Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. By now many of you know the Harlem Shake but what you may not appreciate is the broader trend behind the video and it has mirrored my general views on how TV will work in the future. Harlem Shake is a YouTube phenomenon that in just 2 weeks has gone from nothing to on air on both Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert and collectively the Harlem Shake has been viewed around 200 million times.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 12, 2013

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures became the largest investor in Editorially last fall and I couldn’t be more excited to finally be able to tell you about it. The round includes Lerer Ventures, who participated with the same level of support, Betaworks and a host of experienced angel investors from the design and creative community. When Cameron Koczon introduced me to the company, he said they had the “best starting web team he’s ever seen.

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Gust

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

Image via Facebook. Go-to people get things done. As an entrepreneur, you need these people, and you need to be one, if you expect your startup to be successful. That may be easier said than done, since resumes do not tell the story, and without real nurturing, the best people won’t stay around long. To highlight how rare this breed is, Jeffrey Gandz of the Richard Ivey School of Business relates a quote from a new CEO in a large company, “I have more than 1000 people in my head office org

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 12, 2013

Peter Thiel and Gary Kasparov wrote in the Financial Times about “Our dangerous illusion of tech progress”. The main point of the article is quoted below: [We are living in an era of] cautiousness far too satisfied with incremental improvements. Our ability to do basic things such as protect ourselves from earthquakes and hurricanes, to travel and to extend our lifespans is barely increasing [since the 1960s].

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Generative AI is upending the way product developers & end-users alike are interacting with data. Despite the potential of AI, many are left with questions about the future of product development: How will AI impact my business and contribute to its success? What can product managers and developers expect in the future with the widespread adoption of AI?

development

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Surely you’ve been exposed to articles, courses and lectures about various styles of management, and how each is appropriate for some companies and for some levels of organization and at some times. For example, a consensus-building leader works well in that style until someone yells “fire!,” and the emergency requires a dictatorial style of management to act quickly, protecting lives.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Final startup grind from msuster. How you build out your team in the first few years can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your company.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

The other day I set a personal best in the 4mi NYRR Gridiron classic, coming in at 26:16 for a pace of 6:34min/mi. I finished 203rd out of over 5600 people who ran. One of my Twitter friends asked me for tips on improving pace. My answer "Run faster." :). Ok, so it was a wiseass answer. Obviously, people are looking for the answer to "How do I run faster?

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Gust

FEBRUARY 10, 2013

Image via Stock.xcng. For most new high-tech products, the first customers are always “early adopters.” The conventional wisdom is that early adopters are the ideal target for new products, to get business rolling. I see two pitfalls with any concerted focus on early adopters; first, the size of this group may not be as large as you think, and secondly, their feedback may lead you directly away from your real target market of mainstream customers.

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

Marketing is one of those words without meaning. Or at least a consistent meaning for most people. Recently, I met a very bright marketer who broke down a few of the different marketing disciplines and matched them to a freemium sales funnel. His framework is a stroke of genius. I’ve drawn it below. The Four Disciplines of Funnel Marketing. The triangle on the left is a standard freemium customer conversion process.

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financing

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

So, we’ve discussed why it is important to build consensus in an organization in most every major decision. To do so, a CEO must be able to relinquish some degree of power, overriding decisions made by consensus only with some thought and certainly with an explanation to those involved. A manager secure in the position should never fear empowering direct reports to make decisions that fall within the resources allocated to them and within the budget agreed to with them.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Let me not bury the lede. I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). I am taking the lead from GRP and we also invested alongside a number of friends including Dave McClure, Dave Tisch, Ben Smith (Merchant Circle), Brian Lee (ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom), Jason Calacanis, Evan Rifkin, Jennifer Lum, Jay Weintraub and a whole host of other angels.

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disruption VC entrepreneurs strategy 359

Gust

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Robert Jordan image via HowTheyDidIt.com. Entrepreneurs are a notoriously stubborn (some say confident) group of people, so I see many of them making the same mistakes that predecessors have made. Thus I’m convinced that it’s useful for all of you to step back from time to time, and listen to some sage advice from people who have been there and enjoyed success.

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Gust

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

I suspect this is one of those provocative posts that gets misquoted, misaligned and misunderstood, and definitely not to be taken at face value. Still, read Avoiding Undue Diligence: My Strange Approach To Angel Investing , in which Dharmesh Shah argues against due diligence in angel investment. . I don’t subscribe to the idea in the title.

