Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC It's a Long Haul to Liquidity The consumer market is not a very friendly market for startups, says Estrin. It can be a 5-7 year deal and not a 2-year cycle. It is a long haul
Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC It’s Not Just About the Money Estrin emphasizes the reality of entrepreneurship sometimes being about money. But she rebukes that entrepreneurship can never be JUST about the money.
Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC Confidence vs. Arrogance There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, says Estrin. You have to have confidence in order to take risks, she notes. After successes, it is important to make
Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC Marketing and Learning from Customers Estrin explains how it is important not to confuse marketing with reality. Know when you are marketing and know what is real. Make sure you listen to real customer input,
Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC A Good Leader Must be Flexible Estrin emphasizes that a good leader and entrepreneur should have flexibility–flexibility in dealing with people and navigating through changes in plans. Estrin thinks that this is a hard time and
Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC Exit Strategies Now and Then Exit strategies are less clear than they use to be to 10 years ago, says Estrin. She talks about the cycles that exit strategies went through. IPO and acquisitions are
Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC Self-Configuring Architectures Estrin talks about how the hurdles for self-configuring architecture are a combination of new communication architecture, semi-conductor technology that can drive low power devices, new fuel sources, and from a
Judy Estrin, JLABS, LLC Consumer Markets are Difficult for Startups Estrin explains the reasons the consumer market is hard for startups is: 1) The amount of marketing dollars to reach the consumer directly is larger than startups can afford 2)
David Neeleman, JetBlue JetBlue: Life as a CEO David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue, tries to fly at least once a week, and makes a point to let the customers and crew know that he’s aboard and ready to
David Neeleman, JetBlue Ticketless Travel Neeleman talks about how technology is very important and has revolutionized many things in the airline industry. At JetBlue, we call technology high-tech, high-touch. You need to be able to
David Neeleman, JetBlue High-tech, High-touch JetBlue uses technology to become more efficient, to lower costs, says Neeleman. Today at JetBlue, we book 71% of our bookings over the internet, he says. We can’t ever forget
David Neeleman, JetBlue History of Travel Industry Neeleman talks about how JetBlue has been able to succeed in a really bad industry. The airline industry has lost more money than it has ever made. In the beginning
David Neeleman, JetBlue Neeleman on Southwest Neeleman has had a lot of experience in airline industry–starting with Morris Air, and then selling to Southwest. Southwest was a beacon that was out there–it had a market cap
David Neeleman, JetBlue Seeing Failure as Opportunity Neeleman tells the story of his first startup failure during college, and the airline partner he was working went out of business. He shortly thereafter received a call from June
David Neeleman, JetBlue Building a Company: Building a Legacy I build companies, it’s what I love to do, says Neeleman. I want to build a legacy–something that will last for a long time, he says. We came up with
David Neeleman, JetBlue Take Care of Your Employees Neeleman talks about how Herb Kelleher of Southwest had a strange saying: “I don’t care about my shareholders, I only worry about my employees.” In 32 years, Southwest has never
David Neeleman, JetBlue Creating A Customer Experience Neeleman shares an experience he received by asking for feedback about of the airlines business from a class of business students. He emphasizes the importance of a customer’s experience.
David Neeleman, JetBlue JetBlue: Defining Organizational Structure and Culture What does JetBlue think about organizational structure? We thought about how we would hire, train, set expectations and monitor to make sure this was actually happening, says Neeleman. We train
David Neeleman, JetBlue JetBlue: Employee Incentives and Rewards Neeleman points out that JetBlue pays employees more than standard wages at United Airlines. They use technology to be more efficient, to spend less money in other areas. Much of
David Neeleman, JetBlue Training Employees: Defining Organizational Culture Neeleman talks about how he tells his employees a simple formula for success: Show up to work, on time, with a good attitude. Take care of your fellow workers. If
David Neeleman, JetBlue Training and Accountability Neeleman talks about how JetBlue has to continually take the temperature of the company and its employees. We have to model the values that we want to see in our
David Neeleman, JetBlue Listening to Employees In 2002, we received negative feedback from employees regarding the leadership within the company, says Neeleman. We realized that there was not a leadership training program–we weren't training the managers
David Neeleman, JetBlue Establishing Organizational Values Neeleman believes that it is really important to set the tone and culture of the organization from the top. These include principles of the organization, such as safety, caring, fun,
David Neeleman, JetBlue Examples of Great Companies: Role Models Neeleman talks about how Sam Walton, founder of Walm-Mart, figured out that knowledge in distribution, price points, and that little human touch would revolutionize retail. He also mentions Dell Computer