurs and VCs has evolved into one of the Valley's most dynamic accelerators. Meet the man with the connections, Saeed Amidi.

When international entrepreneurs want a shot at Silicon Valley stardom, they call on Saeed Amidi.

The angel investor is the son of Amir Amidi, who owned the Medallion Rug Gallery where fellow VC Pejman Nozad famously built up his contacts. And his ties to the tech hub span 35 years. As co-founder of the investment firm Amidzad Investments, Amidi has the expertise and deep pockets to show for it.

Since 2006, Amidi's passion project has been Plug and Play, an international network that's accelerated 1,200 start-ups and collectively raised more than $1 billion in venture capital. Last year, the organization made 62 investments, while helping 150 start-ups from Silicon Valley and another 100 from abroad find resources and make connections.

Helping foreigners get their foot in the door is perhaps what Amidi, an Iranian exile, does best. During their time at Plug and Play, which Amidi describes as a sort of "start-up university," ambitious entepreneurs learn the ropes of launching a business from those who know it best: veteran VCs and serial entrepreneurs. The most promising start-ups get to pitch during Plug and Play's Expo Event, which wrapped up last weekend.

Plug and Play vies with the likes of Y Combinator and TechStars for talent, but it boasts a fair share of big names on its roster: Lending Club, which has funded $1.6 billion in consumer loans, and Zong, a mobile payment start-up founded by PayPal President David Marcus that sold to eBay for $240 million. What's more, Plug and Play has become synomous with "international talent," not a small feat in hyper-competitive tech land.

I spoke with Amidi by phone about what makes a great pitch, why he loves nurturing start-ups, and why the Silicon Valley bubble isn't going to burst in his lifetime.

How did Plug and Play get started?
We started by investing in companies that were leasing space from us, like PayPal and Andy Rubin's Danger. For 12 years, we used to invest for fun and then Plug and Play got started about seven years ago, in 2006.

Did you always have an international focus?
The main objective for me is finding a great investment. We found the companies that are in Palo Alto are already connected. They didn't need our help as much as the companies that may be just as good but are not in Silicon Valley. We love to participate in the seed round, but more importantly, we like to be part of their success. It increases the value of our investment.

What compels you to invest in a start-up?
It's the passion, the intelligence, and the team. If I like the team and feel they are brilliant and passionate, I don't even care about the idea. The second thing is what idea they are going after. Is it something that can scale? Something that is missing in the market? This is much easier to do with a serial entrepreneur, but a lot of the entrepreneurs we work with are first-timers, so you have to check out what they are focusing on. Can it be a big business?

We see what they have done in the last three, six, or twelve years. If they haven't put in a lot of sweat equity and don't have a product or prototype, we tell them to come back later when they do.

Tell me about the environment at Plug and Play.
We host 300 companies in one building. If a start-up is local, they stay with us for two years. If not, they stay for three months. They go through something called start-up university, where we show 20 case studies on average from 20 entrepreneurs who have gone on the same journey before. It's done professionally and casually. The entrepreneurs who stay three months meet about 20 other entrepreneurs who have raised money, exited, failed, and can explain why they've failed. Most of what they learn, they learn from other entrepreneurs.

Where do they stay if they're international?
We got a couple apartments years ago, but it was too much of a headache, so now I tell them, "You're the entrepreneur, figure it out. Rent a room from AirBnB or Craigslist."

What's your typical day like?
My goal every day is to meet with four startups and then I usually like to have a meeting with one or two investors. That translates to one investment a week. Each company we're looking at is in a different stage.

Why is Silicon Valley so valuable to entrepreneurs?
Some people were worried during the downturn that Silicon Valley might lose its charm, but I really think that if you want to be serious about being in movies, the best place to be is Hollywood, and I feel the same way about tech innovation start-ups. You have to be connected to Silicon Valley.

I have an accelerator in Valencia and another in Berlin, and you can build a great company just about anywhere. But I urge entrepreneurs to be connected to Silicon Valley, because I think the culture that is here, the investors that are here, as well as all of the success and failure stories that are here is like a crash course in entrepreneurship.

Is Silicon Valley on the verge of another bubble?
No, because I see a lot of companies with real business models. B2B is coming back really strong, and if you take most of the world's corporations like Walmart, its labs are here. Even Amazon has a big technical center here. Groupon has a very big office here in Palo Alto too. No matter what Silicon Valley becomes, the heart of innovation of the start-up world--at least in my lifetime--will be here.

Marissa Mayer is on the verge of completing 14 Yahoo acquisitions in just six months. Will she reinvent Yahoo?

With Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo is on an acquisition tear.

One month after the company's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, AllThingsD reported yesterday that Yahoo is in talks to purchase Xobni, an address book app, for $30 million to $40 million. And today, news surfaced that the company is also about to acquire Qwiki, a popular video sharing app, for close to $50 million. If the two deals go through, Yahoo will have publicly acquired 14 companies in 2013; by comparison, last year it bought only two companies, and, in 2011, three.

No Surprise, But What's the Strategy?

When Marissa Mayer took over as Yahoo's CEO in late 2012, one of her first stated missions was to sniff out potential acquisitions in order to turn Yahoo back into a growth company. And with $1.2 billion in cash on hand--even after the Tumblr acquisition--she has room for several more big purchases before 2014.

"We're looking for smaller-scale acquisitions that align well overall with our businesses," Mayer said on a shareholder conference call in October 2012. Ken Goldman, the company's CFO, chimed in saying, "Our primary objective as a new management team is to leverage our assets, competitive strengths, and available resources to transition this company from financial stability to a growth business."

What's puzzling to me, though, is the strategy behind these acquisitions on a whole.

In just six months, Mayer the 14 deals have been spread over a wide variety of areas. You have to wonder if Yahoo is just shooting from the hip at this point, hoping that at least one brings in new revenue. Even though Yahoo is beating Wall Street profit estimates, its core advertising business is suffering, and it's clear that Mayer is looking for some way to make money.

That said, two loose themes emerge from Mayer's deal-making moves, but I'm skeptical about both.

Building Out Mobile

Yahoo has an impressive 300 million mobile users, but that's about half Facebook's mobile user base. Mayer has been vocal about aggressively trying to capture a larger mobile audience. Last month, at the Wired Business Conference, Mayer said that the biggest goal right now is to have "Yahoo persistent on every smartphone, tablet, and PC for every Internet user."

Of the acquisitions Yahoo has made so far this year, several were focused on expanding mobile capabilities, including Summly, a news app; Loki Studios, a gaming start-up; aLike, a recommendation app; and Ghostbird software, a photo app.

Anecdotally, it seems Mayer is ready to attract the best mobile talent, too. Reports The Post:

"Employees chosen to work on the all-important mobile mission are given the coolest and latest laptops, the best, most recently redecorated offices and prompt access to Mayer's office, according to interviews with several Yahoo insiders."

But mobile expansion will be tough for Yahoo, even with a slew of upstarts and new thinkers in the space. Unlike its competitors like Facebook and Google, Yahoo never made the leap into hardware--which will make Mayer's hope to be on every device all the more difficult.

