Ray Dalio, Founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, is a man after my own heart. A few years ago he publicly set down his core Principles for living, managing, and investing. Bridgewater uses these codified rules for recruiting, training, and most important, managing the firm’s culture. It’s well worth your time to read them,...
[Continue Reading]Should Your Startup Pivot, Persevere, or Plank?
(I originally published this in Forbes.) It’s a cliché of the startup world that successful entrepreneurs persevere even when everyone else thinks their idea is doomed (see: Pandora). It’s a cliché of the startup world that successful entrepreneurs pivot when appropriate (see: Paypal, Apple opening an app store, etc.) Unfortunately, these two clichés are both...
[Continue Reading]Entrepreneurial Education Programs in New York/Invitation to Founder Institute Investor Session
I’ve been very excited to see the boom in the New York startup community in the last 2 years, driven in large part by the shrinkage in the NY industries that traditionally lured some of the most entrepreneurial and aggressive personalities (finance, consulting, etc.) Michael Karnjanaprakorn posted a detailed list of resources and players in...
[Continue Reading]How to Manage Virtual Employees
In our latest FastCompany column, we summarized best practices in managing virtual employees at Evalueserve: …Daigle observed that the virtual structure eliminates many political issues: “Not only do we not have much of the water cooler, idle time type of communication, and resulting issues — we don’t have time for it. I think there is...
[Continue Reading]Book Summary: The Six Sigma Way
(book summary written by Scott Lichtman): I recently borrowed a copy of The Six Sigma Way, a book by Pande, Neuman and Cavanagh (consultants to GE, Allied Signal and other corporations). While the book and concept have been around several years, the steps it recommends for services firms are fresh and valuable today. Six Sigma...
[Continue Reading]