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Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

technology

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2013

The other day I was at a Mercedes dealership. Unfortunately my wife was hit head on in December by a woman who lost control of her car. It was time to get a new car and my wife’s requirements were: The safest thing on the road. As many air bags as possible. I researched the pricing of the car at TrueCar – not because we’re an investor – but because it gives you complete price transparency over what other people in your area paid for a car.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 2, 2013

It’s February now. That means a slew of companies will be preparing to launch their new products or announcing their companies at the annual SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. I get asked often how to best launch at SXSW. What strategies to use, how to get attention, how to become “hot.” I get asked many PR questions which is why I started this stream of posts on PR at Startups.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

I recently stumbled upon a physical copy of the Economist that had the following chart: I found it so striking to see these companies all stacked up together, and was surprised that my first thought was “Who would want to be Facebook in this scenario?” In fact, I wondered, if you through Microsoft into this mix, with nearly $70B in cash (more than Facebook’s market cap), and a significant foothold in homes through Xbox, where you would place them?

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

Let me first say that I am absolutely honored to get asked to speak anywhere. I love it. I don't really care how large the event is--if you put me in front of a curious audience and give me a topic I'm passionate about, I'll do my best to share what I've learned and try to inspire. That being said, one of my least favorite things in the entire world is a panel prep call.

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CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Writing on the web is undergoing a renaissance. What started in the late 90s as mass-market adoption of blogging has given way to high production quality, curated magazines. Despite all the innovation in blogging, there’s one part of the magazine that hasn’t been reinvented: the Letter to the Editor. If you’ve ever read the Economist, you might have breezed past this section.

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Tracing the arc of Facebook’s user sharing model is to identify the biggest case of frog boiling in history. Contrast Facebook’s origins as a dating site limited to students attending a particular college to an exhibitionist’s dream syndicating every detail of a life across of 1000+ friend networks and potentially many more followers. The question for users is: what is the quid pro quo?

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

Last night I spoke at the Enterprise Tech VC Panel. We discussed five trends in the seed market and the outlook for 2013. These are the five most important trends for 2013, in my view. MicroVC Funds Have Doubled Their Assets. Call it micro-VC or mega-seed fund, there’s a new investor class which raises funds between $50 and $100M to invest in seed-stage companies.

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

If asked to describe the characteristics of a successful freemium business, I might highlight three things: effective community marketing, command of new distribution platforms, and a paid product users love that is priced by usage. Look no further than ZenDesk, Evernote, Expensify, Dropbox. Each of them has built a vibrant user base using freemium products.

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Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

B2B marketing

Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 14, 2013

Successful startups are money machines: they ingest a dollar of investment and produce more than a dollar in revenue. There are three steps to build a money machine: Find or create a product many people will use. Convince customers to buy the product. Mechanize the two processes above, reducing costs and increasing profitability to finance growth. Startups repeat these three steps many times during their lifespans.

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

For sales people, social proof is one of the most powerful forms of influence, as Robert Ciadini proved in his seminal book on the topic. It’s no secret that the best leads are referrals. Second best is the friend who is a customer in common: “Oh, Peter chose Salesforce for his CRM. Maybe I should consider them too.” Social proof confers the trust of a relationship to the salesperson improving close rates.

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

On a Saturday morning in August of 2006, Sergey Brin and a team of Googlers flew to Los Angeles to meet Tom Anderson and his MySpace team. By the next afternoon, the two founders shook hands on a three year $900M contract. About twelve months later, I found myself as the product manager for the team in Marrakesh, Google’s executive board room, reporting the state of affairs to Eric, Larry and Sergey.

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Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 10, 2013

If you’re a Netflix subscriber, in all likelihood you’re a big fan of “House of Cards.” Netflix designed it that way. With the release of “House of Cards” Netflix began the Moneyball-era of content production. The majority of Netflix subscribers watch Kevin Spacey, political thrillers and David Fincher’s movies. Guess what? “House of Cards” has all three.

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Speaker: Wayne Spivak - President and Chief Financial Officer of SBA * Consulting LTD, Industry Writer, and Public Speaker

The old adages that "cash is king" and "you can’t spend profits" still hold true today. But however well-known these sayings might be, it requires a change in mindset to properly implement a cash flow management system that predicts your business's runaway as accurately as possible. Key to this new mindset is understanding the difference between the Statement of Cash Flows, a historical look at the source and uses of cash, and the Cash Flow Statement, which uses transaction history and forward-l

financing