Entrepreneurship: Nature vs. Nurture? A Religious Debate

February 27, 2010

Nature vs. Nurture.  You’ve all heard the question before.  Let’s talk about kids for a moment.  I grew up believing that human behavior was 20% nature, 80% nurture.  Now that I have two boys (4 and 7) I’m convinced it’s the other way around.  There’s no question that both factors are involved. There have been [...]

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Time is the Enemy of All Deals

February 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.”  I think the perfect saying to have as a reminder is “time is the enemy of all deals,” or as my wife is all too tired of hearing me say, “Don’t pop the champagne until the ink [...]

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The Fallacy of Channels: Startups Beware

February 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts.
No advice I give will ever apply to 100% of companies, 100% of startups or even 100% of tech startups.  I just want to state that up front because while I believe that this post will apply [...]

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Advertising Wants to be Measurable – An Investment Thesis

February 21, 2010

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing.  When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable.  One recession later and the US advertising market is about $245 billion – but [...]

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App is Crap (why Apple is bad for your health)

February 17, 2010

Absolute Power Corrupts, Absolutely
I was living in Europe in 2000 when the first WAP phones (Wireless Access Protocol) were introduced.  These phones were so over hyped.  They were going to bring the Internet to your mobile phones ushering in the era of “m-commerce.”  Gag.
I had just returned from living in Japan where I witnessed the hugely [...]

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73.6% of all Statistics are Made Up

February 14, 2010

How to Interpret Analyst Reports

The headlines in the media are filled with that latest stats.  Stats sell.  The stats are often quoted from the latest reports.  People then parrot them around like they’re fact when most of them are complete bullsh*t.  People throw them around at cocktail parties.  Often when they do I throw out [...]

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I Would Only Fund an Entrepreneur with High Integrity

February 14, 2010

Back in November I agreed with Nivi over at VentureHacks to do a series on the ten most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur.  This is the last post in that series.
This is actually an addendum to my list rather than “on” my list.  That in itself will be controversial, I know.  When Nivi published [...]

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Running More Effective Board Meetings at Startups

February 12, 2010

Like many of you I’ve sat through my fair share of Board Meetings over the past decade.  For the most part I’d call them Bored Meetings.
The first 7 years I was running them and the past 3 years I’ve been attending them.  Most board meetings aren’t as effective as they could be.  Everyone has their own opinion [...]

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How Do You Reference Check a VC?

February 8, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital.
I often tell people that raising money is worse than getting married.  I have to be careful in how that sounds because I love my wife and am happily married.  But the truth is that in marriage if you’re unhappy you can at least get [...]

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Domain Experience Gives Entrepreneurs an Unfair Advantage

February 7, 2010

This is the final part of my series on Entrepreneurial DNA that was originally published on VentureHacks.  OK, it’s not really my final part.
I started with a Top 10 list for Nivi (at VentureHacks), but I couldn’t cram it into 10 so it became a Top 11 list.  I originally conceived it as the Top 11 [...]

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