Mistakes that startups make
When you start or join a startup the odds are already stacked against you, so why would you make things even harder on yourself by repeating what past entrepreneurs have done time and time again? How can you avoid these pitfalls? Why are they even pitfalls? How does everyone seem to fall into these traps? […]
Rage against the machine
This is one of my favorite management tales. I have been in many a situation where people behave like the monkeys that have no idea why they are doing some stupid legacy thing. I prefer to question the status quo and do the best thing as opposed to what we think we should be doing. […]
The Great Agile Lie
Oh Agile. How I love thee. You are the buzzword of a thousand startups. Well, you and your friend Ruby on Rails and terminology like “lean” and “pivot”. But is your startup really agile? Agile sounds like a dream for most people. Product owners get to write less specs and change requirements on the fly, […]
Diversity in startups (or lack therefore of)
20 something tech boys (white / asian / indian) Ping pong table Apple laptops (apart from the net ops folks on unix) Females in Marketing / PR or Customer Service (sorry, ladies, but it is mostly true) Does this sound like your startup? If so, then you aren’t alone. This is the cookie cutter of […]
Oddest business pitch I ever received
In my time in the venture world I saw many a pitch. Some were amazing, some were not so great and some were plain out jacked up. Like I wanted to go home and crawl into my bed and suck my thumb kind of f*ed up. This was one of those pitches… I wish I […]
Bitcasa – Dropbox totally in the cloud?
This is one thing that I have been struggling with lately on Dropbox. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Dropbox, but I do not love that my files are all on my machine taking up about 30GIG of space. I do realize that I have the option of selective syncing my folders, but then I […]
Please, God. I hope this is a joke. CLOO – toilet sharing app
If this isn’t a joke, then it is definitely a sign of a BUBBBBBBLLLLLLEEEEEEEE (in case you weren’t already convinced). Honestly, I really don’t want random people showing up at my doorstep to take a dump. But, hey, maybe that is just me. Here’s a riddle: How many public bathrooms are there in your city? […]
Amazon vs. California: The Fight by the Numbers
via theatlantic.com $200,000,000: Dollars per year California stands to take in under a law requiring online retailers to collect state sales tax. $5,250,000: Dollars Amazon has already donated to an effort to repeal the law. $13,000,000,000: Dollars cut in June from the state’s two university systems because of budget shortfalls. 2,257,000: Californians unemployed (PDF) in […]
World Premiere: “I’m a VC” music video by the Foundry Group
I like some VCs that don’t take themselves too seriously. Love it. Props to the Foundry Group.
This makes me want to invest in Groupon
via youtube.com CEO of Groupon, Andrew Mason, gives us a little yoga lesson backlit by a Christmas tree in his underwear. I don’t know what could be better than this. It seriously makes me reconsider all of the negative things that I have been thinking about Groupon. It is BEAUTIFUL.