Making Yahoo More Social

Clearly Mayer's other big bet is to revitalize Yahoo by making it more social. Some were skeptical about Mayer's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr--which only had about $13 million of revenue in 2012--but it's apparent Mayer sees the company as a vehicle to tap into one of the most active social platforms on the Web, along with a somewhat different advertising model.

As Adam Rifkin writes:

"In some ways, Tumblr is actually Facebook 2.0! As Facebook has become a real-life social network infested with parents, co-workers, ex-friends, and people you barely know, Tumblr has become the place where young people express themselves and their actual interests with their actual friends."

But Yahoo's foray into social will be fraught with challenges. Tumblr's core demographic is the 18-to-24-year-old bracket, a notoriously fickle cohort. Yahoo's other "social" purchases--like its January 2013 acquisition of Snip.it, which lets users collect articles--don't have much to do with Tumblr.

It's too early to see if Mayer's acquisition strategy will pay off, and Mayer knows it'll take time to see if the deals deliver material results to the core business. As she said on an April 2013 shareholder call:

"Overall, I have been very pleased with how well our talent acquisitions have integrated into the company. You'll see many of the contributions come to life in our product experiences over the next few months. So stay tuned."

The one thing your sales team needs to improve? Explaining, says Lee LeFever, founder of Common Craft. Here's how.

People rarely buy products they don't understand, so it's a salesman's job to explain them. But what if your explanation is so organic it's pointless?

Perhaps you suffer from the curse of knowledge--knowing so much you explain things in ways no one grasps.

Revisiting the basics of explaining can help, writes Lee LeFever, founder of Common Craft, in The Harvard Business Review. Here's an overview:

Focus on why.

Make sure your team knows exactly what your product or service does for customers. "By answering the "why" early on , you create a foundation for understanding on which to build more complex ideas," says LeFever.

Simple trumps clever.

"Fancy vocabulary and extensive background information might impress customers--but, more likely, will just confuse them," he says. Instead of trying to impress people with how smart you are, make them feel smart by building their knowledge.

Explain the forest, not just the trees.

Customers must understand why your product exists and how it can help them. Make sure they get the big picture before going into detail.

The antidote to confusion is less information.

It's tempting to bombard your customers with information, but that won't help someone who's confused. "Don't add detail; come back to one of two big ideas you know they'll understand" LeFever advises.

Tell a story.

"If you think stories are for campfires, not your state-of-the-art product, then you're forgetting that your audience is human," LeFever says. "Stories provide a way to see how a product works in the real world, with real people."

Don't be condescending.

"No one likes to be talked down to, and if you approach explanation with the wrong attitude, it can be destructive," LeFever explains. Assume your customers are as smart as you, just not as informed.

The NSA won't stop snooping on you, but you can throw them off your trail. Here are some tools to help you go private.

Revelations of NSA surveillance have shaken the nation, but while many of us would love nothing more than to toss our phones out the window and avoid well-trafficked search engines like Yahoo and Google altogether, the government seems intent snopping on Americans whether they like it or not.

Sometimes that's not a bad thing--but often it is. As privacy attorney Sarah Downey writes, one of three things can happen when your data falls into a corporation's lap: Your privacy may be breached like the customers of LivingSocial; the company might use it in a way that makes you uncomfortable and/or violates your privacy; or the government may use it, courtesy of the NSA and PRISM.

To help you sleep better at night, here's a roundup of tools that can help you go private.

Mobile

TextSecure

TextSecure is an open source app that encrypts text so that no one can read it. Just keep in mind both the sender and respondent must use it in order for it to work. Also, while the content will be secure, your messages' destination will not. As a bonus, the app can encrypt old messages.

RedPhone

Designed by the makers of TextSecure, WhisperSystems, RedPhone features end-to-end encryption for calls, meaning no one can decipher your chat from beginning to end. RedPhone also forgoes assigning private numbers, so you can stick with the one you know and love. Calls can be placed via Wi-Fi or your mobile data plan.

Onion Browser

Using Tor, a free software and open network that blocks out surveillance, Onion encrypts web traffic, so no one can pinpoint your IP address. The browser also hides what platform you're on, be it tablet, cell phone, or desktop.

Orbot

Another Tor app, Orbot encrypts traffic by bouncing signals, much like a sped-up game of Pong. Created by The Guardian Project, Orbot proxies traffic so what you're clicking stays under wraps.

Miscellaneous

SilentCircle

SilentCircle keeps companies from accessing unencrypted calls, messages, and emails. Though it's open-source, its code is audited to prevent back doors or loopholes. You can use it on Android or iOS platforms.

Seecrypt

This South African start-up will protect your calls and SMS messages on Android or iOS. Users are assigned a private number to allow for end-to-end encryption.

Wickr

Similar to Snapchat, this one-year-old app offers "military-grade encryption" of texts, pictures, and audio messages using a key that's unknown to the company. Wickr promises not to collect personal information, call logs, or location data. Its messages also self-destruct.

Desktop

Browsing

DuckDuckGo

Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo doesn't store IP addresses. The partially open-source search engine is now available on several desktop and mobile platforms, including iOS.

Tor

Ever watch a CSI episode and hear the tech guy exclaim that the suspect's signal is moving? That movement is Tor. The network bounces traffic across computers so sites can't determine their origin.

Onion Pi

For those not on Tor, there's Onion Pi. Combining Raspberry Pi's microcomputer, USB Wi-Fi adapter, and an ethernet Cable, Onion Pi creates a small, potable private access point that directs traffic through Tor's larger network.

Instant Messenger

OTR

Like many others on this list, OTR offers end-to-end encryption. Since it's an extension to regular networks, users will need to download supporting software such as Adium for iOS and Pidgin for Windows.

Cryptocat

This open-source software will keep the conversation top secret.

The Cloud

Cloudfogger

This open-source app encrypts files before they go to the Cloud and is available on Android and iOS.

InTheClear

When all else fails, download InTheClear, a suite of applications that wipes data clean with just one swipe.

Facebook is just one Internet giant that has released its NSA stats to reassure users. Here's a round-up of the others, and their numbers.

Consumers haven't been able to look at Silicon Valley the same way ever since news broke of a long-running government program called PRISM. Of course, the nine Internet companies implicated in the leak aren't the only ones handing over customer data. Apparently thousands of companies do this, writes Inc. reporter Eric Markowitz.

However as news continues trickling out, Internet giants feel pressed to step forward and disclose the total number of legal orders they received for user data, including ones from the National Security Agency and from state, local, and federal police performing criminal investigations.

Here's what they've told us so far:

Yahoo

Yahoo is the latest company to disclose the number of government requests for data it has received over the past 18 months, reports TechCrunch. In a statement signed by CEO Marissa Mayer, the company said it received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013.

“We’ve worked hard over the years to earn our users’ trust and we fight hard to preserve it,” Mayer and general counsel Ron Bell said. "Like all companies, Yahoo! cannot lawfully break out FISA request numbers at this time because those numbers are classified; however, we strongly urge the federal government to reconsider its stance on this issue."

