August 2008
47 posts
Yahoo Finally Got Back Into My Daily Folder →
The very first folder in my browser toolbar is called “Daily” and it’s the folder I right click and choose “Open All in Tabs” first thing in the morning when I do my email / web / blog drill. For a…
My Relationship With Apple Is Like My Relationship... →
Scott Converse has a wonderful post up titled Is Apple a Republican? After reading it, I pondered my relationship with Apple and realized that it is just like my relationship with the Republican…
Om, That's Actually "You Gotta Be Fucking... →
Om Malik discovered that Microsoft has received a new and exciting patent on “page up and page down.” It was issued on 8/19/08. I just read the summary and this is truly a ridiculous patent. …
Mesa Falls Marathon →
On Saturday I ran the Mesa Falls Marathon. I’ve now completed a marathon in 12 of the 50 states - almost 25% of the way there. My co-conspirator for this one was Matt Blumberg, who ran the last…
What A House Hit By Lightening Looks Like →
The parents of a close friend just had a direct lightening strike on their house. It immediately burned to the ground and everything was lost. The simple advice from my friend if this…
Amazon Acquires Shelfari →
Congrats to Josh Hug and the gang at Shelfari for joining the Amazon.com family. I was an early angel investor in Shelfari and have been a long time avid user of the service. Amazon was an…
Solving the H-1B Visa Issue →
One of the big topics that came up on the panel I was on today at the DNC was the issue surrounding the labor supply in the US in computer science and IT. There is a growing shortage of software…
2008 Technology Roundtable at the DNC →
I’m having my half day DNC experience this morning. At 10am I’m on a panel creatively titled 2008 Technology Roundtable. It’s limited attendee (200 people at the Ricketson Theater) but appears…
Fantastic Post By Calacanis On How To Get PR →
Anyone who has worked with me knows that one of my favorite lines is “marketing is stupid.” And - if you really know me - you know that I don’t actually mean “marketing is stupid”, but I use it as…
Gluing EventVue and Twitter Together →
At Foundry Group, one of our investment themes is Glue. We’ve done a handful of investments in this area, including Gnip. Since Gnip’s launch last month, it’s been put into production in a…
In The Stupid Patent Advertising Category →
It’s DNC time in Denver and all kinds of weird advertisements are popping up all over the place, including the airport. My partner Jason sent me a photo of this one today with the heading “Puke”.…
What Are the Pros and Cons of Investment From a... →
Q: Can you please touch on issues associated with first round financings from corporate or strategic investors. Particularly when the strategic is a competitor. What are some of the pitfalls and…
Lessons From Phelps and Bolt →
Jason and I were talking about some of the running events in the Olympics as we walked in to the office together this morning. After chatting about the marathon, he asked if I’d seen the Bolt 100…
The Upcoming Idaho Marathon →
Marathon #12 is on Saturday. I’ll be running the Mesa Falls Marathon in Ashton, Idaho. 157 people ran it last year so it’s a deliciously small one. I’ve been training with a new coach - Gary…
It Should Be A Fun Day →
I like this life thing. Good luck TechStars Class of 2008!
Political Joke of the Day →
I have no idea where this joke came from, but I couldn’t resist posting it because it combined Alaska, Massachusetts, Democrats, Republicans, Guns, the Pope, and a Grizzly Bear. The Pope took a…
ASP = SaaS = Cloud = ? →
Matt McAdams has a clever blog up titled Up next: telesoftware!He discusses the rise of our favorite new buzzword (hint: it’s “Cloud Computing”) and spends some time harkening back to its…
Approaching A VC →
My partner Chris Wand has a long guest post up on Ask the VC titled How Should I Approach a VC I Don’t Know? Lots of good do’s and don’ts for anyone looking to connect with a VC.
