

Related tags: Ditto Technologies, Electronic Frontier Foundation, patent trolls, Unified Patents
Why is it that most every business person I know has a regular old business card, you know, those 3 1/2 x 2 inch rectangular pieces of thick paper that we all like to give out to one another? I just grabbed a stack out of my drawer, and -- except for the colors, fonts, and arrangement of the design elements -- they're all pretty much the same. Senior Vice President at Umpqua Bank? Check. Associate Director of Sales at Hornblower Cruises and Events? Yup. Recruiting Manager at FortuneBuilders? Definitely.
So, what if I told you that there is a vast universe of alternative business cards out there -- little pass-out-able tokens that will separate you from the rest of the pack? Well, there is, and you should definitely consider banning boring business cards from your life.
Here's a sampling of unique business cards by way of mashable.com:
1. Stand up
2. Tab

3. Lego

4. Edible

5. Photographer

6. Square

7. Woz (it figures that Steve Wozniak would have the coolest card ever!)

So get out of that conventional business card rut and stand out from the pack! Just remember to make as big an impression as your card does!
social problems like health care, improving education, and getting people out of poverty—if that isn’t a stereotypical view of women entrepreneurs, I don’t know what is. Does that mean women should leave social media and mobile apps to the guys? Related tags: Angaza Design, Leslie Marincola, Wadhwa and Mitchell, Women 2.0
This morning one of my clients sent me a really interesting open letter-to-the-editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine, Eric Schurenberg. Long story short, the writer of the letter -- Liza Kindred, founder and CEO of fashion consultancy Third Wave Fashion -- called Inc. magazine to task for its lack of women in the editorial pages of the magazine (everything but advertisements). According to Liza's assessment of the May 2013 issue:
... Read MoreI just ran across an interesting video interview with the founder of live video broadcast site Livestream. In this interview, founder and CEO Max Haot discusses when he realized that the name he selected for his startup -- Mogulus -- was not a good one, and then what he did to select a new and then acquire the URL for his site (spoiler alert: it wasn't cheap!).
... Read MoreToday, more than ever, we need to help our young people take charge of their lives and learn how to become financially successful. On Friday I had the pleasure of serving as a judge for Junior Achievement’s sixth annual Student Entrepreneurship Challenge, and in doing so my hope for the future of our young people was renewed. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this organization, it has been around since 1954 and its goal is to “empower young people to own their economic success and stay in school through financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and work readiness programs.
... Read MoreHave you heard of Startup Weekend? Until a few days ago, I hadn't. But, based on just how big this thing is, I'm surprised that this is the case.
... Read MoreYou had to know it was going to happen because we’ve seen this story a thousand times before. An entrepreneur comes up with a product and makes a business out of it; it’s easily copied so lots more businesses like it start popping up, and eventually it loses its charm, causing profits to drop like a stone. The Wall Street Journal just reported that the gourmet cupcake market is crashing. To those who invested in these one trick ponies I say, “I’m not feeling your pain.”
... Read MoreIt seems anytime anyone in Washington DC starts talking about the need to cut tax loopholes, the response is as immediate as it is impassioned: "But we can't do that -- it will hurt the Job Creators!"
... Read MoreOne word I’m definitely getting tired of is pivot. For those very few of you who have not drunk the Kool-Aid on this term, to pivot means that based on market information you gain from “getting out of the building,” you make a change in direction for your startup—sometimes a radical change in direction, like completely changing your business concept. Given that the term pivot is most commonly associated with basketball, it does seem that we’ve distorted the original meaning of the word a bit.
... Read More