Real Deal Road Trip No. 21 : Hard Hat Tour of Ellis Island
On a quick reunion trip to New York, a subset of my high school besties took advantage of a new Hard Hat Tour of Ellis Island. If…
What liberal elites (like me) can do for the middle of the US
In 1985, in a large Harvard Business School amphitheater classroom, about 75 of us were discussing the shrinking of US manufacturing and the explosive growth of the service…
A eighth birthday story, by the numbers
Given that this company started with big ambitions, it’s so gratifying to seeing them played out in the numbers. A Tufts University freshman interviewed me today…
Why the most successful people are also–at times–the most uncomfortable
I interviewed an early-career person who told me a story about the experience of telling his father that he was not applying to law school. The dad had…
Hiring for “original” and not for culture fit
Hiring is the most important activity of any startup. Yet a lot of the conventional wisdom does not sit right with me. There’s always such an…
Are We There Yet?
In the earliest days of Grommet I wrote a blog post “When is this startup real?” The business was mostly taking shape in my head and I was…
Surprise Thank Yous Are Best
At home, I take a lot of pleasure in my little box of note cards and greetings. Stationery is one of the very few things I…
You can take the girl out of Detroit…
DBusiness recently published a story about my growing up in Detroit and winding my way to being a company founder. The reporter, Tom Murray, did a fine job…
Do you garden? You might be a successful entrepreneur.
People use a lot of extreme images to describe entrepreneurs. The descriptors tend to fall in the veins of “lonely visionary pursuing a dream,” or “tireless…
Who doesn’t love a good blooper reel?
I like to think that our Grommet team makes video narration look easy. It is not. Especially because none of us are trained video “talent.” Thank God…
Jules Pieri 