Author Archives: Ben T. Smith, IV

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About Ben T. Smith, IV

Founder of, investor in and advisor to technology and media companies

Tony Scott, Ben Smith: So They’ve Offered You The CEO’s Job. Here’s What You Need To Know Before Jumping With Joy | peHUBpeHUB

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Tony Scott, Ben Smith: So They’ve Offered You The CEO’s Job. Here’s What You Need To Know Before Jumping With Joy So you’re in the running for the CEO’s job at a startup. Already a creeping sense of uncertainty has … Continue reading →

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Grace Chan, Ben Smith: Building An Online Community Is Hard Work | peHUBpeHUB

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Grace Chan, Ben Smith: Building An Online Community Is Hard Work We have seen it all. We’ve seen entrepreneurs set out to build loyal communities for newly minted products only to forget that they are more than just sales assets. … Continue reading →

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Victor Belfor, Ben Smith: We’ll Trade 100 Employees For One A-Player | peHUB

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Mark Zuckerberg famously commented that a great engineer is worth a 100 average engineers (something every developer knows deep in her heart). He was talking about A-players, and in our opinion the worst thing any startup can do is accept … Continue reading →

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Maximilian Schroeck, Ben Smith: Unlocking Value From A Portfolio’s Walking Dead | | peHUBpeHUB

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

We have all seen it. A startup has initial success with an innovative business concept, an early product, a first or second round of capital and a spurt of revenue growth. Then suddenly, its momentum stalls. More than 50% of … Continue reading →

Posted in A.T. Kearney, Deals, Investments, Silicon Valley, Spoke Software, Startups | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Maximilian Schroeck, Ben Smith: Unlocking Value From A Portfolio’s Walking Dead | | peHUBpeHUB

Crash Dev: Top three reasons NOT to do a local + online startup (and what to do instead)

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

This piece by Devore is fascinating and correct.  Having looked at buying the Judy’s Book asset twice, I think they really were a great team with a solid execution, and it still did not work.   The fundamental issues of high cost to acquire customers, high customer churn, low monthly … Continue reading →

Posted in MerchantCircle, Startups | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Getting Shit Done The key to success in business is execution, whether you run a sprawling multinational or a 12-person startup. So measuring how your company stacks up against the best and brightest in your space is crucial. If you … Continue reading →

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV | 2 Comments

After seeing where I put my blog content change, I have decided to start posting my blog content to my own blog.   This should be an interesting process.

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV | Comments Off on I have now entered the blog world

Tom Klaff, Ben Smith: A New Spin On Corporate Venture Capital; How Big Businesses Can Encourage Innovation | peHUB

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Corporate venture capital comes and goes in waves. In good times, money flows easily into startups. When times turn bad, most corporate investors disappear, and the waves they create crash violently on the shore. It doesn’t have to be this … Continue reading →

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peHUB » Doug Kilponen, Ben Smith: First They Ignore You, Then They Want To Buy You: Managing The Startup-Big Company Relationship

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Every entrepreneur has met them. Big company executives with big company swagger. They ignore you. They dismiss the business problem you spent your life solving. They think they can crush you. Then the tables turn. They push for strategic relationships. … Continue reading →

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Justin Oberman, Ben Smith: America’s Biggest Startup And Its Lessons For Entrepreneurs | peHUB

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Can you name America’s largest startup? It’s not Facebook or Amazon or even Home Depot. It isn’t even a technology company. This little known giant is the Transportation Security Administration and its massive scale up offers a roadmap for entrepreneurs … Continue reading →

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