SparkToro Blog

Students of history will almost certainly be familiar with the 7 Deadly Sins – the list of human vices that are,  purportedly, the source for much of humanity’s evil. Of these, one in particular stands out: In almost every list  Pride, or  hubris, is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the…

From age 20-26, I was, quite possibly, the world’s worst entrepreneur. I dropped out of college two classes away from graduating. In a typically low financial risk business – consulting – I managed to rack up hundreds of thousands in debt building, well, nothing. Wracked by credit card and equipment loan debt I had no idea how to pay back,…

From age 20-26, I was, quite possibly, the world’s worst entrepreneur. I dropped out of college two classes away from graduating. In a typically low financial risk business – consulting – I managed to rack up hundreds of thousands in debt building, well, nothing. Wracked by credit card and equipment loan debt I had no idea how to pay back,…

In the last decade, the online world has been ruled by two, twin forces: The Crowd and The Algorithm. The collective “users” of the Internet (The Crowd) create, click, and rate, while mathematical equations add scalability and findability to these overwhelming quantities of data (The Algorithm). Like the moon over the ocean, the pull of these two forces help create…

A few years back, several close friends of mine worked for a remarkable startup. Their trajectory was incredible, growing from $0-$75+ million dollars in their first 4 years and becoming a recognized brand name in the process. At its height, the company employed more than 130 people and their products reached customers in dozens of countries. After being featured in…

I hate selling – both the players and the game.  But, for the first 6 years of my career, I ran a consulting company. That meant making sales or going home hungry. I did plenty of the latter before I found a tolerable way to do the former. Early on in our consulting business, we found clients the traditional way…

I’m not partial to expletives in my writing, but I’m making an exception with the embedded video below, which you should watch before reading the rest of the post (don’t worry, it’s enjoyable as well as instructive):…