April 2009
32 posts
Nantucket Conference #10 →
From April 30 to May 2, the 10th annual Nantucket Conference is happening on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. I haven’t been to a Nantucket Conference, but I’ve heard of it and have considered…
The Restorative Effects of Nature →
Several months ago my friend Ben Casnocha sent me an article from Boston.com titled How the city hurts your brain… And what you can do about it. The article starts out strong and continues…
Authorization Code Scheme →
F3EL7-T3YL2-MBN5P-ZQI6R-YE8PI
Ever type that into a pop up box on your computer when installing software? If not, you’ve never installed anything from Microsoft (or many other companies) – at…
March 2009
38 posts
Spark Capital’s Seed Program →
I’m psyched that my friends at Spark Capital have launched Start@Spark, their new seed program. In their post Why are we doing this? they explain:
“So, this must be a terrible time to…
The Rhythms of My Life →
I was in a board meeting yesterday with a company planning a major commercial release of their product “at the end of summer”. We managed to turn this into 8/31/09 at 11:59:59pm pacific time (since…
WSGR’s Entrepreneurs Report – Private Company... →
Wilson Sonsini puts out a quarterly Entrepreneurs Report. The Winter 2008 issues is titled Private Company Financing Trends. They asked me if I’d contribute an article around the topic of…
What Advice Would You Give Mompreneurs? →
This is a guest post by Lucy Sanders, the CEO of the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Q: When evaluating a start-up by a mompreneur (or to go broader female first-timer)…
Help Encourage Entrepreneurship At CU Boulder With... →
There has been a lot of activity around entrepreneurship at CU Boulder lately, especially in computer science and engineering. This is encouraging to me as I believe that a strong culture of…
Another Beers and Boulder with Brad Event... →
In February, I did a “Beers and Boulder with Brad” event in Seattle. Local Seattle-based entrepreneurs Dave Schappell of TeachStreet and T.A. McCann of Gist put the event together and I was…
What Are VCs Good For? →
Jeremiah Owyang has today’s great post up titled Beyond the Money: Some VCs Provide Startups With A Competitive Edge. The bullet point summary is: Thought Leadership Strategic Guidance Being…
A VC’s Biggest Flaw: Arrogance →
I’m really enjoying writing my print column for Entrepreneur Magazine. It’s a different kind of writing than my blogging and exercises different mental muscles.
This month’s article A VC’s…
Risk Tolerance is a Competitive Weapon →
Today’s best post of the day is from Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital. Most of Josh’s posts are winners and Nothing to Lose (or Risk Tolerance is a Competitive Weapon)provides some great…
Sunday Morning Reading →
I usually sleep in on Sunday’s but I’ve got a 16 mile run and want to meet Amy at the end of it at 10:30 for brunch. So – good morning 5am and my normal daily reading routine. I ran across a lot…
A Page Down OS Interface Design Memory Lane →
Wow – Operating System Interface Design Between 1981-2009 is awesome (thanks Dave). It is a screenshot from every major graphical OS since the Xerox Alto. Some old favorites of mine include the…
Ask the VC Live - University of Michigan →
I (Jason) will be visiting the University of Michigan in a couple of weeks to speak to different campus constituencies about entrepreneurship and venture capital. As part of that, I’m going to…
Is There A Better Phrase for “ICT”? →
As co-chairman of the Colorado Governor’s Innovation Council, I’ve been regularly exposed to the acronym ICT. It’s not a familiar or comfortably one to me and I chronically call it “CIT” or…
Entrepreneurs vs. VCs →
I caught the tail end of SXSWi (showed up yesterday and gave a speech sponsored by the Canadian Consulate) and am hanging around today for some night time music entertainment as the music part of…
TechStars Application Deadline Is This Saturday →
If you have been thinking about applying to TechStars for either the Summer 2009 program in either Boulder or Boston, now is the time to do it as the application deadline is Saturday, March 21,…
What Do Venture Capitalists Think About Young... →
Q: With a number of great companies being born of ideas coming from a youthful group of entrepreneurs, how are investors reacting to twenty-somethings fresh out of college, with little to no…
Cloud Computing Streak Marks →
In response to my post The Beginning of the Real Mess in the Clouds I received several emails / twitters / comments saying some variation of “these are easy problems to address” or “the cloud…
The Beginning of the Real Mess in the Clouds →
We made a seed investment at the end of last year in a company called Standing Cloud. They are working on a set of application development and deployment tools for cloud computing that build on…
Entrepreneurs – Don’t Be Afraid of GDP Growth Rate →
All the economics and newscasters like to talk about GDP Growth Rate (and its importance to life, the universe, and everything). Whatever. One of my very smart LPs sent me this the other day.