Apple

Apple recently spoke up about PRISM, per its Commitment to Customer Privacy:

"From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. The most common form of request comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide."

The company also made it clear it wasn't mining data for fun:

"Apple has always placed a priority on protecting our customers’ personal data, and we don’t collect or maintain a mountain of personal details about our customers in the first place. There are certain categories of information which we do not provide to law enforcement or any other group because we choose not to retain it."

Microsoft

Microsoft came forward Friday after receiving the go-ahead from the government. According to John Frank, vice president and deputy general counsel, the search company received between 6,000 and 7,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts in the last half of 2012. In a blog post, he writes:

"We appreciate the effort by U.S. government today to allow us to report more information. We understand they have to weigh carefully the impacts on national security of allowing more disclosures. With more time, we hope they will take further steps. Transparency alone may not be enough to restore public confidence, but it’s a great place to start."

Google

In a statement provided to CNET, Google said it wants to be even more transparent. As it is, Google releases statistics about government surveillance in its transparency report, including information on NSA letters sent by the FBI.

Last Wednesday, Google revealed it uses secure FTP servers and in-person delivery when complying with NSA requests. Over the course of 2012, the search giant received between zero and 999 National Security Letters--foreign intelligence-related requests from the FBI involving U.S. citizens separate from its investigations into criminal, civil, or administrative matters.

On June 11, Google wrote to the Department of Justice and the FBI asking for details on national security requests and their scope.

"When required to comply with these requests, we deliver that information to the U.S. government-- generally through secure FTP transfers and in person," spokesperson Chris Gaither told USA Today. "The U.S. government does not have the ability to pull that data directly from our servers or network."

Facebook

Facebook also announced on Friday it had been given permission to disclose its number of data requests. Facebook received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests pertaining to 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

“The government will only authorize us to communicate about these numbers in aggregate, and as a range,” Facebook said. “This is progress, but we’re continuing to push for even more transparency, so that our users around the world can understand how infrequently we are asked to provide user data on national security grounds.”

Twitter

Twitter was one of several companies approached by the NSA to participate in a "dropbox" system, whereby legally requested data could be copied from their own server to one owned by the NSA, The Guardian reports. However, the start-up flatly denied the request and has since joined the rally for support to publish more details about the number of U.S. law enforcement requests.

Alex Macgillivray, the company's chief lawyer, tweeted:

Completely agree with @Google, @SenJeffMerkley & others-;we'd like more NSL transparency and @Twitter supports efforts to make that happen

-; Alex Macgillivray (@amac) June 11, 2013

Jazz musicians are agile and dynamic. They are gracious--but not shy. Here's what you can take from the stage to the board room.

Some people would introduce me as a venture capitalist, since I run a venture firm in Detroit. Others might reference me as an entrepreneur, given that I've founded four technology companies. I guess these people wouldn't be wrong in their verbiage, but it's not an introduction I prefer.

Instead, I'd rather be deemed a jazz musician. After decades of training, countless hours of practice, and a whole host of gigs nationwide, jazz is my passion--and its something that has benefitted all other aspects of my life tremendously. While on the surface it would seem that jazz musicianship is the polar opposite of running a business, the two practices are linked in numerous ways.

Just as you'd learn a great deal from a trusted advisor, so too can non-traditional sources help you to expand your knowledge base. Jazz musicians are agile and dynamic, carrying their group's song and themes through the diversified landscape to the end. Quite frankly, I don't know anyone better to provide leadership advice than a professional jazz player for this very reason. Here are some powerful takeaways I've picked up along the way from incredible musician leaders--let these lessons shine at your business, and your cube will get a lot swankier.

1. Playing it safe gets you tossed off the stage. Some executives would say that in today's turbulent economy, takings risks isn't wise. If you don't take risks you'll never excel. Playing it safe all the time becomes the most dangerous move of all.

2. There are no do-overs in live performances. For every hour in a "performance" setting, you should spend five hours practicing. Athletes do this, musicians do this--muscle memory is no different in the board room, in front of a new client, or with your team. So why aren't you doing this?

3. Listening to those around you is three times more important than what you play yourself. If you're the one talking all the time, you're not learning anything. Listen, absorb what you hear, and use the information to make a conscious choice about whatever you're facing.

4. There's a time to stand out as a soloist and a time to support others and make them shine. You rocked a project--nicely done. Praise is well-deserved. However, as a leader, it's more likely the case that your team members rocked a project, together. Susie was on top of her game with the slide deck? Tell her--and tell the client. Johnny couldn't have articulated the challenge to the press any more astutely? Refer back to his commentary as a stellar example. When you can share the wealth, everyone wins.

5. Expect surprises and adversity, since jazz (and life) is about how you respond and adapt. If running a business was always smooth sailing, everyone would do it. That being said, the old adage explains that "a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor." Anticipate hurdles and maximize your team's effort to jump over them.

6. Know your audience. If you're playing for a group that's looking forward to something slow and calming and you get on stage and play a wild and crazy, upbeat riff, nobody will dig it--even if it's a well-crafted piece. Your customers are the same. If you're not working to provide them with something they want and need, you're doomed to fail.

7. It's always better leaving people wanting more, rather than less. Of course as you live and breathe your business, you have a visceral urge to share every piece of minutia with anyone who asks. Don't. Instead of pouring it all on at once, give people a teaser, so they crave the next bit you explain. In similar fashion, don't try and launch 15 products at once for a new line; start with one or two to get people begging for more.

8. The best leaders are those that make others sound good. Big band leaders bring out the best in their troupes--during a sax solo, his job is to make sure the drum line supports the sax player with a quality backdrop to make the riff shine especially bright. Are you putting these pieces together on your team? Where could someone excel that they're being held back? Shatter those boundaries and encourage creativity to soar.

9. Pattern recognition is easier than raw genius. If you drive the same way to work every day for a year, you're bound to learn about--and avoid--the pothole on Main Street that you pass each time. Jazz is no different; if you've played combinations countless times, it becomes second nature to pair new things together based on previous patterns. So too in business, seasoned executives and professionals have seen so many types of people, deals, projects, and processes, so it becomes much easier for them to avoid these proverbial potholes, rather than having to start from scratch every time.

10. Shy musicians are starving artists. If you're playing a gig, you get paid when there's butts in seats, so you can't be shy in telling people about the upcoming show. Why haven't you been this bold in your new product launch? Are your employees evangelical about your company's culture? Are your vendors singing your praises?

11. Keeping it new and fresh is mandatory. Jazz has its roots in real-time, collaborative innovation, just like the act of starting and growing companies. If you're not actively seeking new challenges and ways to expand your horizons, you are automatically falling behind.

Legendary jazz pianist Dave Brubeck put it best, and his words resonate not only on stage for musicians but also in life for business leaders. As he so eloquently described it, "There's a way of playing safe, there's a way of using tricks and there's the way I like to play, which is dangerously, where you're going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven't created before."

Start-up VCs get all of the attention, but Fortune 500 companies might make better investors for your start-up.

