How To Get Past The Hidden Psychological Biases That Plague Investors
The person who is sitting across from you in the conference room, more and more often, doesn't look like you. Neither does the person who gets off at your subway stop. The PTA Board is changing, too....
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Check Out Pinterest's Palo Alto Office, Where Employees Get Weekly Happy...
You've surely heard of Pinterest, the Palo Alto-based wunderkind startup that seems to be taking over the internet. But have you peeked behind the curtain? We asked our friends at The Daily Muse,...
View ArticleHow To Build Your Startup By Hacking Demo Videos For Customer Development
Having a great idea and building a startup from scratch is hard stuff. Once you are up and running, actually attracting customers can be even harder. So why not have some fun with it? The best way...
View ArticleWill Companies Make Radical Shift Needed to Monetize Mobile?
Mary Meeker, Internet guru and managing partner at Kleiner Perkins, is a master at focusing attention on the most significant trends by pulling together enough of the right data points in an annual...
View ArticleDifferent types of risk
The idea that founders take on “risk” is a misleading generalization. It is far more informative to separate the specific types of risks that founders assume, including: 1. Financing risk – You can’t...
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Irrive raises $1.5 million to change how travel is shared and remembered
Several months ago, I met Steven Cohn at a First Growth Venture Network event. Steven is a serial entrepreneur who sold his last startup to Living Social. He's now hard at work on his next venture,...
View ArticleSocial Proof Is Dangerous
Hunter Walk has a post up suggesting that "social proof" is not as helpful of an indicator of startup quality as it once was. I have always hated the idea of social proof. It's just the herd instinct...
View ArticleHAXLR8R In San Francisco For Their Demo Day on June 18th
I love software wrapped in plastic. So it warmed my heart when I heard that Cyril Ebersweiler and my long time friend Sean O’Sullivan were starting an accelerator in Shenzhen, China called HAXLR8R as...
View ArticleWhat To Do When Attacked by Pirates
If you were attacked by pirates, who would you want by your side? A loyal horde of head bangers, gangstas and hard-core punks? Or a brainy clutch of bookish types? I'd generally advise you to go with...
View ArticleLet's Just Agree The Bubble Has Burst
Facebook’s post-IPO performance has been poor. But is it so poor that it will hurt the prospects for other startups? The short answer: Almost certainly. This is the subtext of the wave of anger and...
View ArticleIt's Time To Kill Off Broadcast TV
It’s time to take over-the-air television out and shoot it. You may have noticed that there’s a war over wireless airwaves. Electromagnetic spectrum is a finite resource and those that have want to...
View ArticleAirtime: Not Enough There To Make Me Care
Today’s launch event for Airtime, the Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning social video chat service, was a good metaphor for the product it was showcasing: the star-studded event was poorly planned and...
View ArticleWhy Facebook Was More Valuable as a Private Company
Facebook was worth a lot more as a private company than it has been since going public. What do retail investors know that private investors didn't? Facebook shares have traded on secondary exchanges...
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Facebook's Future Has Never Been Rosier
Sean Parker's Airtime is only the latest company to use Facebook credentials for login. If you recall, flagrant display of male genitalia ultimately lead to the fall of Chatroulette. Airtime, the next...
View ArticleBe Like Steve - Own Your Key Technologies
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, recently gave us some more Steve Jobs nuggets of wisdom courtesy of the All Things Digital D10 conference this past week. The one that resonated with me was that it was...
View ArticleFacebook Camera iOS App Knows Who You Are On Install
Two weeks ago, Facebook launched their Facebook Pages iOS app. And last week, Facebook launched their Facebook Camera app. One of the interesting aspects of the two applications is that their welcome...
View ArticleThe Department of Homeland Security Needs a Social Media Strategist
Kenyan village chief Francis Kariuki heard that thugs were invading a teacher’s home in his village. He sent out an alert via Twitter. Within minutes, villagers had gathered at the teacher’s house,...
View ArticleYour kid sister and younger cousin are unbanked and using alternative...
If you think it is the fringes of society that are underbanked, you’re wrong. As USA Today notes: Nearly half of young adult households, those ages 15 to 34, are considered under-banked, according to...
View ArticleEquity value
Warren Buffet once said: Buy into a business that’s doing so well an idiot could run it, because sooner or later, one will. This is a useful way to understand the meaning of “equity value”. You learn...
View ArticleMake Your Own Decisions
We describe Foundry Group‘s behavior as “syndication agnostic.” When we make an investment, we are completely agnostic as to whether or not we have a co-investor. This is true at early stages but also...
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