Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
PEHub has a fascinating story about how you could radically remake the VC industry by replacing the current fund structure with a system of allocating funds to individual VCs: Venture capitalists are a lot like professional athletes. They often work in teams, but are largely judged on their individual statistics. A great VC can be … Continue reading But can you fit that VC under the salary cap?
Jeff Nolan writes about our disposable culture, where it’s cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy replacement ink:I am also somewhat curious about what point in time people stopped having things repaired. Is it a deep seated fear that once one part breaks you have crossed a precipice upon which repeated failures are … Continue reading Business Idea: Extreme Reliability
Most of the time, if you have a nasty job to do, you have to pay someone well to do it. Garbagemen are very well paid. So are plumbers. There is, however, one exception. As we’ve recently seen, plenty of wealthy professional men seem willing to pay dominatrices to humiliate them (something the men charge … Continue reading Wacky Business of the Week: De Sade Consulting
Fake Steve continues to just knock the cover off the ball with his posts. Maybe there’s something freeing about posting using mask…he really is taking no prisoners. For example, in his take on the impossibility of a Dell rebound, he explains both of Dell’s key innovations (direct sales, lean supply chain) better than I’ve ever … Continue reading Fake Steve To Rednecks, Dell: Suck It, Baby!
Seth Godin comes through again with a brilliant post. He posits that there are two audiences–the passionate enthusiasts, and the pop masses, and that if you plot them on a continuum from edgy to trite, the two distribution curves leave a gap in the middle. Be edgy, or be designed for everyone–just don’t get caught … Continue reading Passion vs. Pop
Fake Steve Jobs nails it again when discussing Facebook’s valuation, in light of the new finding that the Web site is largely devoted to wasting time: “Kids, let’s face it. Facebook is Webkinz for adults. Facebook is a Ponzi scheme. A handful of VCs have created the illusion of an actual market by funding apps … Continue reading Whither Facebook?
According to the latest paper co-authored by Freakonomics author Steven Levitt, the Klu Klux Klan functioned more like Amway than Al-Qaeda: “The terrorist group was primarily a pyramid scheme selling hate and was far more successful at making money than at influencing politics.” Thanks to dues, taxes, and of course, exorbitant robe prices, the Klan’s … Continue reading Evil Business Idea of the Day
From time immemorial, one of the most sacred shibboleths of Silicon Valley has been that to launch a startup, you need to be a product, not a feature. Generations of VCs and entrepreneurs has agreed on this point. But I’m wondering if today’s Web 2.0 world has fundamentally changed the equation. Let’s start with why … Continue reading Is This The Age Of Features?