Angel Investing: Skill 3 – Relationships with VCs
This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. Part 2 discussed the need for domain knowledge since merely “joining the right club deal” will in no way [...]
Angel Investing Skill 2 – Domain Knowledge
This is the second article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. I have talked extensively about “social proof” in fund raising in the past. But the problem is that most [...]
Angel Investing (1): Dealflow – Are You Sitting at The Right Poker Table?
Executive Summary I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels” or “micro VC”) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. It is basically a return to the type of VC that was done 20 years ago long before the [...]
The Web is Against the Ropes, But it’s Not Dead
I had a really fun 20-minute interview with Howard Lindzon of Stock Twits as part of a 5-part series on whether the web is dead. If you have 20 minutes I think you’ll enjoy watching. I’ve also covered the general topic in the text below the video embed. Obviously taking on this topic is bound [...]
Mafia Sourcing – How Insiders Game User Generated News for Money
The Web. Open, democratic, leveling, freeing information from closed networks. The wisdom of the crowds. Or so it seems. I originally came from the entreprise software world (for 10 years) and before that I was in mobile & telecoms (8 years) so the last three years of immersing myself in consumer Internet, digital media & [...]
US Economic Risks (Sept 2010): Impact on Investors & Entrepreneurs
This post was originally published in a shorter (more sensible) format in the Wall Street Journal online. If you’re short on time click on the WSJ link and read the 990 word version there. Otherwise, grab a cup ‘o coffee … Clicking on any graph below will take you to that article. One year ago [...]
The 1/9/90 Rule of UGC & Why It’s OK to Have Lurkers
Two days ago I wrote about Quora . I’ve been loving the product even if it sucks up some of my time. I prefer my time go into a very focused Q&A website than into a more generic Facebook. What Quora has done is wrap social networking around Q&A with the more clever next-gen UX [...]
The Power of Quora & Why Benchmark was Right to Pay Up
I was an early user of Quora and like all new technologies they take a bit of playing with them for a while, discussing them with others and reflecting on them to let them sink in. I’m no wall flower so when something doesn’t resonate I’m usually pretty vocal about it. With Quora, it was [...]
We’re All Frogs Boiling in Water
The Hidden Impact of Technology on our Everyday Lives … There’s an old (semi true) parable about frogs boiling in water. While not literal it’s a fun and instructive metaphor for change. It goes like this: if you put a frog in boiling water it will sense the hot water and immediately jump out yet [...]
Twitter’s “Who to Follow” – Bad English, Great Functionality
Around a month ago I heard people talking about Twitter’s bucket test (definition) of their new personalized suggested user list and this past week I actually got to experience it myself. The results for me have been excellent and in this post I’ll explain why this is critical to Twitter’s continued adoption. Twitter has implemented its [...]
Understanding a VC’s Seed Funding Policy is Critical
There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). Short summary of my posts: 1. There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. Many [...]
What’s Really Going on in the VC Industry? What Does it Mean for Startups?
Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. Here’s my take: 1. The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble – Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 [...]
I Want My CIC! – The Benefits for Startups to Be Co-Located
[if you're not old enough to get the reference between this image and the title you can click on the image for a prompter] This past December I spent a week in Boston to try to get to know some of the local VC’s and entrepreneurs a bit better. One of the meetings I had [...]
Some Tips to Improve the Civility on Hacker News
Paul Graham and the folks over at YCombinator have done much to reenergize early-stage entrepreneurship and encourage the creation of many new and innovative startups including DropBox, Posterous, Loopt, Justin.TV, Scribd and many others. They also gave us Hacker News, which for me was a welcome addition for discovering tech stories. HN and Techmeme are [...]
I Don’t Get the Buzz about Buzz – Do You?
I sent out a Tweet tonight asking whether anybody uses Google’s Buzz product independently of Twitter. I got a pretty luke warm reaction. The overwhelming majority of people who responded gave one of three answers (paraphrased): It was turned on by default by Gmail. It’s annoying. I don’t get it? I use it to communicate [...]
