Prof Bruce's definitions
A co-opetitor is someone who competes with you but, sometimes, cooperates with you. Someone who engages in co-opetition.
“REALTORS are rivals for listings and buyer clients but when they put them on MLS, they cooperate which means that he or she becomes a co-opetitor.”
by Prof Bruce November 1, 2010
Get the co-opetitormug. Every time you hear an economist utter yet another wrong or contradictory prediction, you can instantly feel better using this expletive. “If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion,” George Bernard Shaw.
“Economists have accurately predicted nine out of the past five recessions,” paraphrasing a supposed quip by Nobel economist Paul Samuelson about the stock market. If you are feeling frustrated by a lack of precision from economists, you can curse the profession by exclaiming: ‘Frigonomics’.
by Prof Bruce July 13, 2010
Get the Frigonomicsmug. A lifestyle business is an enterprise that provides its Founders/Owners with an adequate personal lifestyle but that is all. In other words, it does not represent a game changing, large-scale opportunity that others such as Venture Capital funds can or would participate in—there just isn’t a large enough market, growth is too low or their market share is too small.
“We run one of the most successful east coast VC-funds but a lot of the entrepreneurs who are coming to see us these days are really pitching a lifestyle business which, frankly, we have zero interest in. Even if everything goes exactly right, their growth rate is so low and the overall market is so small that, apart from giving the Founders each a job, there isn’t anything left over for us. We need to see more game-changing opportunities that will provide us with a return on investment that is 10 times what we put in. The only way to get a lifestyle business off the ground is to bootstrap it.”
by Prof Bruce April 1, 2010
Get the lifestyle businessmug. A tech whiteout occurs when your office experiences or you experience a complete meltdown of the technology you rely on to run your enterprise or life.
“All we did was call in one of our techies and the next thing you know we had a total tech whiteout in our office: our entire network crashed, our VoIP phones wouldn’t work, in fact, you couldn’t even log on to your own local workstation since even that is controlled by the network. These days the Internet is so in-grained into our work flow for: data storage, social networking, running our websites, operating our phones, running applications, communicating with our clients, etc., that when our network isn’t working, we might as well send everyone home. The only thing that was working was the one old analog phone line we keep around for our fax machine.”
by Prof Bruce April 5, 2010
Get the tech whiteoutmug. A Startup Whisperer is a person who has a natural feel for what it takes to build a successful new enterprise.
“Thinking of starting a new business and not too sure what you need to do? Then call in the Startup Whisperer.”
by Prof Bruce September 13, 2010
Get the Startup Whisperermug. A combination of Spartacus, Sparta and cat implying a brave soul; one who stands up to bullies in every facet of life-- in sports, business and in his or her personal life.
by Prof Bruce March 5, 2009
Get the Spartacatmug. A combination of mystery and devious. Used to describe a person whose actions and plans are both mysterious and devious, especially as it relates to business matters.
"Rick's corporate organization is so complex that the only word I can use to describe both it and him is mystevious.
Here's the way it appears to work: he owns all of Acme 1 Inc. in which he has invested $25,000. Acme 1 owns 51% of Acme 2 which has outside investors that invest $25,000 less a dollar in Acme 2. Acme 2 then invests all of the proceeds in Acme 3 in return for 51% of Acme 3. Again Acme 3 has outside investors that put in cash equal to the amount Acme 2 has invested less a dollar.
By the time Rick has incorporated Acme 12, he controls (absolutely) a company that has $51,197,953.00 of cash on hand with an initial investment of just $25k. And it's all perfectly legal to boot."
Here's the way it appears to work: he owns all of Acme 1 Inc. in which he has invested $25,000. Acme 1 owns 51% of Acme 2 which has outside investors that invest $25,000 less a dollar in Acme 2. Acme 2 then invests all of the proceeds in Acme 3 in return for 51% of Acme 3. Again Acme 3 has outside investors that put in cash equal to the amount Acme 2 has invested less a dollar.
By the time Rick has incorporated Acme 12, he controls (absolutely) a company that has $51,197,953.00 of cash on hand with an initial investment of just $25k. And it's all perfectly legal to boot."
by Prof Bruce April 13, 2010
Get the mysteviousmug.