Blog: Forward Thinking

Often snarky, sometimes funny, thoughts and musings from Glen Hellman about Executive Development, Leadership, Startups, Washington DC Business and more.
Executive Coaches Light Bulb Whoopass
June 24, 2018
In DCTech, Startup
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Sometimes I Have To Admit, #DCTech Isn’t So Bad

[caption id="attachment_60126" align="alignright" width="150"] Fake Grimlock holding a can of WhoopAss[/caption] When it comes to DCTech, ya'll, well, any of ya'll in DCTech who have ever read my screeds know that Mr. Cranky is a Glass Half Full kind of guy and that Half Full Glass is usually Half Full of Urine. Now, most of you are thinking that Mr. Cranky, is from New Jersey by way of Brooklyn before Brooklyn was as our President would say, "Infested," with hipsters, just used the word ya'll and you're wondering WTF so I'm going to tell you WFT, and TF is that the word, ya'll empowers...

June 20, 2018
In Culture, Human Resources
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Hiring Right

The point of hiring is not to get people on board the bus. Hiring right is getting the right people on board the bus. In fact, it's to get the right people in the right seats on the bus.  That's the key. Running a business is like chess and not checkers. In business, you don't need people who all walk alike, talk alike and share the exact same strengths and weaknesses. In business, different roles require different types of people. Some roles require the ability to move diagonally, other roles require you move like a knight. What's the key to hiring right? Four...

June 13, 2018
In DCTech, Raising Capital, Startup
2 Comments

Death By Venture Capital – Angel & Venture Capital Part III

Many Startups fail caused by Death by Venture Capital. Here's the deal. Imagine you are a parent. You have three kids. You don't give a crap about the kids as individuals. You take a portfolio approach to the family.  It doesn't matter what happens to any of the kids individually as long as one of them grows up to cure cancer, it's a win! The other two could wind up dead or in jail, but the portfolio of kids is highly profitable. Venture Capital is like that, except VC's eat their children...

June 9, 2018
In DCTech, Rant, Startup, Wolves of Startupland
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Hear Trustify’s Jen Mellon Lie on June 20th

Yes I know I'm talking about Jen Mellon, the horrible human masquerading as a do-gooder and founder of a great startup and wife of Danny Boice. For my regular readers, this is old hat and you don't have to read it. I know, I'm a bulldog with a bone that won't let go. This post is targeted for those who are not regular readers and who may be taken in by the classy facade of the rotting Potemkin Villiage that is Trustify and it's leaders. There is a group of people, sponsoring a talk by Mellon and these people who are putting their...

June 6, 2018
In DCTech, Marketing, Startup
5 Comments

Revisiting the Startups Turd to Gold Ratio

For startups, the Turd to Gold Ratio is a measure of quality density. It isn't enough to just judge the number of startups in an attempt to gauge the vitality of any startup ecosystem. One must separate the wheat from the chaff. Crunchbase and AngelList are simple non-prioritized, unfiltered, non-vetted lists of startups. There is no pretense of a measure of quality.  Alternatively, Technical.y DC and DC Inno are vacuous frauds pretending to analyze and report on the quality of a startup while loving everything and rarely spotting a gem. They are more heavily weighted to turds than gold...

June 4, 2018
In DCTech
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Amazon HQ2 – The Race To Ruin a Region

In this economic environment of full employment, crumbling inadequate infrastructure, and a woeful lack of engineering talent, "Winning" the Amazon HQ2 beauty contest would be losing for Washington. If you think housing prices are already ridiculously high, traffic on 66 at 11 PM on a Sunday should not have bumper to bumper traffic jams and WMATA Metro is a great idea that would work if it wasn't more dysfunctional than Congress. Imagine what would happen when we add 50 thousand jobs...

May 31, 2018
In Culture, Rant
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Indiscriminate Indiscriminator

My mother always told me that If I couldn't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Then one day, my sister asked my mother to brush her hair and I said, "Jeeze Cindy, even Helen Keller can comb her own hair." To which my dad picked up his belt took two quick steps towards me and I beat feet out of the house as fast as I could. Only to return in under the cover of night when clearer heads prevailed. I guess that wasn't a nice thing to say. Obviously, the lesson didn't sink in. As you noticed Mr....

May 30, 2018
In DCTech
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Where Did The 3Si Team Go?

Hey! Wait just one minute! What happened? Where did my 3Si team go? What happened to the clowns on the bus? Where's my team? Jason Feimster has been running a long con, bait and switch game.  Pretending to be an entrepreneur. Pretending to be a VC. He has everything you need to be a VC. He has a name, URL, website, blogs, and a team...