Brian Oberkirch
Brian Oberkirch, a web entrepreneur based in Louisiana, joins Chip to talk about the high-tech startup environment outside of Silicon Valley.
High-tech entrepreneurs suddenly find themselves in an unusual position: the political crosshairs. Candidates usually scramble to align themselves with innovators and job creators — often falling over each other to do so. Over the past two decades, Washington has turned to Silicon Valley for answers and talent. Tech gurus have truly been the darling of…
Disruptive ideas don’t always have to be fancy inventions or monumental scientific discoveries. Sometimes, it’s just some healthy common sense provided in a compelling fashion. Delivered to the right person at the right time, it can have a truly disruptive impact. That’s how I see CC Chapman’s latest book, Amazing Things Will Happen. It’s got…
Much electronic ink has already been spilled over Apple’s decision to make in-app subscription purchasing available — at a 30% fee. I’m about to spill some more. Today’s open letter from Readability re-stokes the controversy as it claims that Software-as-a-Service providers are now ensnared in the new policy, not just media publishers and content providers….
Ideas are a dime a dozen. I know because I have paper and electronic file folders filled with ideas that I have come up with over the years for potential new products, services, and companies. Good ideas aren’t much more valuable. While some of the ideas on my lists seem clearly doomed, most seem to…
Many PR agencies worry about portraying themselves as different from the competition. After all, that’s how you get business, right? Often, agencies end up with “differentiation” that isn’t really all that different. (Hint: just about everyone says that the quality of their team makes them different.) Clients want results, so they’re not focused on the…
In recent years, we have heard much talk of services like Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce and others being “platforms.” The implication is that they are much like operating systems like Windows, Linux, or OS/X where developers can build applications on top of them. And that’s true, at least in a technical sense. The problem is that…