December 2011
6 posts
Technology Trends: 10 Areas of Innovation to Watch... →
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One of the best things any investor can do is to pull back from the day to day of getting pitches and think about high level trends. What areas are going to change? What areas need to…
Lessons for Brooklyn: Information Spillover at the... →
With all of this news about Brooklyn’s tech scene, I’ve been thinking a lot about what made the NYC innovation community grow so quickly. Talk of buildings and incubators reminded me of…
Don't Forget Brooklyn: NYU's plan for the old MTA... →
Seemingly to save face, Stanford pulled out of NYC’s Applied Sciences initiative to build a world-class engineering school last week. At the same time, Cornell got an anonymous $350 million…
Brain Training and Grudges →
I’m sure science knows a lot more about how the brain works than I do. I’ve read quite a number of books about how we learn and how we make mistakes, but the inner workings of the chemicals and…
I'm Running for the New York Tech Meetup Board →
I’m just as familiar with the New York Tech Meetup as anyone. I was one of the first 100 members, dating back to February 2005. I was also part of the original New York Tech Meetup board and…
Careers in Tech Startups & Innovation: What will I... →
Jennie Baird left a comment on Monday’s post about learning from each job and I think that is of the most critical importance. If you’re not considering how this next job will make you a better…
November 2011
6 posts
Tradeoffs in Innovative Careers →
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This is the first of a series of posts this week on careers in innovation and startups—sort of a thought exercise for me on the topic for my talk at General Assembly at 8PM on 12/15.
With any company I work with, I inevitably play the role or recruiter—mostly because I often play the role of career counselor to friends and other folks in the community. I’ve been thinking...
Foursquare: The Second Inning →
Over two years ago, I suggested to Yelp that they should pay attention to Foursquare. While that post resulted in term sheets for Dennis and Naveen from VCs, the original intention was actually to…
Learn to code? How about learn to sell! →
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There are a lot of reasons not to like the space that Publicstuff is in. The company sells to local governments, real estate management companies, educational institutions—anyone…
The end or the beginning? Thoughts on the current... →
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Just as an additional disclosure, these are my thoughts, not that of First Round Capital, my employer.
The other day, Adeo Ressi wrote in TechCrunch about how we need more venture…
If you've ever overpaid for a legal document, sign... →
After funding GroupMe out of last year’s Techcrunch Disrupt Hackathon in NYC and Docracy this year, it won’t take long for people to catch on to First Round’s secret plan—to get invited to…
Making Time: The Standing Appointment →
This was quite a weekend for me—both personally and professionally. I had a rough day on Friday at work that kind of threw me for a loop. That wasn’t enough, though, as I got a call Friday night…
October 2011
6 posts
People who don't run your company →
I asked a company the other day whether or not they were going to take advantage of a great event here in NYC. Its an opportunity to pitch Sony on a biz dev deal—a no brainer for nearly any…
The Best Community Manager I know →
Over the course of the last year, I’ve seen a community grow into a thriving resource for all its participants. Engagement, both online and through offline events, is through the roof. It’s…
People First →
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On Friday, Matt Blumberg from Return Path came to talk to a group of First Round portfolio companies on scaling your organization from a management perspective. Many of our…
Airplane Thumbing →
I wrote this post yesterday on the plane flight from Chicago…
It’s been quite a while since I’ve written one of these “Thumbing” posts. I’ve done a few on the subway—you can look for them using…
We are the greed we protest against #occupywallst →
I just finished reading this sobering account of California’s municipal economic woes written by Michael Lewis—an account of a society completely unwilling to self-regulate, and on a straight…
Do you have a plan for the success of your team? →
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One of the most knowledgeable angel investors out there, Jeff Stewart, told me that the definition of success as an entrepreneur was when you walk into work, and there’s nothing for…
Not everyone is a hero. Some people just bat .337.... →
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Would I have sat down after one at-bat like Jose Reyes did yesterday—ending the game after a leadoff hit in an attempt to preserve his batting title? I’d like to think I wouldn’t and…
September 2011
6 posts
You can't win them all... but you can learn why... →
I lost a deal last week.
It sucks.
To be clear, it wasn’t really a deal that I “had”, but there was a company that our team at First Round got excited about and offered an investment to. There…
Thoughts on #occupywallst →
Yeah, so about those protesters downtown… (obviously these are my own thoughts, not representative of my employer…)
While the aimless and outraged struggled to get pics and videos of police abuse…
The Future of Publishing and an Opportunity to... →
Don’t know if you noticed, but LinkedIn has an editor now.
