Powers Unfiltered

An entrepreneur’s journey into grid computing and partnering with Microsoft, by John Powers

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Entries Tagged as 'Startup Life'

Good article on Dan’l Lewin in (gasp) the SF Chronicle

June 27th, 2008 · No Comments

The San Francisco Chronicle is not exactly the planet’s leading source of technology news and analysis.  So many of you probably haven’t yet seen Deborah Gage’s excellent article today about Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft’s ambassador to Silicon Valley.  Dan’l is among our most important contacts (and favorite people) at Microsoft, and despite his high-visibility role, many […]

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Tags: Entrepreneurship · Growth · Partnering with Microsoft · Press coverage · Startup Life

Startup Travel, New York style

June 24th, 2007 · No Comments

OK, Digipede might no longer properly be called a startup. It’s been two years (next week) since the release of the Digipede Network, and we’ve got more customers and revenue and growth than a true startup — but we still think and act like a startup. In particular, when it comes to travel — we’re cheap. […]

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Tags: Entrepreneurship · Startup Life

Microsoft EBT Rocks!

May 15th, 2007 · No Comments

The Microsoft Emerging Business Team (EBT) has been a staunch supporter of Digipede for the past two years.  The EBT is run by Dan’l Lewin, sometimes referred to as Microsoft’s “Ambassador to Silicon Valley.”  As Digipede has grown from a raw startup to the leading provider of .NET Grid computing software, the EBT has provided […]

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Tags: Entrepreneurship · Partnering with Microsoft · Startup Life

Growth: Part One — Growing Pains at Velocity Micro?

February 11th, 2007 · 16 Comments

I’ve planned a series of posts on the opportunities and perils of growth, with non-Digipede examples.  Here goes. The first example comes from, of all places, my new home PC. Last summer, my reliable old Gateway began to suffer from the same fate that eventually afflicts every PC — it was getting old, slow, and […]

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Tags: Customer Service · Entrepreneurship · Growth · Startup Life · Usability

Growth: The Introduction

February 10th, 2007 · 1 Comment

I have been fortunate to be part of rapidly growing companies throughout my career, and it’s happening again.    Growth is fun.  With growth comes opportunity — often, opportunity to show what you can really do.  Growth is perilous.  With growth comes new expectations, new responsibilities, public exposure of warts, new processes (as “winging it” fails […]

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Tags: Entrepreneurship · Startup Life

Digipede Network Version 1.3 — Beyond the Press Release

October 2nd, 2006 · No Comments

OK, here’s where I get to tell the real story about the new release the Digipede Network that I could not fit into the somewhat restrictive form of a press release earlier this month.  For the facts, you can go see “what’s new.”  But for the STORY, well, read on.  First, let’s go deep into […]

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Tags: Compute Cluster Server · Entrepreneurship · Grid applications · Press coverage · Startup Life

How cool is that?

September 20th, 2006 · 1 Comment

Kudos to Dan Ciruli (our Director of Products, and also Product Manager for the Digipede Network, and also Bug Hunter, Documentation Czar, Demo Application Coder, Stand-in Sales Engineer, frequent Webcast Demo Guy and probably half a dozen other things I’m leaving out).  He’s been working late into the night on the release of Version 1.3 […]

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Tags: Entrepreneurship · Grid applications · Startup Life

Ferdinand Foch Award, August 2006: Matt Heaton

September 2nd, 2006 · No Comments

Today marks the beginning of a new tradition at Powersunfiltered.  Each month (or more likely, whenever I feel like it) I will present the Powersunfiltered Ferdinand Foch Award to an entrepreneur whom I admire for, well… you’ll see.  Ferdinand Foch, the French general, field marshall, and hero of World War I, issued a famous dispatch from […]

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Tags: Entrepreneurship · Startup Life

Work it, or it’s not worth it

June 24th, 2006 · 3 Comments

Here are a few more observations based in part on Digipede’s experience at the Securities Industry Association (SIA) Technology Management Conference in New York this week. I posted about this earlier today; this post is less fact, more perspective. For a small company like Digipede, a trade show can be a frightening investment. Travel is […]

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Tags: Compute Cluster Server · Events · Partnering with Microsoft · Presentations · Startup Life

Partnering with Microsoft

June 8th, 2006 · 2 Comments

Don Dodge and Cliff Reeves of the Microsoft Emerging Business Team (EBT) continue to crank out good advice about partnering with Microsoft, especially for ISV startups — but I think it’s time for some of us ISV startup partners to weigh in, too.  “Partnering with Microsoft” is an easy thing to say, and, superficially, an easy thing to […]

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Tags: Partnering with Microsoft · Startup Life