Chris Yeh
VP Enterprise Marketing for PBworks, first investor in and previously interim CEO of Ustream.TV. Chris is an active angel investor and the founder and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association (HBSTECH). Chris earned two degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His personal blogs are Adventures in Capitalism and Ask the Harvard MBA.
Why I hate acquihires (unless I’m doing the selling)
The always insightful Mark Suster recently tackled the subject of acquihires–the practice of large companies buying small startups simply to acquire their people. Mark lays out an excellent argument for why the acquiring companies are actually losing out when they make acquihires: “You have been at Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo! for years. You have worked faithfully. [...]
The rise of the bros, and the fall of the geeks
One of my favorite movies when I was growing up was the 1984 classic, “Revenge of the Nerds.” If you haven’t watched it yet, take two hours to do so–yes, it’s available on Netflix: The movie really spoke to me–a guy so nerdy that the kids at my private school for gifted children nicknamed me [...]
Sexism in tech is like an onion–it has many layers and makes people cry
The big topic of discussion last week was the fallout from the PyCon conference. At the conference, former Adria Richards, who, at the time, worked in developer relations for SendGrid, heard two conference attendees behind her making jokes about “forking” and “dongles” in the sort of juvenile way that often happens in the tech industry. [...]
The one number (45) that explains Constant Contact’s success
The Business of Software Conference sounds like a phenomenal event. I haven’t attended it, but I did recently run across one of the sessions from their 2012 conference, a talk by Gail Goodman, the CEO of Constant Contact: For those who don’t know, Constant Contact is a publicly traded online marketing company with over 500,000 [...]
Marissa Mayer and Yahoo’s telecommuting policy: Right motivation, wrong execution
When Yahoo! hired Marissa Mayer, I supported the move, believing that the board needed to shake things up, and that given the dismal state of the business, Mayer was probably a better candidate than they could ever have expected to attract. I also supported the move on Mayer’s part; she wasn’t ever going to become [...]
Fight Cancer, Get My Time
Last year, I rode in Cycle for Survival, and helped raise over $15 million for cancer. You guys helped by donating over $2,000. This year, it’s even more personal. As you know, I lost my beloved dog Kobe to cancer last Fall. Meanwhile, my friend David Weekly lost his mother, and his brother is now [...]
The content continuum and why I’m worried about the direction of the online world
At the risk of sounding (even more) like a crotchety old man, I feel like the online world is moving in exactly the wrong direction.I would argue that there is a direct correlation between the amount of effort a creator expends and the quality and valu…
The Cockroach Theory: Why Little Things Matter (even for Apple)
When I was a young investor, I spent a lot of time listening to the wisdom of the old hands around me, like Don Allen and Curt Kittelson. One of the things they taught me was the Cockroach Theory: Stated simply, the Cockroach Theory is “there’s never just one.” Investors apply the theory to stocks, [...]
It’s a Tablet! It’s a PC! No, it’s a tasty floor wax!
We seem to have reached the stage of tablet evolution where ungainly variations are crawling out of the primordial ooze on a daily basis.Just today, a single Engadget story covered the Sony VAIO Duo 11–a tablet that converts into a laptop via a slid…
The Only Kind of Product That Can Pull Off Freemium
The Wall Street Journal finally picks up on the freemium trend (it’s only been 2-3 years, right?) The problem is, anyone reading the article is probably under the impression that what succeeds and what doesn’t i…
Facebook, Part Deux
Nearly two years ago, I asked the question, “Did Peter Thiel Make The Single Best Investment In History?” Today, now that Thiel has sold most of his remaining stake in Facebook, it’s a good time to re-examine the math surrounding his investment. Two years ago, I wrote: In 2005, Peter Thiel paid $500,000 for a [...]
How Do You Know A VC Is Interested?
“He told us he was going to fund us,” shouts the happy entrepreneur into my ear. I’m sure he dialed me as soon as he got into the car. “He’s not going to fund you,” I say calmly, “The VCs always say that. It doesn’t mean anything.” A lot of entrepreneurs have a hard time [...]
Microsoft People vs. Apple People
There are Microsoft people and Apple people.Microsoft people want every option, and can’t imagine why others would find the surfeit of choices intimidating or annoying.In the parlance of psychology, they are “optimizers”.Apple people want a simple, ele…
RIP, Newspapers
While newspapers have certainly been dying for a long time, I officially called their time of death as 8:25 AM this morning. For the past week or two, I’ve been receiving mysterious phone calls from Missouri. The few times I picked up, no one was on the line. Today, I finally got someone on the [...]
Everyone Feels Like An Imposter
I had the good fortune of being allowed to be a mentor at the Unreasonable Institute this year. If you ever get the chance, it’s something you should definitely do. In my two days at the institute, I got to meet a bunch of amazing people who are maki…
