Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 17, 2012
Brad Feld visited Los Angeles this past week. I always enjoy spending time with Brad as the antidote to the eco chamber. He is a unique human being with original thoughts & ideas and very limited concern for having to fit into other people’s narratives. And I’ve always remembered a quote from high school, “Non Conformity is the Highest Form of Social Attainment.” That always stuck with me.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 23, 2012
I'll show up generally anywhere I get invited to speak. I love public speaking, teaching and generally being helpful. I'm often the last one to leave an event, held back by the most persistant of entrepreneurs trying to squeeze as much advice as they can out of me. It's totally fine--except when I really really have to go (as opposed to when I just said I really had to go, ten minutes ago).
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Berkonomics
APRIL 14, 2012
There is a natural fear of giving too much information to investors after the initial investment is received. CEO’s worry that investors will not keep the information confidential and that financial data will find its way into competitors’ hands. Others worry that investors will latch onto individual line items within financial data and engage in inquisitions regarding telephone bills, marketing costs and other tactical line items in detailed financial statements.
abovethecrowd.com
APRIL 27, 2012
This morning, Intuit announced its agreement to acquire one of Benchmark’s portfolio companies, Demandforce, for $424mm. As with Instagram, Benchmark Capital is the largest institutional investor in Demandforce. Unlike Instagram, which is a consumer application and is extremely well known, Demandforce focuses on local professional businesses and has chosen to keep an intentionally low profile [.].
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Derek Sivers
APRIL 23, 2012
I was born in California, then lived in LA from age 32 to 39. It still feels more like home than anywhere else on earth, for me. But I’ve seen how it confuses or annoys people at first. So when someone says they’re moving there, I have to give this explanation and advice. It’s not a traditional city. Not long ago, it was just a bunch of small towns — Venice, Pasadena, Burbank, Encino, Beverly Hills — but then for tax reasons they drew a circle around about 30 small towns and decided to call it L
Startup Catalyst Brief brings together the best content for the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 28, 2012
When you work inside a startup with lots of clever and motivated staff you’re never short of good ideas that you can implement. It’s tempting to take on new projects, new features, new geographies, new speaking opportunities, whatever. Each one incrementally sounds like a good idea, yet collectively they end up punishing undisciplined teams.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 25, 2012
History presents a lot of patterns we can learn from, if you examine them closely. Lately, I've been talking a lot about the "Robert Moses Effect". From the 1930's to the 1960's, Robert Moses was the most powerful influence over the development of New York City's urban landscape. Nearly every highway you've ever driven over in the Big Apple was put their at the order of one man.
Berkonomics
APRIL 6, 2012
Some businesses just can’t fit within the angel capital or friends and family model for raising funds. Sooner or later these businesses will have to seek venture capital and accommodate the needs of the venture community in negotiating the terms of an investment. First, VC’s in general cannot invest in ‘S’ corporations or limited liability companies (LLC’s).
abovethecrowd.com
APRIL 19, 2012
For the past two months, I changed the default search engine on my browser (ironically Chrome) from Google to Bing. I have used Bing almost exclusively for this period, and have two quick conclusions. 1) With regards to core search, the Bing results were perfectly fine. I never struggled to find anything. I never forced [.].
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This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 2, 2012
It was June of 2003. I sat in a little ink shop on Rivington Street called Porcupine Tattoo. Emma was tracing the design I had given her--some wrap around barbed wire--onto my arm with a pen. She had flower sleeves of spectacular color. Seven Nation Army was playing. I never really thought much of tattoos. My dad has two on his arms and, after 50 plus years, they've faded quite a bit, blurring at the edges.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 30, 2012
Yesterday, I did my first Tough Mudder. If you don't know what that is, check it out. It's nuts. Or, to think about it another way, a few weeks ago, I was proud to say that I did my first half marathon. Yesterday, I basically did a half marathon that included live electrical wires, an ice bath, crawling through mud and a host of other obstacles. It was enough to make me think that if someone doesn't knock me off my bike on my commute or if I don't fall in some water, it will have gone too easily
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 14, 2012
Instagram. It’s understandably on everybody’s mind these days. Clichés abound about, “You know what would be cool? …” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. Instagram happens to be one of the few social networks I regularly use along with Twitter.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 30, 2012
I've been working with the folks at the Northside Festival on their new tech and entrepreneurship track to create an amazing conference in Brooklyn this June. We've got some really awesome speakers lined up and I'm striving to try and make each of these panels good enough to headline other events. Yet, for some of the people that I wanted to be there, and others that still agreed to come, the answer was: "I don't really like panels.
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This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 9, 2012
These days, it's kind of hard to miss what's going on in the NYC startup community. Every night, hundreds of people pack all the various meetups, there are hackathons and startup weekends, and it seems there's a new venture funding announcement everyday. It wasn't always like that, though. The NY Tech Meetup, for example, used to meet in the back conference room of Meetup's NYC offices.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 3, 2012
For a solid six or seven minutes, I was pretty pissed at Fred Wilson for his last post on the age of venture capitalists. I even started writing a post defending the new crop of younger investors and why they can be value-add to investors. I was writing against his argument that it's better to take money from an investor over 40. Only. that's not what he wrote at all.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 18, 2012
I've been using a thought experiment in the personal branding class I teach to entrepreneurial Fordham students that I think is worth sharing. I asked them to curate a conference--just as a mental exercise, not for real. The conference format forces them to do a couple of things that haven't been easy to get them to think about and has a lot of potential lessons for how they think about networking and personal brand.
Berkonomics
APRIL 19, 2012
Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur state, “We have no competition.” That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other. It is a failed litmus test for the entrepreneur, even if the plan is for a totally new device or service that could take the world by storm. Well, come to think of it, this is especially true in such an instance.
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Berkonomics
APRIL 28, 2012
This important variation on “money talks” is an important consideration for entrepreneurs when seeking an investment from professionals such as VC’s. Something like a marriage (and often lasting just as long statistically), your investment partner can be a great cheerleader, coach and resource. But the moment things turn sour, including missed plans, some investors on company boards go into a predictable mode of dictating terms for emergency loans or additional investment.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 11, 2012
Price : If you're looking at the billion, you're looking at the wrong number. It's the 1%--because of Facebook is valued at $100 billion, they just paid 1% of their market cap to acquire the only thing that looks remotely competitive to their core offering in the market. So, for all of you startups who have done a Series A at a post of $10 million, that's like offering up a whopping $100,000 to buy out a competitive threat.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 20, 2012
Answer: After your business model makes boatloads of money. :). Ok, well, short of that, this is one of the questions I get most and here's what I've noticed about venture raise timing. There seems to be three windows, each with their own pros, cons and complications. Here are some general tips to keep in mind: Phin tells companies to solve all the problems you can solve without money first.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 16, 2012
I've always been one to veer away from what the masses are doing. I never saw Titanic, didn't watch Lost and I'm not into American Idol. When a whole bunch of people get out of their heads excited about something, it makes me a little bit less interested--because I want to discover the awesome thing that no one knows about yet. That's why I've always tried out a wide variety of phones.
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This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 19, 2012
I played softball last night with a team I've been on for over 6 years. Most of the core of our team has been together for at least 3 seasons now and we're one of the top teams in Zogsports. One of our guys went the other way on a tough pitch and drove a line drive to right field and I commented to Jeremy that this was the best I've ever seen our team hit.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 27, 2012
When you work inside a startup with lots of clever and motivated staff you’re never short of good ideas that you can implement.
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