November 2011
1 post
“… I’ve always felt that a team of people doing something they really believe in...”
– Steve Jobs - circa 1995 (via rageinrage)
September 2011
2 posts
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.
You built a...”
– Elizabeth Warren
9/11 & us
Take a moment to read the email below, sent late last night from Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup to his community. It’s no coincidence that a disproportionate number of great companies have people at their heads with an ability and desire to connect with employees and users, and a clear and compelling reason for being. Needless to say, I like it, a lot.
I couldn’t find this online so I...
July 2011
1 post
HANDSOME CODE: On Project Management →
handsomecode:
I had a conversation with Tyler about project management software the other day, because I invited him to start using Asana to start keeping track of features and ideas for our app.
Tyler was vehemently opposed to any kind of project management software.
Having used a number of tools…
June 2011
2 posts
“It seems to me now that the plain state of being human is dramatic enough for...”
– Nick Hornby
May 2011
11 posts
5 Things Every Startup Should Know About Online...
1. It’s A Scale Game
Online advertising’s a $26B market. Whether those dollars are controlled by an agency or in-house, it’s not worth an advertiser’s time to analyze the opportunity, develop creative, put tracking in place, and negotiate a campaign unless they can put a minimum of $100K to work in a month or two. At $10 CPMs (a reasonable rate for a contextually relevant, engaged...
Rock Your Board →
This is the presentation I’ve put together to guide my SkillShare class tonight on how to ‘Rock Your Board [of Directors]’. I’d love your feedback!
Brain Matter(s): Thoughts on Twitter →
Couldn’t agree more…
brainmatter:
New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller’s recent column on social media in general, and Twitter in particular, prompted me to sit back and reflect on the service, how I use it and what it has meant in my personal and professional life. Had conceiving and pushing “send” on 4,000 of my own…
“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure, nor this thing, nor that, but simply...”
– William Butler Yeats (via davemorin)
Don't Be *That* Guy
We all know him…he retweets every positive mention of himself, checks into every hot startup he visits, overstates his role at each professional stop, name drops throughout conversation, and blogs about topics that allow for poorly-concealed celebrations of self. I won’t lie, there’s an advantage to doing all of the above. Each conveys to the community that you’re a person of import, a...
Thank you Ben →
I’m so thankful for people willing to discuss their vulnerabilities, their mistakes, their fears. So many are scared to do so, including me…though I’m working on it. We think it’ll make us weaker. It makes us stronger. It takes the loneliness of doubts and mistakes, and creates empathy, the most powerful positive force in the world. I think you’ll enjoy this...
“When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than...”
– why (aka why the lucky stiff)
“When I use Facebook I’m trading my data for their service. I’ve entered into...”
– Data is a currency - O’Reilly Radar
Hug a Teacher, Slap a Banker
Okay, maybe not slap, just frown at a banker. And probably ask before you hug a teacher (though who doesn’t like a good hug?). The point is, every time you react to someone’s profession you have more impact than you realize. Use that power judiciously.
By virtue of my previous career, I end up speaking with a lot of MBAs and corporate types about the startup world. Each conversation reminds me...
December 2010
1 post
Stu Wall's blog: Good people don’t belong at a... →
stuwall:
A first time entrepreneur just raised capital, and their quest for resources turns toward hiring. Investors make referrals, they post specs on job boards and go to networking events. After reading a few blogs about startup interviews, they hire the “best” person that applied. They’ve just made a…
November 2010
1 post
1 tag
Entrepreneurs, you want your potential investors...
This post began as a comment to a comment on a Quora post I answered about raising capital in non-local markets. It’s useful background, but I think the below deals with a separate question, how an entrepreneur should approach interaction between potential investors during the fundraising process. My take:
Secrecy in the fundraising process due to concern over investors conspiring misses...
July 2010
1 post
2 tags
Microcap isn't a bubble, it's a better product
This started as a comment on @andrewparker’s blog (here), but @j2labs dug it so I’m making it a post. Andrew’s post is smart and brief so take a quick read. My thought on the microcap investing market in response to him below:
I fully agree with Andrew that angel-stage investing can sustainably maintain below-market returns because of the additional value it provides, but...
March 2009
1 post
2 tags
social media leads to more efficient distribution...
Hello again friends. It’s been an interesting and far too long stretch since I last posted. I won’t make excuses for the length of my absence, but say by way of explanation that I find myself missing a lovely grandmother and functional right leg since we last spoke. However, March is here and I just moved this morning to a weaker pain med, so let’s get thinking.
Today’s...
February 2009
1 post
1 tag
Macro I Dig: Compiling novel datasets
First, I’d like to note that I’m planning to create several running ‘series’, one of which is ’Macro I Dig’. This is partially because I like little gimmicks like this as a reader myself - you know what you’re getting just by reading the title, it’s efficient - and partially because it serves as a nice metatag of sorts so that when I get around to...
January 2009
5 posts
1 tag
Why studios are getting the sharp end of the...
We’re in the first stages of video studios’ diminishing control over producing video content, in the same way labels have lost control of music in the last decade. Brands are realizing that a confluence of trends reduces the importance of studios and allows advertisers to directly fund content, as opposed to indirectly and inefficiently through the studios. Let’s think about...
1 tag
Wealth and Utility
Before I begin, I must give props to my friend Sam Lessin for sourcing this line of thought with his Christmas post (4th day of Hanukkah, whatever Sam). Basically the question posed is what your wealth vs. utility graph looks like. However, Sam is a little more concerned with changes in this graph over time due to macro trends (increasingly cheap access to people and information), whereas...
2 tags
What will VC look like in 10 years?
Silicon Alley Insider has a disheartening article today titled “The Venture Capital Crash” that reminded me of a conversation I had today with Howard of First Round about the difficulty VC firms are having raising new funds.
At issue was not whether the VC industry will shrink, both in terms of AUM and firms (it will), but whether or not the current turmoil would effectively separate...
Yahoo makes first product in 10 years I want to...
In an encouraging sign that there are those within Yahoo that still pay attention to the online tech space, check out the new service below:
Vik Singh of Yahoo’s BOSS team has just launched a new search engine called TweetNews that mashes up Yahoo News stories with some of the hottest topics on Twitter. The result is a news engine that is significantly more timely than common news aggregators...
1 tag
Online data increases exponentially and dollars...
Though perhaps an odd topic for the inaugural post, in keeping with my newly created blog title, Back of Mind (thoughts? feedback?), I thought I’d start with what is on the back of my mind, and that is my distaste for the ad network business model as an investor.
Those last three words are an important distinction because I am extremely excited about the future of online media that the ad...