New EF Community Launched by Bay Area Team - Give... →
How Should I Approach a VC I Don't Know? →
Q: Everyone tells me the way to approach a venture capitalist I don’t know is through a friendly introduction from someone who already knows that VC. But what happens if I don’t have the…
The Priorities of a Venture Capitalist →
I’m baffled whenever I hear from a CEO that he’s having trouble getting a response from one of his VC investors. Unfortunately, this is a very common occurrence in VC-backed company land. After…
AOL Acquires SocialThing →
After some rumors a few weeks ago, it’s now official. AOL has acquired SocialThing. I’m immensely proud of the Matt, Ben, and Brian. As one of the members of the TechStars 2007 class of…
The Schedule →
August is theoretically a slow month. Um, yeah. As I pondered what I’ve got in front of me the next few weeks, I thought I’d share the things you are invited to come to and play with me. Thursday…
Breast Cancer for Husbands →
My friend Mitchell Ashley has started a really powerful new blog titled BreastCancerForHusbands. I’m at the age where several of my friends have now fought with breast cancer - fortunately no…
Tech I Use →
I’m one of those guys that can’t resist downloading a piece of software to try it out. I buy every gadget, download everything that comes my way, and create an account on every web service I…
New West Joins Entrepreneurs Foundation of... →
There’s lot of good Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado stuff going on. The other day I wrote about the EFCO Annual Give Back Event that is happening on Saturday (please come join us.) Today,
New West Joins Entrepreneurs Foundation of... →
EFCO Annual Give Back Event →
The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado is having their first annual “give back” event on Saturday 8/16. If you are an employee of a company that is an EFCO member, you and your family are…
Ignighter - Group Dating →
As the TechStars 2008 companies gear up for Investor Demo Day, many of them are asking me to write about them on this humble blog. I’m really proud of what they all have accomplished this summer…
Paul Graham on Fundraising →
Today’s great post is from Paul Graham and is titled A Fundraising Survival Guide. Paul runs Y Combinator and has been involved in numerous early stage financings since starting Y Combinator…
I've Deleted All My Alerts And Replaced Them With... →
I have been looking forward to this day for a while. I’ve always been obsessed with following any news or blog mentions of any of the companies I’m an investor and the people I work with. For the…
Enterprise 2.0 and Defrag →
Eric Norlin has a good post up titled Enterprise 2.0 as part of a larger theme. In it he addresses the question “Is enterprise 2.0 bullshit?” Eric doesn’t think it is, nor do I. However, there…
Answer The Question Honestly →
Rick Segal has today’s great post up titled From the Trenches: OS Who?In addition to being enlightening, it’s hilarious. He’s also got some hints about where OS/2 is heading.
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The Irrelevance of Silicon Valley Envy →
A few weeks ago I wrote about the AEA survey that ranked Boulder as the #2 CyberCity in the US. I suggested that this was misleading since #1 was “San Jose/Silicon Valley”, which is not actually…
What Am I? →
When I work with software all day long, I sometimes forget that there are seriously cool and amazing things in the world that people build, like hadron colliders.
Patents, Commons, and Anti-Commons →
Yippee - the criticism of the software patent stupidity is starting to heat up and some really smart people are making both useful arguments about the issues and interesting proposals about the…
How Many Deals Should Be Needed To Return A VC... →
Fred Wilson has another excellent post up titled Venture Fund Economics: When One Deal Returns The Fund. He continues his expose on how VC funds work and builds his thoughts in this post around…
Interview With Jon Fox of Intense Debate →
Allen Stern has a great interview up with Jon Fox, the co-founder of Intense Debate. Jon and Intense Debate were part of the first year’s crop of companies from TechStars and are going great…
Why Does This Slide Suck? →
I have seen my lifetime supply of slides like the following: My good friend Bruce Wyman - the Director of Technology at the Denver Art Museum - has a thoughtful post up this morning…
Bouncing Back from Losing $20m →
Alex Muse has a long, detailed post up aboutHow [He] lost $20,000,000+ in 18 months. It’s the story of his experience with LayerOne - the first version and the second version. It’s a useful…
Amazing Powers of Concentration →
Tim O’Reilly tweeted a link to an article titled How To Concentrate which was originally published in 1930. It is excellent and worth reading slowly (presumably while you are concentrating.)
How Gross and Net Returns Work For Venture Funds →
Fred Wilson has another post on Venture Fund Returns titled Gross and Net Returns. AsktheVC would like to formally thank Fred for doing our work for us, as we periodically get questions about…
More Fred Wilson on Venture Fund Economics: Gross... →
And post #2 is up (I guess post #1 went up yesterday and I missed it since I only read feeds in the morning.) Post #2 is titled Gross and Net Returnsand - while it describes them - it has an…
How Venture Fund Economics Work →
Fred Wilson has an excellent post up today titled Venture Fund Economics. It appears to be the first of several posts he’s planning to write on this topic. “When I write about venture fund…
How Venture Fund Economics Work →
Today’s great post if by Fred Wilson titled titled Venture Fund Economics. “When I write about venture fund returns, there are always comments and questions that lead me to believe that…
Is Dilution Considered When Talking About Equity... →
Q: When we talk about the equity percentage numbers for those directors and other early participants, are these numbers based on the total number of shares prior to a funding event or does the base…
100 Miler? One Can Dream →
People tell me when I get bored of marathons maybe I’ll start doing ultras - as in 100 mile races. Great inspiration. (Thanks Dave / Jeff).
