February 2012
Moving from the Wii to the Xbox & need suggestions
We are moving to a new house next month (god willing).
It’s been a good excuse for me to make some new decisions on a new phone systems, wireless routers, back up systems and TV. I’ll likely write about those decisions in a future post.
We have had a Nintendo Wii at our house since they first came out. The kids mostly play games on the ipad or iphones. But when they have friends over...
New OSX could make the Mac as game-friendly as the... →
nabeel:
The new version of OSX that Apple announced today feels like it could strangely make the Mac as valuable a channel for games as Facebook or the iPhone.
Very interesting.
“Twitter cares more about its societal role—with its revenue model still a work...”
– Fast Company: The Women of Twitter - Magazine - Vogue
i love twitter.
Take my data
The Path story continues this week.
You can check out all the various posts on the subject on Techmeme right now.
The issue is that Path 2.0 had used our personal address book data to find friends that also use Path.
At the highest level, I think that is a feature - not a bug or a problem for that matter.
I’m sure there are things that Apple and dozens (or more) of iOS apps can do...
The Drums - Birthday
original by the sugarcubes....
Taking big risks
There comes a time in every company where the leader or founders have to decide whether they are going to take a big risk or play it safe.
I met with a founder last week that was telling me about his frustration with his company. Things are going very well considering but he can’t get the team to take risks.
The most striking thing about Facebook is how often they are willing to take big...
Different Names for the Same Thing (Death Cab for...
43
It’s my birthday today. 43 years old.
For my birthday, I’m raising money to help provide clean and safe water to those that need it. I’m asking everyone I know to donate $20 or more (or less) if you can. It’s a very important cause and 100% of the donations go directly to towards water projects.
If you are interested please click or tap here and make your donation...
A new member of the Spark team
Our team at Spark Capital has evolved a bit since we started in 2005. Since that time, we promoted Alex from Principal to General Partner. We promoted Mo from Principal to General Partner. And we promoted Andrew, from Sr. Associate to Principal
I’m proud that we’ve been able to grow the firm by giving members of the team more and more responsibility.
I always tell people that the...
“The best feature is that it works”
– @kevin - via Inside Instagram: How Slowing Its Roll Put the Little Startup in the Fast Lane
6k posts later
Last week a friend told me they were going to start a blog. They asked me the difference between Wordpress, Tumblr and a few others. This post is an attempt to explain that answer.
I’ve been using Tumbr since 2007. Almost 5 years later and I’ve created over 6k posts. I’m proud to call myself an active Tumblr user.
I pretty much find something to post every day. I missed...
“We may always have different challenges to address in our lives. But maybe...”
– Tiny Wisdom: Life May Never Be Simple | Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In
Why Facebook Connect shouldn't be your only sign...
When I see startups that only offer FB Connect as the singular sign in option, I always get squeamish.
I tell founders they should support FB Connect but they also support Twitter sign-in as well as giving users an option to sign in the good old fashioned way : user id & password.
Sometimes founders ask if our investment in Twitter is the cause of my recommendation.
The answer is no....
Thinking about Facebook's S-1 and lessons for...
Today we all read a lot of information about the Facebook S-1 registration. The execution and performance of the company is simply stunning.
There are plenty of folks that have written great insights about the key metrics of the business that were disclosed in the filing.
I’m not going to talk about that.
Instead, I’d like to talk about how Facebook’s success will hopefully...
January 2012
Weekly All Hands Meeting
I worked at a number of startups and big companies before becoming a venture capitalist.
I’ve brought with me a number of lessons I try to keep in my brian so I remember what it was all about. But often I learn the best things from our portfolio companies.
An example of something I’ve learned from our portfolio companies is the weekly all hands meeting. I wish we did this at my...
Twitter Is a Critical Tool in Republican Campaigns... →
“Twitter has changed the whole way that politics works,” said Teddy Goff, the digital director of President Obama’s re-election campaign. “Not just the press element, but the organizing element and the fund-raising element and the relationship building that all campaigns try to do.”
1 tag
“In conversation, Karp could evangelise on the force of creativity for hours. At...”
– Interview: David Karp, founder of Tumblr, on realising his dream | Media | The Guardian
one of my favorite things about david
My partner, Mo
I first met Mo about 5 years ago. I’m pretty sure it was Santo that made the initial intro. He was working at IAC at the time, and I really enjoyed meeting him. His energy, passion and opinions about the world of media and technology left a mark with me.
We stayed in touch and a few years later we all agreed that he would be a great addition to the Spark team.
It’s been three years...