October 2009
1 post
September 2009
19 posts
Where is the "silicon" in Silicon Valley ?
bijan:
image via Wikipedia
Earlier today in Palo Alto, I met with an old friend who back in the 1990s, built a number of very successful consumer products companies that combined hardware and software. (I’m not sure he wants me to say his name publicly).
We talked about a number of things like his next company and things he wants to build. We also talked about his frustration with VCs and...
“Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.”
– Victoria Holt (via brokenmachine) (via quote-book) (via hiten)
Hackable Business Development
hiten:
joeconyers:
giantrobotlasers:
jonsteinberg:
People on the business side of internet software, constantly bemoan their inability to code. I’ve been guilty at times of the frequent refrain, “My kingdom for the ability to code.” However, I’ve found over the past year that the emergence of APIs coupled with eLance (or oDesk or one of the other contractor platforms) have made this...
Paul Graham's Determination
bijan:
I just tweeted out a link to Paul Graham’s latest essay, The Anatomy of Determination.
There is a lot to like about it.
I especially like Paul’s thoughts about determination. He leads off with:
We learned quickly that the most important predictor of success is determination. At first we thought it might be intelligence. Everyone likes to believe that’s what makes startups succeed. ...
Thoughts about my VC life, four years later
bijan:
About 4.5 years ago Todd, Santo and Paul told me about their plan to start a new venture capital firm. They didn’t have a name yet (actually they did but it was horrible.) They asked me to join and by july 2005 we raised our first fund, Spark 1.
Before Spark, I had worked at a number of great companies and some amazing startups. Some worked out much better than others. And some changed...
Why I (Still) Code
continuations:
Late last night Ivan Kirigin (founder of Tipjoy, now at Facebook) asked via Twitter why I still code. My tweeted answer was that I really enjoy it. On the train into NY this morning I have been thinking more about why that is and have come up with a bunch of reasons:
First, I discovered coding in the formative teenage years and at that time got deeply into it. I had the great...
Who (or what) are you comparing yourself to? →
“We don’t compare ourselves to other airport restaurants”
Atlanta brags about having the busiest airport in the world. Like most municipal facilities, they don’t brag about having the best, the most pleasant, the most engaging or the most remarkable airport in the world.
That’s a shame, because airports are great opportunities to create value. Lots of curious, alert people with money to spend...
“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree....”
– Lewis Carroll via last.fm
Lewis Carroll (via withthewind) (via fuckyeahwonderland) (via digitalash)
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Tim Burton’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’ Teaser Video (socialitelife.celebuzz.com)
(via rafer)
August 2009
17 posts
Does Your Startup Have The Right DNA?
continuations:
In 1997 I started a company with two professors from MIT in the emerging Internet healthcare field. We made a lot of mistakes, but probably the biggest mistake was made at inception. We did not have the right DNA in the company for what we were trying to accomplish. The two professors were academics and I had a consulting services background (albeit a consulting startup). ...
Add some brackets... →
Add some {brackets}
If you need to get your audacious proposal/clever ad/new project past your boss, go ahead and add some gratuitous brackets here and {there}.
“Hey, what are these weird brackets doing here,” she might say.
“Oh, I like them. I think they add drama to the headline.”
“Take them out!”
Giving in early makes it easier to keep the important...
“We’re gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly...”
– Twitter Blog: Location, Location, Location
This is going to be awesome.
(via bijan)
Couldery Shouldery
rafer:
From the Truman Presidential Library by Marshall Astor
We’re commencing an “orderly shutdown” of Lookery. We made the decision as late as possible without forgoing our responsibilities to the various stakeholders, including and especially orderly disengagement from our customers. We’re honored by their attention and support and regret that we couldn’t have served them even better and for...
rafer:
peterfeld:
… you will not send people back to your paper by eliminating your website (though you’ll save the cost of operating a website — maybe that’s the real consideration) — you’ll send them to other websites. And if you do maintain a website with a prohibitively high paywall, to try to send people to print, you have the worst of both worlds: a website that costs money to maintain,...
Sharks in the Seed Water
rafer:
Image via Wikipedia
I figured that a “you’re being lied to” post about some startup funding topic would be a great Sharks post for Tumblr. The specifics were a little too easy to find. VentureBeat is distributing some bad, bad info to startups here. I’ve re-ordered the author’s bullet points to make things easier.
Good
* Avoid giving investors more than a 1x liquidation preference, and...
“People are good and trustworthy and generally just concerned with getting...”
– Image via Wikipedia
WIRED: Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess
Rafer sez: That’s the baseline. I hope all the work I do helps people get to this point. There’s happier levels available, but the median human won’t get there in my lifetime.
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Craig, the cover boy...
“The whole entrepreneurial thing is that you kind of jump off a cliff and...”
– Reid Hoffman, as quoted by Jeff Bussgang in his new book, The VC Playbook (via fred-wilson)
Craigslist Is Vulnerable
continuations:
Yesterday, Fred wrote a post about what we can learn from the “mess” that is Craigslist. The “mess” referred to a Wired article titled “Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess.” Fred explains why we at Union Square Ventures love this “mess” and refer to it frequently in posts and meetings with entrepreneurs. Given how much I have personally referred to Craigslist as a model of succeeding...
Yes, it's easy to go after Apple but let's not...
bijan:
These days it’s very easy to go after Apple’s business practices with iTunes & iPhone.
Unlike the Macintosh operating system where any developer can build an app, the iTunes App Store and iPhone has a specific limitation. Apple must approve your app.
The most high profile app drama is Google Voice. Apple has not given Google permission to run that app on the iPhone. This is on top...
“1. pre money valuation should value the company as it exists today. if investors...”
– a comment from my friend Mark Pincus on doing business with VCs. there is some really good advice in here.
The Ideal First Round Term Sheet
(via fred-wilson)
“got my google wave account .. yeaa!!” http://bit.ly/V5QL7…”...”
“got my google wave account .. yeaa!!”
“Evils of url shortners… http://blog.tr.im/ tr.im is shutting down…”...”
“Evils of url shortners… http://blog.tr.im/ tr.im is shutting down…”
July 2009
25 posts
Jeff Bezos: Regret Minimization Framework
This is good…
via Jeff Bezos, 2001
I went to my boss and said to him, “You know, I’m going to go do this crazy thing and I’m going to start this company selling books online.” This was something that I had already been talking to him about in a sort of more general context, but then he said, “Let’s go on a walk.” And, we went on a two hour walk in Central Park in New York City and the...
Did Sequoia force Zappos to sell?
bijan:
There is a rumor swirling around that Sequoia forced Zappos to sell to Amazon.
I’ve received a bunch of emails on the subject from entrepreneurs. Can a VC force a sale?
Here’s my thoughts on this rumor and the idea of whether a VC can force a company sale.
Few scenarios to consider (I’m talking about forcing a sale, not blocking a sale):
1. Company raises a relatively small amount of...
