Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
Another TC50, another set of startups, and just like clockwork, the haters will come out and troll the comment boards. “It’s all luck,” they’ll rant. “Founders are just lottery ticket winners.” What a load of crap. First of all, there’s nothing wrong with being lucky. I’d rather be lucky than good. As I’m fond of … Continue reading If Startup Success Is All About Luck, Why Aren’t You Starting More Companies?
A hearty congratulations to Rob Hayes and the First Round team, Jeff Clavier, and Mark Goines–three friends, three great investors, who got a great result from their investment in Mint (acquired today by Intuit for $170 million). Lost in the hoopla around the announcement was this very telling quote from Rob about the Mint team, … Continue reading There Is No Right Answer–And Smart VCs Know It
I recently had the pleasure (misfortune?) of attending the National Single Cougars Convention in Palo Alto as a journalist. The resulting piece has been published. Here are some highlights (lowlights?): “It’s okay, let Mama Cougar do all the talking.” “I’m here to get laid. And you can quote me on it.” When I asked how … Continue reading My Trip To The Cougar Convention
Recently, the kids have become obsessed with whether or not getting struck by lightning will kill a person. I had to look up statistics that showed that over 2/3rds of people who get struck by lightning survive. I also tried to convince them that the chances of getting struck by lightning were very remote. “In … Continue reading More Tales of Jason and Marissa
Author and Time book critic Lev Grossman lets rip with a passionate editorial about the need for novels to NOT BE BORING: The discipline of the conventional literary novel is a pretty harsh one. To read one is to enter into a kind of depressed economy, where pleasure must be bought with large quantities of … Continue reading Write Stuff That Isn’t Boring
My older sister sent this to me via old-school viral marketing: The email forward. Since I couldn’t find a well-formatted version on the Web, I’m sharing it with you on my blog: * * * When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things … Continue reading The Spoiled Under 30 Crowd
Perhaps foolishly, I accepted a journalistic assignment to cover the National Single Cougars Convention tomorrow night (Friday) in Palo Alto. So that I would not have to go by myself, I bought tickets for a few cougar-enthusiast friends. Unfortunately, these friends who will not be named (at least by me) are chickening out, so I … Continue reading Wanted: Cougar Wingmen for Friday Night in Palo Alto
A hot news item out of Silicon Valley is that my old friend Jeremiah Owyang has left Forrester Research to form the equivalent of a rock supergroup by joining Charlene Li, Ray Wang, and Deb Schulz at Altimeter. This is great news for all of those aforementioned rockstars, but it is also a classic example … Continue reading @jowyang and the Circle of Life
Here’s a fascinating little mathematical tidbit, courtesy of an entertaining article about the mathematics of gambling in New Scientist: Suppose you are told you must marry, and that you must choose your spouse out of 100 applicants. You may interview each applicant once. After each interview you must decide whether to marry that person. If … Continue reading How To Make The Right Decision Without Seeing Every Option
Mark Suster keeps knocking the cover off the ball with his posts about the startup ecosystem. Here’s a key passage from his latest:The fact is that most people lack the willingness, ability or nerve to start a company from the very beginning with just an idea or a desire to start a company. These same … Continue reading Why Founders Reap Disproportionate Rewards