I Am Afraid of the Big Blue Horse at DIA →
Anyone who has driven to DIA has seen the mysterious big blue horse. Yes – it has special powers. It has killed before (its creator – Luis Jimenez) and may kill again.
I’ve just joined…
Branded iPhone Apps →
While you might be interested in a ego vanity iPhone app like the Brad Feld iPhone app, you are probably a lot more interested in an iPhone app for your business. NewsGator has become an expert…
Where I Sleep →
I love living in Boulder. But, I travel a lot. And I like that also, especially when Amy comes with me. I’m in Boston today for TechStars for a Day and then doing a bunch of stuff at MIT…
Crash Course Video →
Thanks to my friends at Kendall Media Group, here is the video of my recent Venture Capital Crash Course at the Silicon Flatirons. I give a 25 minute presentation and then hold an hour…
Why The FAA Does Not Regulate Jetpacks →
I have always wanted a jetpack. From one of my favorite West Wing exchanges (among many) in “The West Wing: The Warfare of Genghis Khan (#5.13)” (2004):
Leo McGarry: My generation never…
Do Stuff →
“There is a category of people that do stuff and a category of people that stuff gets done to.” The following short video is from the end of the event I did a few weeks in Seattle that was…
101010 – Fun With Numbers →
I love numbers. I was thinking about numbers and dates on my run yesterday. Here’s a few fun ones for you.
101010 – On 10/10/2010 the answer the life, the universe, and everything will be…
SXSW: What’s Next For Venture Capital Investing... →
I’m going to be at SXSW from 3/17 to 3/19. At 1pm on 3/17 at Mezzanine 1 at the Austin Convention Center I’ll be giving a talk titled What’s Next For Venture Capital Investing and Entrepreneurship…
Have You Ever Failed? →
As I was going through my morning information routine, I noticed a number of articles that I’d put in the “how to not fail” bucket. I read a few of these and noticed a consistent tone of “failure…
Are You Agile? →
I’ve watched (and participated) with excitement as Rally Software has helped move the notion of agile software development into the mainstream over the past few years. In addition to having the…
Daily Data →
I had a call this morning with a CEO of a young company I’m on the board of. They are well funded so they have plenty of urgency, but no panic, around what they are doing. During the conversation,…
Investment vs. Speculation →
As I read the Berkshire Hathaway 2008 Annual Report, a thought kept popping into my mind that had also come up over and over again while reading Bogle’s Enough: True Measures of Money, Business,…
Goshawk Ridge Trial →
I find trail running to be a magical experience. I live behind Eldorado Canyon State Park just outside of Boulder and have a plethora of trail runs that I can start and finish at my house such as
Kerpoof Acquired By Disney →
Congrats to all my friends at Kerpoof – it was announced a few weeks ago that Kerpoof was acquired by Disney. Krista Marks – the CEO and co-founder – emailed me the Kerpoof mouse ears photo…
Be An Innovator →
When I was on vacation last week, I read John Bogle’s book Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life. In addition to be a superb book, it had a bunch of tasty little nuggets in…
Crash Course on Venture Capital →
I’ve received some requests to see the materials from the presentation last week. Video should be arriving at a later date, but for now, here are the slides.