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson is not a fan of corporate capital; he said as much during one of Pandodaily's fireside chats in New York last week.

Wilson was served a rebuttal on Tuesday, however, at Bloomberg's Next Big Thing Summit in Half Moon Bay, California. Panelists from four corporate investment firms sat down with Bloomberg reporter Douglas MacMillan to set the record straight. Corporate capital provides a few things traditional VCs can't offer, they said.

Here are their five reasons to consider--or reconsider--a corporate investor.

They're already stakeholders.

Corporate investors have a built-in motive for supporting innovation within their sector: It strengthens their own business ecosystem, according to Citi Ventures CIO Deborah Hopkins. This may seem contradictory to the notion of free market competition, but Hopkins explains that industry innovation actually helps existing companies more than it hurts them.

The payment processor Square, for example, could be deemed "disruptive to our own business" says Hopkins--yet Citi has invested heavily in the start-up. Why?

"We're not focused as much on financial return as on strategic return," Hopkins says. "What we get back [from Square] is first-class learning from an exciting entrepreneur."

They have awesome resources.

According to Hopkins, corporations have one major asset that traditional VCs lack: a customer base.

"That's the golden ticket," she says. "Unlike a VC, we can help [start-ups] scale."

An existing network of customers can provide young companies with the low-risk setting they need to test and develop a winning product, says Comcast Ventures managing director Michael Yang--which is good for both the parent investor and start-up. According to Yang, corporate investors see start-up partners as an opportunity to innovate (read: make riskier decisions) while offering those start-ups the benefit of a safety net for product development.

They have friends on both sides of the table.

Corporate VCs are well connected; they rub elbows with both traditional VCs and other key players in their sector. So, they can connect you with their customers or colleagues, and additional funding, according to SanDisk Chief Strategy Officer Sumit Sadana.

In addition to making the most of their corporate network, says Sadana, SanDisk tries to keep its portfolio companies' best interests at heart. "We could do a right of first refusal," he says, "But we try not to do that. We bring them to customers that we have good and deep relationships with."

"We don't believe in pushing exclusivity at all," echoes Hopkins. "We see it as counter to being the champion of these companies. [Instead] we built partnerships with other VCs who bring us companies... because of our way of working alongside them."

They're not focused on your IPO.

"For a VC, going public is the end. For corporate [investors], it is a means to an end," says Heidi Mason, a managing partner of the Bell Mason Group. She adds that the "end goal" of most Bell Mason investments is a portfolio company's growth.

"We have an opportunity to break the [traditional investment] cycle... and completely accelerate the impact [we] have in an emerging ecosystem," she says.

Superman as an entrepreneur? Not exactly, but you just may walk away from "Man of Steel" with inspiration for your business.

Over the weekend my wife and I and a friend saw Man of Steel--the latest reboot of the Superman franchise. Note: Spoilers below! If you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to stop reading. But then again, it's Superman. You probably know the story already.

Afterward, as we left the theater, my mind wandered to what the movie had to say about entrepreneurship. (It's a sickness. I can't stop thinking like this. Maybe you can relate.) Nobody actually starts a business in Man of Steel, but the movie is as much about leadership, integrity, and gathering teams to achieve a worthy goal as it is about action and explosions. In other words, it has a lot to do with the best principles of entrepreneurship. Here are my top takeaways:

1. Familiarity (Sometimes) Rules

Almost everyone who goes to see Man of Steel knows pretty much what's going to happen. No joke, my three-year-old nephew told me the entire Superman origin story a few weeks ago, complete with references to "Kwypton" and "Superman's daddy, Kal-El." (I think he's a bit confused. Jor-El is Kal-El's father, and it's Kal-El who later becomes Superman. But still, not bad for a three-year-old.)

Despite that familiarity, Man of Steel pulled in $128 million in the U.S. last weekend. Not bad for a cartoon character who made his debut in 1938. Lesson: It can sometimes be better to put a new twist on an old idea, rather than make up something new out of whole cloth.

2. If Trust Doesn't Quite Trump Everything, It Comes Close

Kal-El (aka Clark Kent--interestingly the film manages never to refer to him as "Superman") starts out angst-ridden, unsure of where he's from. Just as he figures it out, his Kryptonian father's nemesis, General Zod, shows up. Zod demands that Kal-El surrender in exchange for Zod sparing the Earth--and Kal-El almost gives in.

What stops him? It's all about trust. First, he realizes that Zod isn't trustworthy. Then, the fact that Kal-El was willing to sacrifice himself for Earth helps the humans learn to trust him. (As Kal-El reminds a still-skeptical general at the end of the film, he grew up in Kansas!) The more loyalty he shows to humans, the more they slowly develop trust in him, in return.

3. It's Not What You Say; It's What People Hear

You know the giant "S" on Superman's chest? It's not really an "S." Instead, as explained at least twice in Man of Steel, it's a Kryptonian symbol meaning, "hope." That's nice. But on Earth, as Lois Lane reminds Kal-El, an "S" is an "S" is an "S." 'Nuff said.

4. Focus, Focus, Focus

Kal-El has super-hearing and super-vision--and man-oh-man, is he ever distracted as a result. As a kid, this nearly pushes him near the edge. It's only after his mother teaches him to focus on one sound or sight at a time that he can retain sanity and function. When Zod and the other criminal-refugees from Krypton reach Earth, they have the same problem, except that nobody has ever taught them to focus their senses. Result? They're overwhelmed with sights and sounds, and unable (temporarily) to function.

Sound familiar? Distraction is driving us all crazy and it can be killer in business. Learning to focus is key. (As I wrote this column, this realization almost made me close a few of the dozen tabs I had open on my browser, shut off my phone, and maybe even turn down the sound on the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Finals game I was watching. Almost.)

5. Make the Customer Comfortable

At one point, Kal-El surrenders to a group of humans despite knowing that they plan to turn him over to Zod. When Lois Lane subsequently expresses surprise that he allowed the humans to handcuff him, Kal-El tells her it's because it was important that they feel safe around him. (Even though Superman needs handcuffs like a fish needs a bicycle.)

Sometimes people (read: customers) insist on things that don't cost you much, but make them feel more comfortable. If you want them to deal with you (or try your product), go along with the gag.

6. Negotiating is a Super Skill

There's a lot of action in Man of Steel, but at the same time there's a heck of a lot of negotiating. Jor-El tries to negotiate with the leaders of Krypton before their planet explodes. General Zod tries to negotiate with Jor-El, and then eons later, he tries to negotiate with Kal-El. Kal-El tries to negotiate with Zod, and then the U.S.-led military. Eventually, he and Lois Lane negotiate an interstellar love connection.

What does it all reinforce? Well, without getting too deep, each time negotiations fail and the scene turns to action, it follows a character who has been pushed all the way to the brink. Nobody ever mentions the phrase, but Man of Steel is filled with some tough negotiators who have clearly identified their best alternatives to a negotiated agreement.

