Our world is getting more and more virtualized – but ultimately the Networked Age runs on power strips, cargo ships, and Uber trips. And over the next decade and a half, as 2.5 billion people in China, India, and other developing countries come online and join the global middle class, the global demand for energy…
At least one global cryptocurrency will achieve mass-market adoption. That cryptocurrency will either be Bitcoin or a derivative inspired by it. The chance that it will be the former is so strong that in 2014 I invested in Bitcoin startups Xapo and Blockstream. And yet, perhaps surprisingly, when one of the very smart people I…
When I read that my old friend Mark Pincus has returned to Zynga as CEO, it struck me as an important example of the unique role that a founder plays at a startup. This moment highlights the importance of founders, precisely because Zynga already had a capable and accomplished CEO. Don Mattrick is a seriously experienced and…
LinkedIn Partnering with Lean In, the Anita Borg Institute and Facebook to create new computer science and engineering Lean In Circles When you’re doing something challenging and risky, there’s strength in numbers. That’s why backcountry explorers use the buddy system. It’s also why successful start-ups are often the result of close-knit teams rather than a…
President Obama covered a lot of ground in his State of the Union Address. Childcare. Education. Tax codes. Terrorism. Cybersecurity. And the theme that ultimately unites all these different areas, no matter how unconnected they may seem sometimes, is something the president touched upon too: The world – and America right along with it —…
“The New Republic is frankly an experiment,” its editors wrote in its debut issue, which appeared a little over 100 years ago in November 1914. The experiment got off to a shaky start. The first issue sold just 875 copies. At the newsstand rate of ten cents a copy, net proceeds were $87.50. While circulation rose in…
Mutual benefit is the fundamental characteristic of an alliance in the workplace. Ideally, by working together, the employee transforms his career and the company transforms its business. When an employee evaluates what he or she stands to gain in this alliance, the cash and equity compensation the company offers should be one of the benefits.…
In his book Zero to One, my friend and former colleague Peter Thiel lays out an ingenious, provocative, and highly entertaining argument regarding the virtues of monopoly and the shortcomings of competition. He makes his case so deftly that I suspect it will soon attain the implacable majesty of conventional wisdom. That would be a shame.…
Last night President Obama explained the steps that the Administration will take to initiate long-needed reforms to our nation’s immigration policy. Essentially, around 4 – 5 million undocumented immigrants who meet certain criteria will be able to come out of the shadows and obtain relief from deportation for as long as three years. We are undoubtedly a…
Bitcoin is often characterized in the media as a volatile virtual commodity that can optimize speculation even more efficiently than gold, securitized subprime mortgages, or tulips. That’s not how I think about it. For me, Bitcoin is a transformative addition to Internet communication protocols that will create new networks of trust, fuel massive economic ecosystems,…
In an alliance at work, the tour of duty represents an ethical commitment by employer and employee to a specific mission that’s expected to last a finite amount of time. An ideal mission is mutually beneficial: the company gains new products, customers, profits, etc. and the employee gains new skills, experiences, connections, and so on. The finite…
Today, eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe announced that he has hired a new leader for PayPal, Dan Schulman, and that the company will separate its PayPal and eBay payments and commerce businesses into standalone enterprises in the second of 2015 (Read the announcement here). This is a strong decision by John and eBay’s board: It opens a…
Silicon Valley is the best place in the world for adaptation and innovation, as demonstrated by its economic growth over the past decade. If you want your organization to be able to survive and thrive in an environment where change is rapid and disruptive innovation rampant, you need to develop the adaptability that is the…
As I suggested in my first book, The Start-up of You, all humans are entrepreneurs. Our natural inclination to create, adapt and collaborate – all hallmarks of entrepreneurship – are in large part what define us as a species. But as much as entrepreneurship is innate, it’s also a mindset and set of practices that can…
The world of work has changed, and the rules for managers need to change with it. We used to work in an era of stability and lifetime employment. Employers and employees committed to each other, for better or worse, through bull and bear markets, until retirement did them part. Because both sides expected the relationship…