June 2009
24 posts
Saying No In Less Than 60 Seconds →
I say “no” all the time. I could start keeping track of the number of times I do it a day, but I’d guess it’s a minimum of 10 and occasionally over 50 times a day. When I type that, my first…
Kaguya Spacecraft Crashes into the Moon →
I was pondering what a tiny part of the universe we are on my ride this morning into Boulder from Keystone. The first hour of my drive was extraordinary as the sun came up over the Rocky Mountains…
Sarychev Peak Volcano in Stereo →
The web (and the universe) is an amazing place. My sister-in-law Laura turned me on NASA’s “Astronomy Picture of the Day” website. I bookmarked it and put it in my Daily folder so I get a cool new…
TechStars Episode 4: Skills & Persistence →
Episode 4 of The Founders: TechStars Boulder is up on the web. This week’s episode includes a special guest appearance from Greg Cohn at Yahoo, a poker party with KKO, thoughts on why startups…
Deep Calm →
I’m sitting in the early dawn light in a cabin in Tabernash, Colorado drinking a cup of coffee and getting ready to go for a run in the mountains.
I’ve just spent the last 18 hours with my …
OpenPogo – Hacking Your Pogoplug →
Last night I sent the Puttermans (the co-founders of Cloud Engines – the makers of Pogoplug) a note with a few ideas about features I’d like to see in the product. Included were requests for…
Don Coen – Prairie Rattler →
I have three major hobbies – reading, running, and collecting art. On my run today, I realized that I occasionally blog about reading and running, but I rarely blog about art. I’m pretty sure this…
Advice For Working With Mentors →
I had a great week last week. Most of the companies I’m an investor in are doing well and are having strong Q2s. A few, like Zynga, are absolutely killing it (see the Zynga video on CBS News…
Advice For Working With Mentors →
I had a great week last week. Most of the companies I’m an investor in are doing well and are having strong Q2s. A few, like Zynga, are absolutely killing it (see the Zynga video on CBS News…
How To Cold Call A VC →
Mark Suster of GRP Partners in LA continues to crank out great posts, including today’s titled Getting Access to the Old Boys’ Club (how to approach a VC). I like investing in LA (we’ve got…
TechStars Episode 3: A Community Party →
Episode 3 of The Founders: TechStars Boulder is up on the web. This week’s episode includes special guest Dave Morin from Facebook.
Email – The Original Social Graph →
I’ve been an Internet email user since early 1984 when I got my first Project Athena account as an undergraduate at MIT. Notwithstanding all the “email is dead” messages over the years, I continue…
Betting on A Big Wave →
Mark Suster of GRP Partners is blogging like a fiend and has the best VC post of the day titled Sorry Guys – It’s the Size of the Wave, Not the Motion of the Ocean. Entrepreneurs – wander over…
The Magic of Data Visualization →
I love data. And I adore playing with it graphically, as I learn a lot from graphing longitudinal data about things I’m involved in. However, I find that almost all of the web services I use suck…
I’ve Run Out of Namespace in My Brain →
I’ve never been great with remembering names the first time I meet someone. I’ve tried all the usual tricks and haven’t found one that works. For me, it’s a matter of regular meeting – eventually…
Work-Life Balance Interview →
On Wednesday I did my final One-on-One with Phil Weiser on the topic of Work-Life Balance.
Rocky Radar did a great job of summarizing it in the post Feld on Life Balance: “Accomplish What You…
I’ve Run Out of Namespace in My Brain →
I’ve never been great with remembering names the first time I meet someone. I’ve tried all the usual tricks and haven’t found one that works. For me, it’s a matter of regular meeting – eventually…
Work-Life Balance Interview →
On Wednesday I did my final One-on-One with Phil Weiser on the topic of Work-Life Balance.
Rocky Radar did a great job of summarizing it in the post Feld on Life Balance: “Accomplish What You…
This Stuff Should Just Work →
I have a new Windows 7 computer at my loft in Boulder that I’ve been working on for the past 24 hours. It’s the same exact configuration as my desktop (except for Windows 7 instead of Vista) and…
The TechStars Story Unfolding Each Week →
Last year we got connected to some guys from Hollywood who talked to us (I can’t decide if we pitched them or they pitched us) on doing a “TechStars Reality Show.” The whole thing seemed seriously…
Pogoplug Getting Props from My Favorite Gadget... →
We are super psyched about our investment in Pogoplug. Generally, I hate self-referential tech analogies as a way of describing a product, but in Pogoplug’s case it’s easy: “Pogoplug is a…
Hi - I’m Back on the Grid →
Wow – that was a great and much needed week off the grid. Both Amy and I were exhausted. But, we are back (although she is about to decamp to Keystone for the summer to work on her book.)
…
Colorado Company Index →
My friends at Rocky Radar have launched a Colorado Company Index. It’s a free resource designed to catalog the technology companies working within the state, from IT to Life Science to Clean…
When Failure Is An Option →
Today’s great post is from David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners and is titled Israeli Venture Keynote: When Failure Is An Option. Embedded is his keynote presentation from last week at the…
Key Characteristics of a Great Startup Culture →
Today’s great VC post is by Greg Gottesman (a managing director at Madrona Venture Group) and is titled Thirteen key characteristics of a great startup culture. It shows up in John Cook’s…
May 2009
27 posts
Interviews on TechStars, Venture Capital, and... →
I’m always happy to be “content.” Following are a few interviews I’ve shown up in lately.