7. You Can Easily Hide Forever, Just By Wearing Glasses

This one's tongue-in-cheek of course. Most renditions of the Superman story suggest that Kal-El can blend in with humans simply by donning Elvis Costello specs--and maybe stammering a bit around Lois Lane. Man of Steel takes this idea to extremes. It's kind of cute to see a Superman movie subscribe so blatantly to the "ugly-pretty-girl theory" of Hollywood flicks.

(Like this post? Check out Bill's weekly email.)

The seasoned VC says Silicon Valley will remain a tech hub for years, but Silicon Alley, with its focus on content, is paving the way for exciting changes.

What's in a name? A lot, according to Mark Suster, founder and CEO of Build Online and an investor with the Los Angeles-based GRP partners.

That's why his firm is changing its name.

"I think it's a bit rich that we go around to entrepreneurs and say markets are being disrupted, you need to change," he said during the Venture Forward Conference in New York on Tuesday.

The new moniker, which he wouldn't disclose at the conference but plans to unveil next week, will be the first such change for GRP in 17 years. It's meant to reflect GRP's renewed focus on transparency and investment in infrastructure--two things entrpreneurs say they want.

The idea came after polling a group of entrepreneurs, who also said they look for operational experience, industry insight, marketing help, and people who can bring capital to the table from their VC firm. Since all those encompass what GRP does, "We felt we needed a name that would represent all those things," he said.

When asked how hard it's been to do business "so far south of Silicon Valley," Suster acknowledged the challenge, but pointed to markets outside of the tech hub.

"Silicon Valley will always produce the biggest hits; it will always be the tech ecosystem for the foreseeable future," he said. "But there are market conditions that make it easier and better to build outside Silicon Valley."

Focusing on software-based start-ups has proven this: Many things which revolve around the Internet--content, commerce, and communication--aren't dominated by the Valley, he found.

"Commerce is something great trading cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles have always done well," Suster said. In terms of content, "New York has a significant advantage there." And communication has strongholds in Washington, D.C., Kansas City, and "of course, New York. That's why we've seen companies standing out more."

Businesses in all kinds of industries are going mobile and bringing their goods directly to customers.

Mobile may be the new thing for businesses, but there's an old way to put a twist on the concept. Pack your business onto a truck. Although food trucks now have a reality show, forgoing a permanent home for a business and taking it onto the road isn't a new concept. But it might be one your company should explore.

Food trucks in their original incarnation--commissary trucks that brought coffee and bad food to locations like construction sites--have been around for many decades. So have trucks to replace automobile glass or wash and detail vehicles as well as vans that bring mechanics tools out to auto repair shops. In a way, plumbers and carpenters have done the same thing, bringing equipment and supplies to the customer's location.

But the concept of putting a business on a truck is beginning to expand. Over the last three or four years, fashion trucks have become... fashionable. The people behind The Fashion Mobile of Minnesota used to own a store but found that buying a used truck off Craigslist cost about the same as one month of rent.

There are trucks for all kinds of businesses: hard-to-find shoe brands, a record shop, kitchen and home goods, and vintage clothing. The Original Mobile Barbershop Co. is not the only one with chairs on wheels. Heck, there's even a site where people buy and sell used pet grooming vans.

The principles are sound. You bring a business out to the customers and provide convenience. At the same time, you intercept people outside of their normal shopping routine and get more attention. Overhead is much lower, though you do have to work through the logistics of permitting and legal parking to do business on the road and avoid tickets.

So what are some other businesses that you could do out of a truck, or with a vehicle as a supplement, going to the customer? Here are some ideas:

• photography studio
• nail or hair care
• massage or physical therapy
• business consulting
• CPA/accountant
• financial services advisor
• tailor
• wedding planning

You could bring samples and services to a B2B client and ship afterwards. Insurance firm? Send the truck out to an office building where you've already made arrangements and workers can consult. Combine a truck with an existing business and the ability to schedule appointments and look at product on a website and the possibilities grow. Is it time that your business hit the road?

Great research doesn't always lead to great medicine -- and sometimes forming a company can actually get in the way.

Say you’re a healthcare entrepreneur. And say you meet a brilliant immunologist at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference, and she has very exciting data demonstrating full tumor regression in a genetically engineered mouse model of human breast cancer. It’s clear that she has discovered a critical step in cancer development that could be a great new drug target.

Time to license the intellectual property, right? Get this scientist onto the board of your new start-up, then turn her research into a treatment and, of course, profits.

Actually, that’s probably not such a great idea.

Here’s why it’s not the right time to pull the trigger - and why it may never be:

1. Most early science will not lead to drug candidates that pass feasibility and toxicology requirements to qualify for human trials. Human biology is complicated, and no one can predict what will or won’t work.

2. Once you raise money and recruit co-founders, you’re in the business of convincing them that you will be successful. No matter what. In so doing, you incentivize scientists to design experiments that will support your business plan. This corrupts the conduct of the most important testing and encourages your scientists to generate ‘good enough’ data - good enough to keep the funding rolling in.

3. Capital that could be going directly into research will instead be spent on the all-too-familiar costs of doing business: salaries, attorneys, accountants, boards of directors, etc.

4. As all these parties become more invested in the success of certain experiments and approaches, the less willing they become to admit it when things-;even small things--inevitably go wrong. Dismantling a team and a company is difficult, and it isn’t any fun.

5. Even the best outcome - generation of a compound that achieves Investigational New Drug status- carries a burdensome economic sidecar. To generate attractive returns for your earliest-stage investors, you have to begin recuperating not only your company’s scientific investment, but also the general and administrative costs, which have probably eaten up one-third to one-half of the total capital invested. And the road to a marketable drug has just begun.

6. In the pursuit of ‘good enough,’ it’s likely that your team has passed over other approaches that may have led to better drugs. Now that capital is gone.

Can you tell that I’ve seen this movie a few times? Here’s when you might consider investing:

1. When the science has become a platform--a fundamental new approach to generating many new drugs. Now you’re jumping into something that’s more akin to an engineering start-up.

2. When a bonafide drug molecule (better, several) has been advanced to the human trials stage. This is still a high-risk investment, but at this point your ultimate buyers - the pharmaceutical companies - will be lining up to partner with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to co-invest. That greatly raises your chances of profitable success.

In medicine, forming a new company around early science can easily produce a misalignment of incentives and waste precious capital. Early-stage biomedical assets should be managed and tested as a portfolio of ideas with no bets or promises placed on any single one. This will allow the unbiased pursuit of the projects that survive rigorous vetting and testing, all the way through to drug molecules that are ready to be used in the treatment of actual disease.

Nobel-prizewinning physicist Richard Feynman was an eccentric within the scientific community. But he sure got a lot done.

In the book, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, relates a story about an ant he found near his bathtub.

Instead of squishing the bug, Feynman put some sugar out for his visitor and used a colored pencil to track the ant’s march back to its nest. When another ant emerged to collect more sugar, Feynman tracked its movements as well. Feynman soon discovered that the ants used each other’s trails to find the pile of sugar he’d left out. He also learned that the ants continually improved the route from the sugar to the nest over time.

