Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 1, 2011
I’d like to start by asking each of you to consider helping under-privileged children in America get a little bit more than they have today. Sure, you can give a small amount of money. Even $10. Please. It’s better than zero. You can combine that with supporting Fred & Joanne Wilson. (if you click no other links on theis site click that one).
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 29, 2011
Tweet. Last August, Chantel Waterbury walked into First Round's New York City office and told me all about jewelry, empowering women entrepreneurs in the fashion space, and what it means to design inspiring accessories. She expounded on the completely missed opportunity to combine offline and online direct selling into a singular complementary vision.
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Berkonomics
AUGUST 27, 2011
Each decision you make to commit resources affects the future value of the business to some degree. Minor decisions, such as replacing employees who have left the company or equipment needing updating, are usually considered operational in nature, and unless the business is changing direction, not relevant to this analysis. But each commitment of resources of any substantial size for acquisition of new products, talent, even new companies, changes the value of your enterprise perhap
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 22, 2011
FNAC. I first heard the term from Chris Fralic at First Round Capital. Feature, not a company. It has always stood out in my mind. Whether something is a feature or a company is clearly subjective. And sometimes features (say, Twitter) turn into companies. For me it is a useful shorthand for a very clever set of product features that in my mind would be hard to remain a stand-alone business or themselves to generate enough revenue to justify the company’s existence.
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This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 8, 2011
The other day, I got interviewed for Business Insider. It was a good interview, save for that little vein that I had no idea was so prominently featured on the side of my head--but what's a bald guy to do? At least it's not a weird fold in the back or a dent at the top. Anyway, I was pretty happy about it, but then I got a note from a friend that said, "Don't sweat the haters.
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This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 9, 2011
You may have seen the TechCrunch and BusinessInsider articles on SinglePlatform raising an additional $3.25 million from us, DFJ Gotham and new investor New World Ventures. You may have read the description of what they do--"Help Local Businesses Create Online Storefronts" or "manage their web presence"--and think that's not particularly interesting.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 21, 2011
GroupMe, a First Round portfolio company, just announced its acquisition by Skype. ( Techcrunch story here , AllThingsD here , Betabeat here ) What's cool is that they'll be staying in NYC--a win for the Big Apple! In my opinion, GroupMe built the very best team in the space, never stopped iterating, and still has a very big vision for the service. Through Skype, they’ll have a huge distribution channel, so this will be only the beginning for the company.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 16, 2011
50 coffee meetings. It should stick in your head as a metaphor for networking. For getting outside of your comfort zone. For starting relationships today that won’t pay off for a year. It’s the entrepreneur’s equivalent of “ 10,000 hours.&#. Anybody who has spent any time with me in person will be tired of this advice because I give it so frequently.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 14, 2011
I was recently approached by Fast Company to comment on “crisis management&# at startups in the wake of the Airbnb “ranksackgate&# story. I agreed to do the interview because the story was about what other companies can learn rather than about airbnb in particular. What are the teachable moments? The short article in Fast Company is here if you’d like to read it.
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This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 25, 2011
Tweet. When I was running Path 101, I'd laugh when people asked me if I was taking vacation. First off, I couldn't actually afford to go anywhere on a startup salary. Second, there was way too much to do. Third, I'm not sure I could have successfully unplugged anyway. The issue was that for the last two weeks in August, there were no VCs around to pitch, no distribution partners to meet with for biz dev deals, and seemingly no one else around actually working for me, the non-technical co-founder
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 31, 2011
At a board meeting yesterday, a management team was talking about their hiring needs and some of the challenges they're having hiring great people. This conversation seems to take place at nearly every growing company in just about every board meeting. over and over again. It's clearly one of the most important things a company can do--yet companies don't ever get as organized around it, with dedicated resources, until much later in their lives.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 24, 2011
On this blog I’m often trying to combine lessons for entrepreneurs and market commentary. Yesterday it was my turn for the lesson. In my zeal to prove a point I often take a strong stance on an issue. I then debate the topic in the comments section and hope that we all learn from the conversation. It’s my personality to do this. Yesterday I pushed this passion in the wrong direction.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 17, 2011
I had a great breakfast this morning with Andrew Parker , and we talked about a range of things, including how to describe big groups of people who consume content and services. People use the term "communities" a lot, and in many ways, overuse it--describing groups that don't feature any of the key attributes of a real community. Various descriptions of community include: "shares some common values".
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This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 7, 2011
"S&P’s intrusion into American politics is also ironic because, as I pointed out recently, much of our current debt is directly or indirectly due to S&P’s failures (along with the failures of the two other major credit-rating agencies — Fitch and Moody’s) to do their jobs before the financial meltdown. Until the eve of the collapse S&P gave triple-A ratings to some of the Street’s riskiest packages of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt ob
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 16, 2011
Today would have been my grandfather's 94th birthday. He got ALS (Lou Gerhig's Disease) and passed away 15 years ago. I've been wearing his ring ever since. Everytime he visited us in Brooklyn, he complained about the parking. It didn't help that he was driving this huge boat. a '91 Mercury Grand Marquis. We used to play demolition derby with Lego vehicles on his kitchen table, rolling the cars from one side of the table to the other.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 25, 2011
I sometimes feel that the Silicon Valley culture and we as technologists more broadly can breed monoculture in our approach to entrepreneurship, problem solving, market analysis and technology solutions. Experiences way beyond any hack-a-thon, startup blog or your current company engagement can enrich your thinking and challenge you to think more broadly about the solutions you offer in the market.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 13, 2011
One of the most valuable tools in an executive’s arsenal is the use of the question chain in planning meetings or to analyze scenarios that might result from an action. The powerful words are “What if…” followed by an ever-deeper question that follows the possible results of an action, or a decision based upon the last “What if” question. The beauty of this method is that it causes the person proposing the solution to think much more deeply than during the development process, unveiling many po
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Berkonomics
AUGUST 5, 2011
Markets and competitors change. Are you being left behind? Over the years, I have often heard the complaint from CEO friends that they have become so swamped by the demands of their growing businesses that they feel themselves further and further from the center of their industry, no longer at the forefront of information and competitive development.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 28, 2011
On June 17, 1994, the whole country was interrupted by broadcast news—us New Yorkers were watching Patrick Ewing and the Knicks in the NBA Finals. It was the beginning of the biggest media spectacle we had ever seen. All that needs to be mentioned is “White Bronco” and anyone born on the other side of the 1980’s knows what is being referred to.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 23, 2011
Yesterday, I ran the Battle of Brooklyn 10 miler in Prospect Park. When I got there in the morning, I noticed that Dave Morgan, founder of Tacoda and Simulmedia, had also checked into the park for the run. We met up and, as it turns out, he signed up the day before after noticing my packet pickup checkin at Jackrabbit on Friday. He's training for a marathon and had signed up for a few halves to prepare.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 9, 2011
This article was originally published on TechCrunch. Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. Why is that? Who knows. But probably because as a group we travel a lot. So the industry formed around a day of the week when all partners could avoid having company board meetings or traveling. Yesterday was a Monday. And not a pleasant one.
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
Berkonomics
AUGUST 18, 2011
I am a gadget freak, often purchasing new technologies in their first release. And my closet is full of such gadgets, from early pen-based computers to early brick-sized cell phones to an electronic handwriting recognition pad received as a gift to test. These early dives into new technologies serve a purpose for me. They keep me at the leading edge of new development as it is productized, even before mass production.
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