Taking Back Disruptive Innovation

Clayton Christensen is finally taking back disruption! As I’ve written before, disruption is probably one of the most misused words in startup and innovation circles. Christensen first introduced the concept of disruptive innovation in his 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. The idea has come under fire in recent years (most notably, from the New Yorker). […]

What is Entrepreneurship?

What is entrepreneurship? I have to admit, this is one of my least favorite questions in the world right now. It seems to come up all the time. It’s discussed ad nauseam. And these discussions inevitably lead to additional “What is….” questions. What is a startup? What is innovation? What is creativity? What is a […]

I’m Back – What I’ve been working on

It’s been a long while since I’ve regularly posted here! I’m happy to say I’m back and planning to write a lot more over the next couple months (and beyond I hope, but we’ll see). Life has been busy. On January 29th my son, Quincy Scott Winfield, was born. He’s a great kid and it’s been […]

Disrupting Cable Television

Happy New Years readers, make 2015 a great one! 2014 was the year that I finally cut my cable. My wife and I aren’t really big TV watchers to begin with. We quickly learned that between Netflix, Amazon Prime, Redbox, the local DVD rental shop (yes, we still walk to a rental shop near our place in San Francisco), […]

Startup Weekend Reno – Playing Entrepreneur Part 2

I was asked to be part of the organizing team for Startup Weekend Reno 3, which took place November 21-23, 2014. It was really a great experience: working with a fun group of talented people, engaging with the local entrepreneurial community, and rewarding beyond expectations to see what the teams accomplished and how much they learned […]

Is Uber an Example of a Disruptive Innovation?

Is Uber disruptive innovation? Those who know me know Uber is one of my favorite companies (although I question all the fake Lyft requests as a competitive tactic). I’ve been a customer since they first launched in San Francisco and it has made getting around the city much easier and more convenient (my wife and I […]

Long Time

Hello, readers! It’s been a long time since my last post, my apologies (I know you didn’t even know I was gone). This fall I took a bit of a turn in my life and started a Phd program in economics at the University of Nevada, Reno. I’ll be focusing my research on entrepreneurship and […]

Disruptive Innovation Disrupted?

Interesting article over at the New Yorker this week by Jill Lepore questioning Clayton Christensen‘s theory of Disruptive Innovation. Disruptive Innovation, as defined in Christensen’s book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, has become one of the most influential theories on innovation in the Silicon Valley (and beyond) startup world. Indeed, it’s nearly impossible to have a conversation with a startup […]

The Execution Myth Exposed

There is a popular notion in the startup and entrepreneurship community that it is not great ideas that make great startups but rather great execution. This is given as the reason for many phenomena, from the fact that investors rarely “steal” ideas from investors that pitch them (they aren’t looking for great ideas, they are […]

10 Essential Entrepreneurship Books

Below are my suggestions for 10 essential entrepreneurship books that anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur should read. These aren’t feel good, (most likely) revisionist histories of successful entrepreneur’s stories. Rather, they are theory based, data supported books about entrepreneurship and what works in the real world. Several of them have been around for a […]

Innovation Hacking

Entrepreneurial Adventurism