When I was growing up, running a lemonade stand was easy.  You picked a hot day, made sure you had a good location, priced it right, and provided a quality product.
But in the Web 2.0 world we live in, that just isn’t enough.  Everyone knows that it takes much less capital to start a business then it did 20 years ago, so everyone in your neighborhood is probably thinking about starting a lemonade stand too.  How will you ever be able to beat the competition?  Here is your guide to …

President Obama has signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law.
Besides my general opinion on the size and role of government(*), I wasn’t happy about the initial drafts of the law due to its impact on a start-up companies’ ability to raise angel funding.
Under the previous regulations, start-ups raised angel funding from only “accredited investors” to minimize their legal costs, hassle and time to close.  During the initial drafting of this new law, Congress proposed raising the bar to quality as an accredited investor from a …

Two authors that I enjoy reading are talking today about Business Model innovation – a subject that I’m passionate about and often write about.   Idris Mootee wrote What Do You Know About Business Model Innovation?, and Stefan Lindegaard wrote about Business Model Innovation – Big Risk, Big Rewards.
Both articles note the confusion that people have when trying to define “business model” in the context of innovation and whether it is different from your “strategy”.  In my experience, if you disagree with someone’s definition of “business model”, the disagreement will typically …

BloggingInnovation is a popular innovation site, with several articles published each day from a number of contributing authors – including me, as of this past January.
Each month they have a series called “Innovation Perspectives” where they pose a question to different authors.  This month’s question was “What are three specific actions that a non-innovative company can take to become more innovative?”
Read the full article I contributed here.

If you want to influence user behavior, offering an incentive isn’t enough.  You also have to make the implementation of that incentive practical and efficient.
For example, let’s say that a health insurance company is willing to lower your premiums if you lose weight, or lower your cholesterol, or lower your blood pressure.  The incentive is a direct financial gain, but how does the insurance company verify that you are doing these things?  Maybe they could provide a form for your doctor to sign, but that is a process that could …

We took the kids to the Carnegie Museum of Art yesterday.  To keep little kids interested they have a scavenger hunt, where they describe a painting in each gallery that the kids need to find.  I always appreciate businesses that provide these types of family activities, or at the very least a way to distract the kids (like a restaurant that hands out crayons and coloring paper to kids – every restaurant should do this).
As I walked around the museum I had two separate thoughts on innovation.  First, I began …