Tracking ants all day with colored pencils doesn’t exactly seem like a productive exercise. But for Feynman, that was never a consideration. He let his curiosity guide him. He was always ready to tackle questions that interested him with focus and care.

For Feynman, productivity was less about work and more about exploring problems that intrigued him.

Leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone who strives to do more can learn from Feynman’s unique way of working.

1. Don’t worry about what others are thinking

Feynman was an eccentric within the scientific community. He frequented strip clubs, drank heavily for a spell, and taught himself to paint. He never let the judgment of others get under his skin or unnerve him. He was content to follow his own course and do as he pleased.

He wrote, “You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.”

By adopting this attitude you free yourself from paralyzing second guesses, doubts, and uncertainty. Work in your own way and don’t let other people’s criticisms delay you.

2. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do

Feynman did his best work when his curiosity, interest, and wonder were piqued.

“Fall in love with some activity, and do it!” Feynman advised. “Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.”

If you do what you want to do, everything else will fall into place. If you undertake tasks you want to do first, your enjoyment will increase your productivity and enhance your focus.

3. Stop trying to be a know-it-all

Feynman accepted that he didn’t know everything and that most of the world was one big mystery. He didn’t bother trying to solve the mystery of the universe or being the smartest person. In fact, he liked not knowing things. Ignorance, and not having all the evidence, made him excited.

“I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong,” Feynman said during an interview. He once commented in a lecture, “We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.”

Embrace your ignorance and let it propel you to new, interesting discoveries. Try to prove yourself wrong and don’t be afraid to fail.

4. Get off the computer

Feynman was able to follow ants around with colored pencils, learn samba in Brazil, and discover how to crack a safe because he enjoyed learning things that interested him. However, he avoided computers because they were distractions that dulled his ability to investigate the world.

“There is a computer disease,” Feynman tells us. “Anybody who works with computers knows about [it]. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”

Obviously, computers are crucial to today’s world of work. However, it’s advisable to free yourself from them whenever possible. They can distract and limit your productivity and perhaps your creativity.

5. Have a sense of humor and talk honestly

Feynman was never one to dress up his sentences with fancy words and complex phrases. He tried to explain things clearly and with a touch of humor.

He lived by a simple rule: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” The phrase speaks to Feynman’s enduring modesty and acceptance that he was no better than anyone else. His most urgent goal was to learn about the world and as such he did it with astonishing precision and productivity.

Don’t pretend to be better than others and don’t fool yourself into thinking you have all the answers. Like Feynman, be humble and talk directly and honesty.

I just dumped (and donated) 300 books. But the rest you'll have to pry from my cold, dead fingers.

Two weeks ago, I dumped more than 300 business books.

“Dumped” sounds harsh. The purge wasn’t as bloody as all that. Many were unbound galleys stamped with dire warnings not to quote, reproduce, or distribute. I’m very cautious about such matters (in accordance with the FBI’s no-exhibition rule I never watch DVDs with anyone beyond my immediate family). So I dutifully stuffed the galleys into 30-gallon garbage bags and left them for the trash guy.

The hardcovers I deposited in a book-donation bin outside the local high school. Books on startups I set aside for the prison library where I volunteer. The inmates are always talking about businesses they plan to launch when they get out--a motorcycle detailing shop, a tattoo parlor, one of those mondo vending machines stocked with pet supplies. They can’t use the Internet, and the few entrepreneurship books available to them are out of date. So I know those volumes will get a lot of use.

My own library began accumulating when I started reviewing new business titles for Inc. Before that I owned a couple of shelves’ worth: the canon, if you will. I had Porter on strategy; Bennis on leadership; Schein on culture; Senge on continuous learning; Kotter on change; Christensen on innovation; Drucker on everything. Entrepreneurship has produced a canon of its own, including Amar Bhide’s The Origin and Evolution of New Business; Jack Stack’s The Great Game of Business; and my colleague Bo Burlingham’s Small Giants. Also The Peter Principle, The Art of Demotivation (by Despair.com founder Dr. E.L. Kersten), and, of course, the seminal work of Scott Adams.

Over five years, that collection had swelled 30-fold. Publishers cast virtually all their bread upon the waters, so I receive as many as four or five titles a week. A handful I write about. A few find a place in my home office. The rest migrate down to IKEA bookshelves in the basement. Recently, my near-and-dears decided to clear out that basement to free it up for teen parties. (Apparently teenagers lose all zest for life when forced to congregate on the same floor as adults.) I was assigned the task of culling my business-book hoard by two-thirds or more.

I expected the process would prove agonizing. Which of the four books on managing millennials should I consider the managing-millennials Bible? How many Seth Godin titles do I need to represent his oeuvre? I knew I should probably hang on to one brain-science book. But the amygdala so rarely comes up in conversation.

In the end it wasn’t so hard. Whole categories I instantly deemed expendable. Out went the parables. Out went the leadership lessons from sports and military figures. Out went the creativity books full of line drawings and white space. Out went the books laying out an author’s trademarked “system” for generating ideas or managing teams. Out went the technology books published more than a year ago. Out went the books that didn’t mention by name any actual businesses, or that merely name-checked usual suspects like Apple, IKEA, and Nordstrom’s.

My daughter suggested dumping the myriad books with alliteration in their titles. That turned out to be a surprisingly effective sorting principle.

What made the cut? Here are just a few of the titles I retained without a second thought:

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. HBS professor Theresa Amibile explains that employees are happiest and most productive in environments where they can make unimpeded progress on their work every day.

Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us. Sociologist Duncan Watts argues that decisions and predictions often go awry because we think we understand more about the world than we actually do.

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. Business author Daniel Pink takes the first really fresh look at sales in ages. Everybody sells, he explains, and getting people to buy requires softer skills than we were taught.

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best… and Learn from the Worst. Stanford professor Bob Sutton’s worthy successor to The No Asshole Rule. If only Sutton was director of human resources for the whole world.

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Entrepreneur Eric Ries articulates what many of his peers have long instinctively known and launches a movement in the process.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Business reporter Charles Duhigg explicates a seemingly mundane but potent motivator. Useful for marketers, bosses, product developers, and anyone with an unused gym membership.

The Laws of Subtraction: Six Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything. Innovation advisor Matthew E. May became a student of minimalism during his years at Toyota in Japan. Less is more.

Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: Why 40 Percent of Your Business Is Unprofitable and How to Fix It. MIT lecturer Jonathan Byrnes directs his waste-seeking spotlight into every nook and cranny of a business. This book is spinach: not a delicious read but very good for you.

The Wide Lens: A New Strategy for Innovation. The Tuck School’s Ron Adner reminds us that innovations--no matter how brilliant--require upstream execution from suppliers and downstream cooperation from distributors to succeed.

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works. Once and future P&G chief A.G. Lafley and the Rotman School’s Roger L. Martin show leaders how to make the right choices and urge them to ask this excellent question: “What would have to be true for this strategy to succeed?”

Those are just a few of the 200-or-so titles that survived the shakeout. Clearly I failed to reach the two-thirds benchmark. But I’ve promised my family that as I add new volumes to the shelves I will get rid of old ones. That means every surviving book should be glancing over its shoulder. Yeah, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, I’m looking at you.

