In a time when we are being overwhelmed by apps that promise everything, the critical piece is having a motivated work force that can deliver the whole experience.

This isn't about an online behemoth acquiring a struggling high-end grocery store. It's about altering our relationship with shopping in an entirely new way.

At the end of March, 1871 CEO Howard Tullman and I had the great opportunity to join 100 other entrepreneurial ecosystem builders in Washington, DC for the Rise of the Rise Conference, powered by Revolution Ventures and Steve Case.  The goal of the conference was to share best practices from various entrepreneurial hubs from the "rest" of the country (not California, New York and Massachusetts, which receive 80% of the total venture capital dollars in this country). 

1871 kicked off its 2017 series of Fireside Chats with CEO Howard Tullman in mid-January with an all-star entrepreneur -- FUBU founder and panelist on ABC's Shark Tank Daymond John. During their conversation, Daymond shared keys to startup success, what makes a good Shark Tank pitch, how he balanced working a day job while spending his off hours fulfilling merchandise orders in the early days of FUBU and talked about his new New York incubator, Blueprint+Co.

In a recent post I explained the importance of timing in the shutdown of an unsuccessful business. The main point is that, especially in the context of a "fire sale," most tech startups and digital businesses don't have too many hard assets to offer, but if the entrepreneur doesn't wait too long, there is still plenty of potential value to be realized. Sometimes the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

If you love Springsteen songs for the lyrics like I do (not that there's anything wrong with the music) then you know what I mean when I say that there's a line or a poignant phrase from some Bruce song that seems perfect for just about any and every occasion. I can think of dozens of times - staring down into one abyss or facing up to another impending disaster-- when the Boss was the only solace I could find. 

Visitors to 1871 are always surprised to see so many gray hairs zipping around the place. (No one here saunters - everyone's in a hurry.) That's because a significant portion of these older folks are our mentors and, while gray hair can be simply a sign of age and not necessarily of wisdom, that hasn't been our experience. 

I used to feel bad for the guys in our IT department because they had the same career issue that the heads of Homeland Security have. As we all know, the terrorists and other scumbags only have to get it right one time and horrible things can happen. Yet our counter-terrorism teams and other law enforcement agencies have to try to be right every time and then, when nothing happens, no one bothers to thank them or offer recognition for their work. 

Who would have thought that there would be some worthwhile words of wisdom coming from Glinda, the Good Witch, in Wicked? I saw Wicked again recently for the umpteenth time and I was struck by how relevant some of the lyrics from the song "Thank Goodness" were to the entrepreneurial mindset and to the ways many entrepreneurs behave. 

It's not possible to read any new or old material about organizational behavior without coming across a screed or two on the general subject of how too many meetings simply represent a waste of time, energy and resources. I've taken a shot at it, too. (See How to Deal with Time Wasters) Such sessions rarely accomplish anything except maybe some pseudo-bonding.