BLOG INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
"How hard can it be to take down Facebook?" with Arnaud Henneville-Wedholm (video)
Mark Coopersmith has a fireside chat with Arnaud Henneville-Wedholm about Arnaud's 6-year journey as co-founder of a startup whose mission was to create a *better* option to Facebook. We discuss Arnaud's takeaways from that experience, and delve into the book Arnaud wrote about that failed venture: "How Hard Can It Be: Startup Lessons From Trying (And Failing) To Take Down Facebook." (Answer: pretty hard).
Join me to kick off the Innov8rs Connect "Culture & Teams" Conference on March 15. I have free passes! (normally $200+)
On Tuesday March 15, I will kick off the 2022 Inov8rs Connect "Culture, Talent & Teams" online conference with an updated take on my book The Other "F" Word, which I co-wrote with John Danner. I'll do a quick talk and then join in a fireside chat and Q&A on this topic.
The Other "F" Word Podcast #10: Mark & John's Year-in-Review Episode (video)
In this episode of our podcast, John and I provide some thoughts on the year 2021. John focuses on a few huge failures such as the US/world’s handling of Covid and climate change. Mark identifies a number of examples around the theme of “shortages in 2021.”
How to Bounce Back After a Business Fails
Research shows that more startups fail than succeed. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. For those that do succeed, the rewards are many: doing something we love, financial independence, the opportunity to drive positive change in our communities and beyond.
Fireside Chat about Launching and Growing Startups in Africa, with Lessons from Silicon Valley (video)
This past week I joined Sandras Priri – founder and CEO of Pranary (formerly Startup Circles)- for a Zoom fireside chat about what it takes to successfully launch a venture and obtain critical velocity in funding and growth.
Other "F" Word Podcast #9: Facebook Goes Down, & Mark Almost Gets Scammed (video)
In this episode, Mark and John discuss multiple failures at Facebook and its family of apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram, including the global outage and whistleblower testimony before Congress. We also highlight a potential seldom-reported risk for YOU if you use Facebook or Google to automatically log into other apps or accounts.
Corona Postpona
Happy summer. And what a summer it is. Heat waves across the U.S., exacerbated by climate change, as we in the West endure extreme drought and water rationing, and an even worse fire season than usual. At least we have plenty of masks for those smokey days (always looking for that silver lining).
The Other "F" Word Podcast #8: The New Space Race, & The Tokyo Olympics (video)
In this episode we discuss: – The new race to space by billionaires Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Is “space tourism” really a lofty objective for all those $$ billions? – The 2020 Tokyo Olympics (taking place in 2021 of course).
The Resilient Entrepreneur
In this video series, my co-author John Danner and I share insights about The Resilient Entrepreneur from our entrepreneurship classes at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and from our Amazon bestseller, "The Other 'F' Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work" (John Wiley & Sons, 2015).
The Other "F" Word Podcast #7: Experimentation, & RIP Mr. Post-It Notes (video)
In this episode, John Danner and I discuss the importance of experimentation to drive innovation and change, and the role that having a healthy relationship with failure has in the way we process the outcomes of all of these experiments, and especially business experiments.
The Other "F" Word Podcast #6: USA's failing infrastructure, and J&J's vaccine issues (video)
In this episode: – Mark raises America’s embarrassing, ongoing failing infrastructure, with some suggestions on how to pay for it. Not necessarily tax increases, but rather equitable tax reform. – John discusses several failures at drug company Johnson & Johnson relating to their vaccine, from the manufacturing contamination issue to the on-again/off-again/on-again approval.
The Other "F" Word Podcast #5: Disney, Pendleton, and "our suggestions so far" (video)
Just published the current episode of our 10-minute “Other ‘F’ Word” podcast based on John’s and my book of the same name, on how to turn failure to success.
Is there a failure in the making at Amazon (video)?
Check out Episode 4 of "The Other 'F' Word" podcast. John and I discuss Kobe Bryant's helicopter crash, Jeff Bezos stepping back from the CEO role, and the "Goldilocks-zone" for checklists (= just right). Is there a failure in the making at Amazon? Do you know how to optimize YOUR checklists? Join us for 10 minutes to find out our take.
Gravity, and how it can be a force for good (video)
Boeing has been in freefall for awhile now (“freefall” is probably a bad analogy for an aviation company), and this week announced their biggest loss ever and yet another delay in their space program and in the launch of their next big jet. In our latest Other F Word podcast, John and I dissect what went wrong, what to learn from it, and what we would recommend they do. Plus John riffs on the concept of “gravity” and how he can be used as a “force for good.”
New Year's resolutions (video)
I just published episode #2 (!!) of the "Other 'F' Word Podcast," where my co-author John Danner and I discuss/dissect/disagree re: current failures, what we can learn from them, and how to bounce back and improve. All in about 10 minutes. This week's topics: New Years' Resolutions; the insurrection and riots in Washington, and the botched painfully slow COVID vaccine rollout. Check it out on YouTube, with expanded distribution coming soon.
I Just Launched My New Podcast (video)
I just launched a new podcast based on my book "The Other 'F' Word," co-authored with my UC Berkeley colleague John Danner. And we cohost the podcast as well. We figured if NOW wasn't a good time to learn from our collective failures (goodbye and good riddance 2020), there might never be such a time. Check it out.
A TED talk take on The Other "F" Word (video)
This is a TED-style 25 minute talk on my book The Other F Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work (co-authored with John Danner) about how to create a more productive relationship with failure to drive innovation and growth for individuals as well as companies large and small. This keynote address was recorded in Copenhagen in November 2019, at the Innovation Roundtable Global Summit, which is represented as the largest annual gathering of corporate innovation executives globally.
My mom made the front page of the NY Times today (for a sad reason)
Thank you New York Times. And thank you LA Times and our local NBC Bay Area TV station who ran longer pieces and news stories on my mom and so many others. All as part of the effort to put a human face on this crisis. While of course Alice was special to me – as mother and grandmother, teacher and speech therapist, and so much more - she would have passed quite anonymously but for these efforts. I am grateful.
Thriving through COVID's "Valley of Death," an interview with Growth Malaysia (video)
Growth Malaysia is a collaboration that aims to help businesses grow exponentially with technology and capital through live webinar training and business management webinars. I was interviewed as part of their Restart Series.
"Museum of Failure" and other highlights from the Innovation Roundtable
Greetings from Copenhagen! I am here for the Innovation Roundtable Summit—the largest gathering of corporate innovation executives in the world. I just delivered a keynote address on the closing of Day 1, giving an updated take on “The Other ‘F’ Word.” On Day 2 I did a deeper dive into that topic, and deconstructed the Failure Value Cycle (from my book). On Day 3 I led a session on “Three Keys to Corporate Entrepreneurship,” where I take core entrepreneurial practices and adapt them to work in large enterprises.