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.
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?
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
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.
Tomasz Tunguz
FEBRUARY 5, 2013
David Brooks has a great op-ed this morning on the Philosophy of Data. He argues that data offers one major advantage and one major drawback. Data enables humans to discover patterns otherwise unobservable by our senses/intuition or patterns that violate human intuition. But the religion of data engenders a fallacy: that everything can and should be measured; and with this data, the best answer will emerge.
Advertisement
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 The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.
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.
Startup Catalyst Brief brings together the best content for the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
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.
Tomasz Tunguz
FEBRUARY 4, 2013
With a litany of articles in recent months highlighting the number of companies with valuations greater than $1B , I’ve started to wonder about the valuation trends for the highest profile venture backed companies. Venture capitalists are increasing market prices in Series A and Series B rounds aggressively in effort to reap disproportionate returns.
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.
Tomasz Tunguz
FEBRUARY 2, 2013
Even the greatest minds fear missing out. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman who assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, contributed substantial advances to quantum mechanics and particle physics, discovered the cause of the Challenger Shuttle disaster and popularized science as a witty and successful author, faced this fear when confronted with a menu.
Advertisement
Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.
Tomasz Tunguz
FEBRUARY 7, 2013
When interviewing product managers at Google, we ranked candidates on four metrics: technical ability, communication skills, intellect and Googliness. A Googley person embodies the values of the company - a willingness to help others, an upbeat attitude, a passion for the company, and the most important, humility. In the past week, I asked two heads of engineering to identify the most important characteristic in new hires.
Tomasz Tunguz
FEBRUARY 6, 2013
Kenny Van Zant is a marketing wizard. Before his current role at Asana, Kenny managed products and marketing for Solarwinds , a publicly traded company that sells networking equipment to the mid-market. Solarwinds pioneered the low-friction, high-velocity sales model in their segment to great success. SolarWinds offered free products to their customers to gain usage data that informs their sales and marketing efforts.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
388 
Let's personalize your content