150-WORD BOOK REVIEW – The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

The hard thing about hard things coverIf you’re forced to eat shit, don’t nibble.

In a perfect world, that would have been the title of this book, but we live in an imperfect world. We also work in imperfect businesses, where things can, and frequently do, go very wrong. Things going wrong is the basis of this book.

Part memoir and part how-to guide for people in business or people who own their own business, Horowitz covers a whole raft of topics that don’t get the airtime they deserve – how to fire people, how to integrate big company people into startups, how to deal with hiring someone from a friend’s company – and much more besides.

The good days are the ones we all shout about. Sadly, they can be all too infrequent. The bad days are inevitable and they are grim. Read this and they might get a tiny, tiny bit easier. Also, if you do end up being forced to eat shit, you know what to do…

 

150-WORD BOOK REVIEW: Reputation Economics by Joshua Klein

reputation_economicsSometimes there are times when reading a business book is a good thing, other times when a novel is a more palatable option.

I read Klein’s book when I was at a business conference and really could have done with a novel, but even under those circumstances, I thought this book was a marvellous summation of today’s over-digitised times.

Klein knows his shit, knows his companies and understands that personal networks are the new currency. While I don’t believe that Klout ratings ever consistently help with upgrades and the like, there is enough knowledge here to make this a book to ‘bookmark’.

Probably not best read at a conference or late at night, but perfect for that commuting buffer between work and home.

REVIEW: 8/10

How to create a successful B2B software company… without funding

* This is a guest post by Trackpal CEO Scott Lawson who tweets here

without_funding
In today’s tech business culture there is a preconception that you need to get the backing of angel investors or VCs in order to create a successful start-up. Doing so might give you immediate money in the bank, but you could end up relinquishing a larger share of your business than you’d ideally like to.

But you can start a successful business without funding. I’m the founder of Trackpal, a B2B software start-up. I launched Trackpal from scratch four years ago and now have paying clients across the globe. Based on my experience, here are six key factors in starting a successful B2B software business without needing funding. Continue reading

Wise up to the EU’s half-baked cookie law… you have two days left to do so

Cookie health warning - EU cookie lawThis Saturday, on the 26th of May the 12-month grace period ends for all European website owners to be compliant with the “EU cookie law” – as it’s known. For those in the dark, this is a directive handed down by bureaucrats in Europe who decided that website cookies were dangerous and users should be asked to opt into them before they can be served.

The law was sparked by the distaste for tracking cookies, or super cookies, that follow users from site to site, building profiles on them for advertisers. Understandably, the idea of big companies being able to build lots of profiling data without users’ knowledge sets privacy campaigners’ teeth on edge.

The problem is, we now have a law whereby every website must now invite users to opt in to cookies being used before they can be used. In principle, not a bad thing, but in practice it’s proving to be unworkable, as the blind leads the blind in trying to explain what exactly it is, how to technically code for it and how to implement compliant warnings. Continue reading

Wise up to the EU's half-baked cookie law… you have two days left to do so

Cookie health warning - EU cookie lawThis Saturday, on the 26th of May the 12-month grace period ends for all European website owners to be compliant with the “EU cookie law” – as it’s known. For those in the dark, this is a directive handed down by bureaucrats in Europe who decided that website cookies were dangerous and users should be asked to opt into them before they can be served.

The law was sparked by the distaste for tracking cookies, or super cookies, that follow users from site to site, building profiles on them for advertisers. Understandably, the idea of big companies being able to build lots of profiling data without users’ knowledge sets privacy campaigners’ teeth on edge.

The problem is, we now have a law whereby every website must now invite users to opt in to cookies being used before they can be used. In principle, not a bad thing, but in practice it’s proving to be unworkable, as the blind leads the blind in trying to explain what exactly it is, how to technically code for it and how to implement compliant warnings. Continue reading