March 2011
Sensitive VCs or something else ?
One thing that became clear to me when I switched from entrepreneur to VC is that our product is our service and our people.
We don’t make an app that consumers can use.
We invest in great people trying to do great things.
When a customer turns down a startup’s product, they are basically saying, “we don’t want to use your product”.
But when a startup turns down...
“While I doubt I’ll get so lucky a third time, as my good friend Biz Stone...”
– @Ev - An Obvious Next Step
A few days with only data, no voice
So I’m out of the country and for some reason my mobile phone is unable to make or recieve phone calls or send/receive sms. It’s supposed to work in this country and my colleagues on this trip can make calls just fine.
I’ve got a trouble ticket filed with Verizon Wireless. They tell me it will be up to 5 days before the problem is resolved. (I’m leaving tomorrow).
...
The Head And The Heart - Chasing A Ghost
I am so...
Some thoughts about competitive portfolio...
At this point, between our three funds, we have over 50 startups in the Spark portfolio.
We have specific theme and we are focused on a number of categories that we are passionate about. We do our best to describe those on our website.
Given this interest and focus, it’s often that we will see startups that seek our support that are either directly or indirectly competitive with our...
The Head and the Heart - Sounds Like Hallelujah
...
Echo & The Bunnymen - Ticket To Ride
liking...
1 tag
Arctic Monkeys - Riot Van
acoustic and awesome.
“When we started, we thought we were looking for smart people, but it turned out...”
– Paul Graham - Money Man - Entrepreneur.com
Launching new products with video
There is no question that Apple has done an amazing job promoting new products with video.
Take a look at the Smart Cover video and whether you are an apple fan or not, the quality of the story and the product are excellent.
Many young companies are also using beautiful, creative video to launch new products.
A few years back, Tumblr created this video to launch Tumblr v5.
Last year, Twitter...
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Game
acoustic demo....
Does your company culture allow mistakes
A few months ago I wrote down some thoughts about failure, our fear of failure and our ability (inabilty) to embrace it.
The other day I was talking to a founder in our portfolio.
They made a mistake inside of their orgnazation and everyone knew it. I was processing this issue with the founder and trying to better understand what happened so I could try to be a sounding board and also get my...
The Vaccines - If You Wanna
i’m digging...
“the 140 character limit is the essence of twitter. that’s like saying pay...”
– Fred’s spot on comment on Dave Winer’s blog - Scripting News: What Twitter and the NYT have in common
1 tag
“While it took about 18 months to sign up the first 500,000 accounts, we now see...”
– Twitter Blog: Happy Birthday Twitter!
Arcade Fire - Ready To Start
live session from...
WatchThe National - Think You Can Wait
new song by the National. so great.
texturism asked: i thought you might be interested in this:
http://www.icaboston.org/about/pressreleases/record/
http://www.icaboston.org/about/pressreleases/record/
Colin Meloy - Bring It On Home To Me
A wonderful...
My quick review on the iPad2
I received my iPad2 yesterday and shared a photo of my new arrival.
I got a few DMs and emails asking me to write down a review. I am surprised since there are many reviews on some great blogs about the new iPad2 so I’m not sure what more I can offer.
But for what it’s worth here are my immediate thoughts in no particular order.
1 - I love the Smart Cover. It’s a game...
“The Boxee Box is fantastic for many reasons but chief among them is the ability...”
– The Five Best Cord Cutting Devices (Plus One Bonus!)
toddwickersty asked: I am going to see Ben Kweller for the first time tonight. I'm "studying" up on his work thanks to @rdio. What albums would you recommend I "focus" on?
zackshapiro asked: Hey Bijan,
There's a Boulder startup called SparkRelief, a non-profit that aims to connect people displaced in a disaster with anyone who has resources to spare. They've got a website, http://quakehousing.com/ which has hundreds of listings from people affected. Please help to get this message and URL to anyone who could use it in Northern Japan.
There's a Boulder startup called SparkRelief, a non-profit that aims to connect people displaced in a disaster with anyone who has resources to spare. They've got a website, http://quakehousing.com/ which has hundreds of listings from people affected. Please help to get this message and URL to anyone who could use it in Northern Japan.
“I know it sounds ‘aw shuckish’ but it’s true,” Efrusy said. “All the really...”
– Frankness, Facebook Go A Long Way For Accel Partners’ Kevin Efrusy - Venture Capital Dispatch - WSJ
so true.
Okkervil River - Wake And Be Fine
Fred and i have...
Help Japan
I can’t stop thinking about the people of Japan. So tragic.
Right now the best thing i can do is donate. I did that via sms last week but that only took $10 out of my account.
Amazon makes it very easy to donate to the American Red Cross to help victims of the Japan earthquake & tsunami
Here’s the link.
http://t.co/yD0RxYy
I just donated a much larger amount.
Please do...
“It’s an age-old problem, exacerbated by technology. To be always filled with...”
– Caterina Fake
“Startups are in a unique position to weave the idea of doing good into the very...”
– Biz Stone: BIZ AND AOL
@biz’s passion for social good is inspiring.
Some thoughts about my tweets
This is going to be one of those posts where I wish I was creating it on my mac so I could include links. But I’m on the run today with only my iPhone. So here goes anyway.
When I first started using Twitter back in early 2007 (before I became an investor), I followed a small number of folks and I had even less followers.
I found the service simple, addictive, useful and fun.
I loved...
