News You Can Use

Into this day, you all thundered and roared,

The best founders and CRO’s that KPCB could afford.

Coming to Stanford, you roared and you thundered,

You lions sat quiet as lambs in the 12 to 200.

Mobile made design important, John Maeda opined.

Can there be, he wondered, a Moore’s Law for design?

As a leader, the most important thing is earning their trust.

But transparency about your fears can make confidence go bust.

Ben is neither charismatic nor a manager, he told us so….

His first two big hires both made him say “Whoa!”

He recommends generous equity to your earliest force,

And he called his early users directly when data was sparse.

Surprisingly, Pinterest still feels precarious to Ben;

If it can go up so quickly, it can go down again.

Express design problems in constraints at the outset, he’s learned,

Because when design works, it delivers non-linear returns.

Larry Page sense is that “business people messed up companies,”

While female leaders improve cooperation, profits and creativity.

Put snacks near the bathrooms, so people run into each other,

Get feedback in the cafeteria, and also your mother.

There is little evidence that interviewing helps, but committees do, it appears.

And you can’t do big things, if your CEO lasts just 4 years.

“I don’t want to die, but I like to drive fast.”

And you have to do something different, for your company to last.

Goofing around is not something to avoid,

It turns out that’s how Larry got around to Android.

If you see an area you like, you have to move toward it,

And buy YouTube in a hurry, because you can afford it!

Mary Meeker’s slide deck is chock-full of data,

A fascinating thought process, ever since it was beta.

Every time she presents, I see something previously missed.

Being in the Internet Report should be on your bucket list.

Lazlo Bock hires the best people on the planet,

Using white board exercises to differentiate talent.

His hero is David Hasselhoff, the stud of Baywatch,

And he decompressed each day after Google by playing XBox.

Don Mattrick interviewed 38 CFO’s, gave them assignments,

And hired the Seahawks sports psychologist for employee alignment.

He practiced two ears and one mouth, when he was onboarding,

A practice that Richard Sherman should have used in post-game reporting.

Amanda talked crises, example BP.

Their oil flowed from the sea floor, like anecdotes from me.

Sumit ditched Microsoft Office, and phishes his employees,

While Eric said yes, you will be stolen in China, unfortunately.

Randy Komisar lectured Plan B, and brought us along,

With the thesis that normal business plans are all wrong.

Build a dashboard on leaps of faith, testing and empirical metrics,

Defining analogs and anti-logs for iPod and Netflix.

Learning on the job is what separates great entrepreneurs from good.

The edges of history have lessons to be understood.

This is second nature to scientists, where publishing demands

That Innovation is a process, not just a plan.

Michael Balaoing says Americans would rather be dead than public speaking,

Going to the Land of Oz is more fun than twerking.

Build an emotion in your audience, just say WTF.

Don’t get nervous, just get over yourself.

Does your audience have a heartbeat, or have they died?

Do you have a grabber, or just 164 slides?

Does your Ferrari have blood on the hood?

Does a watch tattoo on his mother’s ankle make you feel good?

Into 12 to 200, you thundered and roared.

“These are not the droids you’re looking for.”

We imagined places we’d like to reach,

And Florence is an alternative to life is a beach.

Thanks for organizing today, to Christina and Rouz.

We hope entrepreneurs take away some news they can use,

There may not be exact answers, but at least there were clues.

And this is the last stanza between you and the booze.