Just think about that for a second. A professional social networking site has hired a content focused executive away from a traditional…
Pick a graph, any graph: Thinking about Facebook... →
When Facebook first started out, it was a social network that connected you with people who went to your college. What you were signing up for when you friended someone, at least at the time, was…
Paywalls and Kettlebells →
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The other day, I was working out in New York Sports Club in Bay Ridge, doing my kettlebell swings and basu ball as per the Four Hour Body. I was standing in an area marked “for…
Tracking the Hiring Funnel →
At a board meeting yesterday, a management team was talking about their hiring needs and some of the challenges they’re having hiring great people. This conversation seems to take place at…
August 2011
8 posts
10 Things for Startups to Do in August While... →
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When I was running Path 101, I’d laugh when people asked me if I was taking vacation. First off, I couldn’t actually afford to go anywhere on a startup salary. Second, there was way…
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“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did...”
– Steve Jobs (via putorti)
Time is Money: There is a multi-billion dollar... →
Yesterday, I ran the Battle of Brooklyn 10 miler in Prospect Park. When I got there in the morning, I noticed that Dave Morgan, founder of Tacoda and Simulmedia, had also checked into the park for…
Be like the duck: SinglePlatform raises money for... →
You may have seen the TechCrunch and BusinessInsider articles on SinglePlatform raising an additional $3.25 million from us, DFJ Gotham and new investor New World Ventures . You may have read…
Who the hell is this guy? Thoughts on being a... →
The other day, I got interviewed for Business Insider. It was a good interview, save for that little vein that I had no idea was so prominently featured on the side of my head—but what’s a bald…
#S&Pfail →
“S&P’s intrusion into American politics is also ironic because, as I pointed out recently, much of our current debt is directly or indirectly due to S&P’s failures (along with the failures of the…
"You can get ransacked from AirBnB" is this year's... →
Did you also know that if you let your kids go on MySpace, they’re going to get molested?
Using Facebook will prevent you from getting a job if you’re a college kid, btw.
Also, bedbugs are…
July 2011
8 posts
Who can build the marketing machine? →
This is just a theory, but it feels to me that there’s a talent gap in the marketing space—or a few of them.
To begin with, there seems to be a serious shortage of customer acquisition…
Love and Startups: What I learned from my best... →
This past weekend, I attended the wedding of a guy I played t-ball with in the summer of 1985. That fall, we were seated across from each other in first grade. A year ago, I went with him to…
The Four Hour Charlie #4hb →
This is the shake I had for breakfast this morning:
About a cup of water
Some ice
4 tablespoons of almond butter
2 tablespoons of cottage cheese
2 tablespoons of sauerkraut
A…
School of Self Promotion for Awesome People who... →
Do you have friends that have really top notch experience, are thoughtful about their industry, and whip smart? Are they about a billion times more insightful than your average tech blogger?…
Branding and social spaces: Why Google+ misses the... →
Imagine that one day, Facebook decides to put all its engineering effort into creating the best spreadsheet program you’ve ever seen—ten times more powerful than Microsoft Excel and way simpler to…
Seven Ways to Rock Your Current Job →
I generally find that people are way to focused on finding the next job than they are at being awesome in the role they currently have. A lot of times I think that’s because there’s way more advice…
June 2011
2 posts
Productize Yourself →
There are so many risks you can’t account for in a startup—and in the first year especially, the entrepreneur is just trying to make sure the company doesn’t blow up above all else. “Don’t die” is…
Remake NYC, one app at a time →
One huge inefficiency in the world of entrepreneurship that I see is that the people who are good at identifying problems aren’t always the best people at building solutions. That’s why NYC is such…
May 2011
4 posts
How to approach an investor at a conference like... →
I’ve been thinking about bread for the last couple of days.
No, not bread… bre.ad, a new startup launching whose founder has perfected the art of the conference pitch. I was sitting at lunch at…
The Parent Trap: A Response to Bill Keller... →
The New York Times’ Executive Editor, Bill Keller, wrote a piece for New York Magazine entitled “The Twitter Trap” in which he laments the pandora’s box of continuously connected social media he…
Respecting the Craft →
A lot of baseball fans have the knuckleball fantasy—particularly guys like me who are over 30 that realize that this quirky pitch is their last ticket to play in the major leagues. We never…
The Five Advisors You Meet in the Deadpool →
Advisors, investors and board members come in all shapes and sizes. I’m a strong believer in having a board, even at a seed stage, to report to and set strategy with. The most successful companies…
April 2011
6 posts
How to approach and make an introduction to a VC →
I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur last week about how he decided which VCs he was going to pitch. Mostly, it was a function of who he could get introductions to. No matter how…
How the New York City innovation community can... →
There isn’t a single person in the NYC that is more excited than I am about how far we’ve come. As a Brooklyn native who has never lived outside the five boroughs—and someone who left Big Finance—I…
Raising Money: What are you optimizing for? →
Yesterday, an entrepreneur asked me whether or not First Round does convertible notes. I wasn’t trying to be evasive, but after saying that we have done them on occasion, I pushed the…
Techstars NYC Killed It →
Let’s be clear, New York City is a big, tough place. It’s crowded and there are a lot of distractions. People are busy here and it takes a lot for them to stop and notice something. Hell, some poor…