If you want all your employees to have the same experience at your company, don't forget about this crucial relationship.

As the founder and CEO of BerylHealth, I built a company from three employees to almost 400, and scaled a unique corporate culture along the way.

But earlier this year Stericycle, a public company, acquired BerylHealth and I was named Stericycle's chief culture officer. Now I have a much different challenge. Stericycle has 13,000 employees in 13 countries, a great financial track record, and strong customer satisfaction. But its executives have determined its future success is contingent on a renewed focus on employees.

Gauging Company Culture Today

One of my first steps is to "baseline" where Stericycle's culture stands at this point. To do this, I recently conducted the first employee satisfaction survey the company had conducted in four years.

As I reviewed the survey results and read thousands of open-ended comments, a couple of things hit me. First, Stericycle has a lot to be proud of. Its employees are loyal and hard-working, and committed to the company's success. Second, the problems and issues Stericycle employees raise are much the same as what I've always heard from the Beryl team. Whether you have a company of 13 people or 13,000, employees want what I'd call the basics.

Here's what they've said so far:

• Give me the tools and resources to do my job.
• Make sure I understand the company's vision so that I am here for a purpose bigger than my job.
• Show me that I am valued for the work that I do.
• Give me opportunities to grow.

Where a Culture Problem May Lie

As I read the survey responses, I also noticed a great range in their tenor, from those who were highly satisfied to those who were very unhappy. That told me that the culture problem for Stericycle isn't knowing what to do, but instead knowing how to do it consistently. To me, that says that a breakdown is occurring with how middle managers and supervisors are tasked with and execute on management's vision.

What's the lesson for you? As your company grows, realize that even if you do a great job of setting the vision and communicating it from the top, a different obstacle awaits when it comes down to the most important relationship in your business: the one between an employee and his or her direct supervisor.

This vicious curse can take you down if you let it. Here's how to beat it.

Anyone who has started and ran a business knows the entrepreneur's curse.

The frustrating dichotomy between never having enough spare time outside the business and the frightening reality when you do.

When I started Wild Creations a number of years ago, I lived the curse firsthand. As someone who had just come from the corporate world and was a master at leveraging vacation days with three-day weekends and long holidays, the entrepreneurial transition was challenging. I had lofty aspirations of "being my own boss" and having more freedom and independence.

Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Like any new business, it consumed every minute of spare time and every ounce of energy I had. When I actually took a few hours off, for example on a weekend to indulge in a simple college football game, the enthusiasm and pleasure of doing so were always dampened by the heavy guilt I felt for not working at the business. If we were slow enough to take time off, should I not be focused on trying to get more business?

It was a vicious cycle.

After a while, however, I learned to effectively deal with the "curse" and in fact became quite adept at avoiding it altogether. Here are a few tips on how other entrepreneurs can do the same:

1. Find a Partner

Many entrepreneurs, by nature, are soloist. While completely understandable, I personally find it to be less optimal. I was fortunate to find a trustworthy partner and co-founder at Wild Creations. We had met and worked together on a USAID project overseas and discovered that we shared similar entrepreneurial aspirations. It took a number of months to establish the rapport and the trust we needed, but the patience paid off. When one of us needed time off, we could always feel confident knowing that the business was in capable hands.

2. Hire Better People

If you cannot find a good partner or opt to go at business yourself, make sure to find better employees. And by "better" I mean better than you. Let's face it, the most capable and trusted person you are going to find to run your business is you, so do not compromise on selecting employees that you will trust to do it for you.

3. Learn to Delegate

For many entrepreneurs (present company included), giving up control of any aspect of the business is difficult. I often compare my business to my children. As nice as it might be, turning over the responsibility to watch and protect them is not easy. It is important to understand, however, that you cannot do or control everything. Indeed, there are individuals much better qualified for particular tasks. Understand your strengths and the priorities of the business and trust the rest to your team.

4. Find Your Happy Place

Like any parent, you will always worry about the business, regardless of the team you have in place. For me, I find it useful to have a "happy place" where I can go and tune out the business and outside noise. The time allows me to recalibrate, mentally, so I make certain I am focused on what is important. Whether it is a beach, a reading bench, a set of headphones, or a state of Zen, find your place and be willing to allow yourself the indulgence of "letting go," even if for a short time.

5. Do What You Love

It may be a cliché, but it is spot on. Most entrepreneurs choose to start businesses to pursue a personal passion or interest but quickly get lost in the rigor, stress and anxiety of running the business. When you start to get frustrated, remember why you started your business and reclaim the enthusiasm you had before. Working tens of hours in the business then feel a little less like a chore.

The entrepreneurs curse is, for the most part, mental. It requires the ability to turn the business "on" and "off" at a moment's notice, which is completely achievable but takes practice ... lots of practice. In the end, you may not find more spare time to enjoy, but you will most certainly learn to enjoy the spare time you have.

As for me, I finally learned to enjoy my ASU Sun Devil football games ... outside the office!

Have any other tips for beating the entrepreneur's curse? Please share them below!

This simple approach to market research reveals what customers really want when they buy your product. (Hint: It's not the product.)

Guerrilla customer research is easy. To prove it, we just need 4.5 minutes of your time.

That's how long it takes to watch Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen--the guy who coined the term "disruptive innovation"--explain one such technique in a video on the Forum for Growth & Innovation's website.

Christensen (@claychristensen) describes how his team learned why a fast food chain's customers were buying so many milkshakes for breakfast. News flash: It wasn't because they wanted milkshakes.

That's interesting, but it's not the point. The point is how Christensen's team unearthed what motivated this seemingly odd behavior. The method was cheap, simple, and highly replicable. So replicable, we're outlining it in three steps.

1. Before you interview, observe. Christensen's team spent a long day taking notes on milkshake buyers. "It turned out that nearly half of the milkshakes were sold before 8 o'clock in the morning," Christensen says. "The people who bought them were always alone, it was the only thing they bought, and they all got in the car and drove off with it."

2. Ask the big-picture question. The next day, they asked customers "What job are you hiring the milkshake to do?" The answer: The customers "had a long and boring drive to work, and they just needed something to do." They didn't want a milkshake, per se, but something easier to consume than a greasy doughnut or a dry bagel.

3. Conduct research face-to-face. "What job are you hiring the milkshake to do?" is a deceptively complex question. If you ask it in person, you can explain what you mean by "job," ask follow-ups, and drill down. Posed via e-mail, the question might yield a useless answer. Asked in person, it revealed something surprising about commuters' preferences.

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Good or great is acceptable for some, but consistently striving for awesome with this formula will prevent you from regretting your business or your life.

Thanks to Kanye West, the word awesome has been overused of late. Some even claim awesome fatigue. Why do things have to be awesome? Isn't good good enough? What about great--isn't that good enough? Not in today's business environment. With all the noise and distraction even great can fall short. It's not that people and companies intentionally force mediocrity our way. In fact, it's their lack of intention that usually results in mediocrity. But given a choice, I strongly believe most people would choose awesome.

