July 2009
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Sunday Morning - Beck’s Record Club
A...
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Its Up To You - Ben Kweller & Evan Dando
Love...
“The Segway hasn’t delivered on its initial promise, to put it mildly....”
– Paul Graham - The Trouble with the Segway
You gotta read the entire post but Paul’s latest starts with this gem and gets better.
“We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants. The only consultants I’ve...”
– Steve Jobs on why Apple doesn’t do market research - Bokardo
fred-wilson:
Poor Boy - Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds...
“Together with those who use it every day, the service has taught us what it...”
– Biz Stone, Twitter’s cofounder
via Twitter Plays Up Search With New Home Page - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
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He Got Game - Public Enemy feat. Stephen Stills
...
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Thinking about education
It wasn’t long ago when conventional wisdom believed that building software to sell into the education market was really really hard (at best). School budgets are constantly under attack, infinite sales cycles, suboptimal IT infrastructure & connectivity, teacher training…the list goes on and on.
And frankly, many of those issues still exist.
But there are new models &...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-7-26) →
M. Ward (39)
Dinosaur Jr. (35)
Eels (31)
She & Him (29)
Neko Case (28)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Walkabout - Atlas Sound
Atlas Sound is trending...
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Thanks for turning me on to this on Daryn.
via...
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There There - Radiohead
A wonderful song from...
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Just Like Heaven - Dinosaur Jr.
The original...
“In 1979, Microsoft had 13 employees, most of whom appear in that famous picture...”
– Bill Gates: My 1979 Memories - Bill Gates - Gizmodo
“I met up with a few entrepreneurs and investors while I was in town but missed...”
– Fred Wilson - Stockholm
oh man, so true. I keep trying to pull this one off but it’s too hard.
Did Sequoia force Zappos to sell?
There is a rumor swirling around that Sequoia forced Zappos to sell to Amazon.
I’ve received a bunch of emails on the subject from entrepreneurs. Can a VC force a sale?
Here’s my thoughts on this rumor and the idea of whether a VC can force a company sale.
Few scenarios to consider (I’m talking about forcing a sale, not blocking a sale):
1. Company raises a relatively small...
Jeff Bezos: Regret Minimization Framework
This is fantastic.
via Jeff Bezos, 2001
I went to my boss and said to him, “You know, I’m going to go do this crazy thing and I’m going to start this company selling books online.” This was something that I had already been talking to him about in a sort of more general context, but then he said, “Let’s go on a walk.” And, we went on a two hour walk in...
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Packing Blankets - Eels
Been listening to...
WatchNat Friedman took this amazing video of surfers in downtown Munich.
Announcing the launch of Covestor Investment...
My colleague Rob Go beat me to the punch today. So I’ll just reblog his post which gives a nice overview of the new Covestor.
We are investors in the company along with Union Square Ventures. And we are super excited about this.
robgo:
I’m pleased to announce that Covestor Investment Management is launching today. Over the past two years, Covestor has been a platform for investors to...
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The Blues Are Still Blue - Belle & Sebastian
...
“In 2007, after releasing three records with independent labels, Metric, an...”
– Musicians Find New Backers as Labels Lose Power - NYTimes.com
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Turn It On - The Flaming Lips
God, I love this...
Revised non-compete legislation doesn't go far...
My partners and I have been pushing to end the use of employee non-compete agreements for some time now.
We passionately believe in this issue and back in late 2007 I wrote that we should end these non-compete agreements. We planned on starting with our firm and then encourage our portfolio companies, entrepreneurs and other VCs to end this practice as well.
A few months later I wrote a guest...
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Introducing Sensobi
I’m very pleased with the group of new startups at TechStars Boston. This is the first summer and these entrepreneurs are working like crazy building their products.
Brad Feld cofounded TechStars and was nice enough to ask me to join as a mentor and investor. I’m very glad I did.
Earlier today, Brad wrote about one of the TechStars Boston companies - Sensobi. I’m really proud...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-7-19) →
The Raconteurs (82)
Wilco (79)
Okkervil River (50)
Regina Spektor (42)
Bon Iver (18)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Take What You Take - Lily Allen
Been listening to...
The Internet is Dead As An Investment ?
I hadn’t read the WSJ’s “The Internet Is Dead (As An Investment)” when I wrote my post on Saturday.
But that WSJ article was pretty much the point I was trying to counter.
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The Kids Are Alright - The Who
One of my favorite...
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Don't paint with a broad brush in this downturn
We are still in an marco economic mess.
I’m not going to pretend to predict when we will get out of it.
But there is something very familiar about this down turn as the last downturn.
There are some folks (VCs, press, bloggers, entrepreneurs, bystanders, critics) that have decided to paint with a broad brush.
That happened in the Web 1.0 crash.
In those days, some people said...
Hulu's Content
Back in March 2008 when Hulu first launched, I wrote this post wondering: “Will Hulu’s Content Owner’s Think Different” (n.b. the grammar was a play on apple’s ‘think different’ campaign). I was concerned about the depth of content and consistency of content.
Since then Hulu has gone from Clown Co to media darling. They defied the typical odds associated...
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People Got A Lot Of Nerve - Neko Case
Great song...
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Thinking about simple inbox hacks
I took Thursday and Friday off this week and went away with lauren and the kids for an extended weekend. We are having a blast.
For the most part and except for a few unplanned work related things I’ve been off the grid.
Tonight, everyone was wiped out and went to bed early. I’m still wide awake.
I’m staring at my inbox getting back to the most important items (family, urgent...
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Buckets of Rain - Neko Case
I couldn’t wait...
Free Thoughts
(Disclaimer: the following post comes free of charge, so you get what you pay for :)
I just retweeted Bill Gurley’s blog post about “free” business models.
Bill brings up a number of excellent points. I liked this one the best:
The key question for anyone in business is, “Can someone do what you do for free?”. If the answer is “yes” you have a problem.
This touches the big...
“We focus a lot on culture specifically at Twitter because of this spotlight, and...”
– Twitter’s Biz Stone: ‘We got lucky - it doesn’t mean we’re geniuses’ | Technology | guardian.co.uk
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Old Enough - The Raconteurs
Turn it up and enjoy.
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Understanding good data from the useless stuff
One of the best things about online services is the data. The amount of data can get massive quickly.
We all know that data is valuable for a variety of reasons.
But the thing I want to talk about is how that data can make your product better (vs data monetization).
Many web services do capture and record vast amounts of data. But a lot of that data isn’t very helpful. The key is...
Foursquare
Charlie had one of those posts yesterday that created an “ah-ha” moment for me. He wrote about the value of Foursquare as being something more than a game.
Go read the full post here.
Fred was also inspired and he joined.
I did as well. Here’s my foursquare profile.
After I joined, Charlie tossed up this gem on twitter:
Uh-oh. I created a monster with my 4[] post...
“Walking speed absolutely reflects health status,” Simonsick says. So when you...”
– Why New Yorkers Last Longer — New York Magazine
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Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe - Okkervil River...
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