Q&A with Brad Feld of TechStars: This is a nice short interview in Mass High Tech that happened at the…
Feld-Weiser One-on-One: Feld on Work-Life Balance →
On Wednesday, June 10th, 6:00-7:00pm in the Wittemyer Courtroom, Wolf Law Building at CU Boulder I’m doing an interview with Phil Weiser titled Feld on Work-Life Balance. I’ve written…
It’s All About The Faces →
I heard the line “it’s all about the faces” from someone in the past few weeks. The line stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Last night I tried an experiment and changed my…
Start-up Cost Projections For First Time... →
Q: At a pub in Los Gatos, CA a casual conversation with some young, first time entrepreneurs lead to an interesting comment: “…the business plan outlines our estimated (operational) expenses but…
TechStars Kicks Into High Gear →
As the TechStars Boulder program starts its third week, the TechStars Boston program kicks off its first week. Andrew Hyde has a good summary of the first two weeks of Boulder (along with a…
Following the D Conference on My iPhone →
D7 starts Tuesday. As usual, the speaker list is killer. But, I can’t go as I have a board meeting in LA on Wednesday and I’m keynoting the IdaVation Conference in Boise on Thursday.
My…
Random Meetings in a Car →
I tried an experiment last week when I was in Seattle. I did two of my “random meetings” in cars between things.
I had a full day (a run with TA McCann (the CEO of Gist), the Gist board meeting,…
The Public Restroom as HCI Laboratory →
Well – that serves me right. If you requested a Gist beta invite, be patient. I’m grinding through my inbox and you’ll have your invite by tomorrow at the latest. Thanks everyone who requested…
The Web Is Working Harder For Me →
A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled The Maturing of the Implicit Web. In it I talked about new releases from AdaptiveBlue and OneRiot. As I sit here in my hotel room in Seattle waiting…
Book: Bricklin on Technology →
I haven’t been reading that much lately (only 27 books so far this year) so I had a nice weekend chewing on a handful of them as I tried to catch my breath from a few weeks of constantly moving…
Preparing For A First Meeting With Me →
I have lots of short meetings. I’ll try to meet with anyone that I can that is referred to me or seems to be doing something relevant to my world. I’ll also meet with people I think are…
And It’s Only Wednesday →
It’s been a busy and exciting week so far. The best part is that Amy arrived home from her two week trip to Africa yesterday evening. I picked her up at the airport and got to spend the night…
Glue and Medialets →
I’m at the Glue Conference today. The room is packed with a bunch of great folks, including a large contingent of locals (thanks guys – especially the BDNT crowd!) So far we’ve heard from Josh…
Communications Advice for Pitching Venture... →
Today’s post is from Matt Eventoff - a communications consultant who has good tips for entrepreneurs who are pitching VCs. I reinforce that having a clear message is really important. If you get…
Sync is Zen Magic →
Jean-Gabriel Morard – formerly of SugarSync – has a great post up on GigaOm titled Why Sync Is So Difficult. It was one of the things I read before my run yesterday and it was in my head the…
Stupid Lawyer Tricks →
My partner Jason Mendelson (an ex-lawyer) has a dynamite post up titled Quick Ways To Get Fired as a Lawyer. While some of my best friends are lawyers (or ex-lawyers), I’ve encountered most of…
I’m A DAU →
Now this is rap I can relate to.
Zynga rocks. My friend code on iPhone Mafia Wars is 1901 3272 26.
My May Foodzie Care Package →
Each month my friends at Foodzie send me and Amy a “blogger care package” to taste and review. My friends Joanne and Fred Wilson also get one – Joanne blogged their reviews earlier this…
Relationships Matter – A Lot →
It blows my mind how many people think they can treat entrepreneurs and other investors poorly and think that it won’t come around to negatively impact them some time in the future.
I had two…
How to Raise Capital as a First Time Entrepreneur →
Earlier this week Dave Lavinsky, who writes the Growthink Blog, interview me on How to Raise Capital as a First Time Entrepreneur. Other than me doing a crappy job of answering the first…
I Miss Firefly – xkcd’s The Race →
Summer Glau just totally kicks ass. So does xkcd – it’s my every other day dose of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
You’ll have to go to xkcd for the rest of them. Race 2, Race 3…
Gist – My Cerebrum Communicator →
Yesterday Gist announced that we led a $6.5m Series A financing. Gist is right in the cross section of our email theme and our implicit web theme. To better understand this, spend three…
Browser Innovations – The Blink Tag →
Do you remember when the blink tag appeared on the scene? I do. I was giving a reference on a great CEO I’ve worked with since 1996. The VC I was talking to and I took a trip down memory lane to…
The Variable in Work Life Balance →
If you watch Lost and are current, you know that the “Variable” is extremely important. As Daniel Faraday says, “we spend way too much time trying to figure out the constants – we need to pay more…
2009 New York Venture Summit →
The 2009 New York Venture Summit is happening on June 17th at Digital Sandbox in New York City. The summit will feature 50 early stage and emerging growth companies as presenters, interactive…