Three key characteristics define an awesome experience:

It Must Be Positive

Awesome experiences are always positive. Awesome by definition means inspired by that which is grand or sublime. Creating a positive experience will assure that your audience consistently wishes to relive it.

It Must Be Meaningful

What is the point of doing something if nobody cares? Meaning comes from context and impact, and lends itself to sharing and discussion. If no one is talking about it, it wasn't awesome.

It Must Be Memorable

Reflect on the business or life experiences you remember. They likely resulted in a surprising epiphany you couldn't wait to share. You must find a way to connect with a compelling message that sticks in the brain.

Awesome experiences can be created anytime, anyplace, so why isn't the world overflowing with them? Primarily because creating them requires forethought, creativity, planning and execution. It takes time, skill and an understanding of how to turn a mediocre or "just OK" experience into one that is meaningful and memorable for everyone. Whether you are trying to step up your marketing, make an impression on someone or just create an awesome experience for yourself, this formula will help make it happen.

Fulfill The Need
At the very least, a good experience requires you to be a trusted provider and resolve whatever need is at hand. Anything less is simply a bad experience. A customer wants to reliably get what they expect. People crave dependability. Without basic needs being met, people are anxious, concerned and closed. Of course if all you do is provide basic needs, you'll be commoditized, and rarely considered if better choices are available.

Provide Entertainment
You can go from good to great by making the experience fun. Engage the participants so they enjoy the activity. Often in sales, building relationships does this. It's more fun doing the most mundane of transactions when you like the people with whom you are working. Customer retention is often dependent on this element.

Create the Unexpected
This is certainly the hardest of the three components to achieve, but by far the most critical. Today people are bombarded with so much information and it's rare that they are surprised. Find a way to wake people up in a way that is relevant to the experience you want them to remember. It could be with humor or great beauty, but consider where their thoughts are likely to go and take them a different and wonderful direction. This way they have a huge Aha! moment that makes them remember the experience for a long time to come.

Only providing two out of three of these components will come up short. The awesome experience requires the complete convergence of need, entertainment, and the unexpected, nothing less. Pursuing the awesome experience doesn't require lots of money, props or even other people. It mainly requires a decision on your part to make it happen and then a commitment to execute. Of course pursuing the awesome experience doesn't assure it will occur, but if you never attempt, you and those around you are sure to be forever suffering mediocrity.

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Want to live in a world of less digital clutter? Try this email management app.

I tend to get about 100 messages a day. That's down from about 300 before I started actively managing my inbox.

In a fairly recent column in the magazine, I wrote about both SaneBox and Unroll.me and how they helped me get some sanity. I'm still using both on a regular basis, but I can't say they have completely solved the email crisis for me.

Part of the problem is the nature of my job: I'm a tech columnist so I'm inundated with pitches, edits, feedback letters--the whole works. It's a win for me--I receive great ideas and communicate directly with some incredibly smart people, but the influx is also a time-suck.

Inbox zero is an admirable goal. Studies show we're more productive when we have less clutter around us. But many of the tools I've tried focus on broad categorization and not action.

Recently, I tried a new app called Mailstrom. First off, I really like the name. It's a play on maelstrom ("a violent or turbulent situation," indeed). The sign-up process is painless: You just type in your email account and password, then approve the access.

Analyzing my inbox took a good 30 minutes; then I received a notice informing me I could start using the app. The idea is to do some housecleaning and stay at zero each day. I'm a good test subject because I had a few dozen emails--some waiting to be archived, a few that only needed some minor attention, and plenty of extra fluff.

The app splits email into buckets but they're not intended to stay there. The one for Sender shows grouped emails. If you don't really need to deal with that topic anymore, you can delete all the related messages in two clicks. You can also view by time--say, all messages older than three months ago. You can continue to chop away at your inbox by removing social networking notices and shopping-related messages.

My favorite feature is the size bucket. You can see messages over 10MB, between one and 10MB, and under one MB. In a few seconds, you can remove huge emails with attachments that tend to slow down email processing. In all, I culled all of my Gmail messages down to zero in about 10 minutes, which is impressive. The same management chore would have taken three times as long without Mailstrom, especially since Gmail provides no way to see large emails. (An upcoming version of Gmail will provide similar categorization.)

Mailstrom works with Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, AOL, or any IMAP email service. It's entirely free. You'll see some nifty charts as well that show your time of use (say, if you mostly get emails in the morning or at night) and a quick tally of your zero-state (how many messages you've received today and how close you are to zero).

I plan to keep using it--and living with less email clutter.

These days you can learn more than ever before, and do it when you want, and where you want to. That's a great thing.

I recently attended an impromptu reunion between my husband and his very best friends from college. As I watched them reminisce over their college years, which took place at one of the most expensive universities in the country, I couldn't help but think about the fact that my husband, one of the most notable marketers around, never took a marketing class while in school. And although I was a very focused marketing and advertising communications student at Emerson College, most of my friends ended up working in vastly different industries than what they had prepped for during school, too. As my own daughters grow up, I frequently think about the value of the conventional college experience. My 10 year-old spends more time on Code Academy than she does with her nose in a textbook, and when my six year-old wants to know something that I don't know, she simply asks, "Google it, Mommy." The Internet has undoubtedly changed the way you learn. Below are just some of the ways that the Internet has made it easier to receive an education: MOOCs: A massive open online course (MOOC) is a class with unrestricted enrollment that takes place on the web. MOOCs are generally free and taught by university professors--often big-name academics that are incredibly appealing. MOOCs vary in terms of quality, and MoocAdvisor.com launched recently to enable users to review MOOCs. Boot camps and certifications: I attended a women in leadership conference once in which a speaker said that when she felt that she wasn't confident around legal issues surrounding her business, she went to law school, and immediately felt more confident. That resonated with me, especially as I am someone who became a CEO but never got an MBA--and learned the ins and outs of running a business through the school of experience. I've been considering going back to school for a while now, but in the interim decided that I just needed to learn about organizing my profit-and-loss statement to make it simpler and easier to analyze. After some initial Googling, I found an online course that offered a certificate around basic finance for business owners. It was $149. It taught me exactly what I needed to know, and I was thrilled to take the course lessons and incorporate them into my business. There are a multitude of online boot camps and certifications, and though there is usually a fee associated, it's typically nominal. Online degrees:What if you wanted to go to an accredited university, but life got in the way? Colleges and universities that recognize this challenge have started to make it easier too. Associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees are all available online, allowing you to go to an accredited university that maintains the standards of a more traditional education, but do it remotely. In the fall, I will be teaching a master's course in interactive media at Quinnipiac University Online, which will give students a full academic experience, but at the convenience that today's busy society desperately craves. If I ever were to go back to school to get my MBA, the only possible way that I could manage it would be to take the courses online. Of course, when I sat at my husband's college reunion, I thought about some of the things I loved most about school, like when I met friends I'd have for life. The question, of course, is whether or not that experience is worth it: If you could get the same learning and training on your own schedule at your own pace, would you? Colleges and universities need to face this reality, and they need to be prepared for how students respond.