John Greathouse

Hands-On Startup Advice

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes.

During the first half of the last century, numerous fortunes were made electrifying devices that were previously manual. Because electrification was new, the qualifying term “electric” was an important distinction when describing these newfangled gadgets. However, the adjective “electric” was eventually dropped when all the devices in a product category utilized the technology. Software terminology is stubbornly not following a similar evolution.

It’s high time we kill the term Software As A Service (SaaS) and call it what it is – software. Even Salesforce abandoned it’s silly “No Software” tagline, after the company had to explain in 2015 that it meant, “No legacy software, just cloud software.”

You’re not a SaaS company, you’re a software company. You’re not a SaaS investor, you’re a software investor. You’re not a SaaS entrepreneur, you’re a software entrepreneur.

Continue reading “SaaS Is Dead, Long Live Software” →

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes.

This Louis Vuitton / Supreme boxed logo t-shirt recently sold for $1,750. The shirt was produced by Supreme, which originally sold it for $485.

You may think that this item is an anomaly, but it is not. A Louis Vuitton / Supreme hoodie resold for $7,500. Other Supreme apparel sells in the aftermarket for hundreds more than their retail prices, including box logo hoodies which typically sell for between $500 – $1,000.

Supreme even sold a brick, emblazoned with its logo for $30. The logo brick now resells for $100 – $999, depending on condition, inclusion of packaging and the IQ of the buyer. The Supreme crowbar, which retailed at $32, is a much better deal, reselling for $80 – $399.

Continue reading “Make More, Work Less – Create A Veblen Brand” →

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes.

Marketing automation company HubSpot performed a non-scientific survey of its users, asking them a variety of entrepreneurial questions. In Which Of These 7 Fears Are Keeping You From Being An Entrepreneur?, I reviewed the survey results related to why some would-be entrepreneurs never take the plunge.

Digging deeper into the data, I found that most of the reasons people cited for wanting to be an entrepreneur made sense, though several were sadly off base.

Continue reading “8 Top Reasons People Want To Be An Entrepreneur” →

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes.

“As much as possible, avoid hiring MBA’s. MBA programs don’t teach people how to create companies … our position is that we hire someone in spite of an MBA, not because of one.” – Elon Musk, Founder Tesla Motors and SpaceX

MBA’s are an easy target for entrepreneurs’ scorn. As Peter Thiel, Co-founder of PayPal and Palantir once put it, MBA’s are “high extrovert/low conviction people.” A nice way of saying they can be arrogant mercenaries.

I too have taken shots at MBA’s, describing why they are not typically well suited for startup life in Why Entrepreneurs Hate (Most) MBAs.

Continue reading “OK, So Maybe Not ALL MBA Entrepreneurs Are Oxymorons” →

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes.

I recently enjoyed John Covach’s History Of Rock Coursera course. In an early lecture, he explains how the Nazis’ desire to protect Hitler from assassination led to the invention of recording technology that was ultimately used by musicians to create multi-track recordings, such as the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This story of technology diffusion is illustrative of the Hummingbird Effect, in which a technological innovation results in unintended, non-obvious outcomes. Entrepreneurs who study historical Hummingbird Effects are better positioned to anticipate the unintended, non-obvious consequences spawned by today’s technologies.

Continue reading “How Trying To Assassinate Hitler Led To The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper” →