March 2012
Coming Down (Anais Mitchell cover) by Bon Iver...
Crowdfunding
Earlier this week, my partner Nabeel and I recorded our first podcast. We talked a bit about crowd funding and the Job Act. You can listen to it here.
In a nutshell, I’m excited about the possibilities of crowd funding. There are too many examples of great indicators such as Angelist and Kickstarter. I also agree with my friend Albert who wrote this great post a few years back, “No...
Terms of Service
Most web services or applications comes along with a terms of service. The terms of service is basically the rules of the road and what users agree to when using the service.
When startups are just being born, they often can’t hire lawyers to do a proper terms of service, nor can they imagine every possible scenario.
So as a startup grows and the product evolves, it’s natural that...
My first week with the iPad 3
I’ve been using the new iPad since it arrived last Friday.
I have the Verizon LTE version.
I freaking love this thing. It’s become my favorite computer. The screen is so beautiful that it’s hard looking at my MacBook air screen. It’s amazing how many logos on the web are going to need to be refreshed to deal with retina displays going forward.
Battery life is great...
Emailing content to your app
One of the coolest things about Disqus, which powers the comments on
my tumblr, is that I can publish comments via email.
It’s quick and efficient. If I lose connectivity the mail client is
smart enough to try again later on its own.
Several other apps provide a way to email content to their app. During
board meetings I often take notes with the iPads built in Notes app.
After the...
Hiring from the community
Many startups in our portfolio hire their early team by focusing their recruiting efforts exclusively on their community.
In the early days, Twitter and Tumblr heavily favored hiring folks that were active and engaged users of their respective products.
It’s one of the best filters around as far as I’m concerned.
Today I had yet another example of the opposite scenario.
A startup...
YO MITT
fromthemindofateenagewolf:
I’m voting for President Obama because he, unlike you, does not manage to alienate me even more every time he opens his mouth. He also understands that the government can not get rid of private businesses (le gasp) like Planned Parenthood.
In short, I’m voting for President Obama because he knows that the world is changing, and would rather be known as the man who...
Some thoughts about Yahoo
Earlier this week, like everyone else I found out that Yahoo sued Facebook over patents.
I felt sick about it but when i read this story about a former yahoo engineers take on the their patent process, i had to let out this tweet.
Dear Yahoo board. You picked the wrong ceo. Again.
— Bijan Sabet (@bijan) March 13, 2012
And I wasn’t alone. Many folks were upset and angry. My friend Fred...
Podcast noob. Thoughts?
Nabeel and I have been kicking around the idea of creating a podcast.
I’m not sure if we are going to love it, get bored, or get excited by it.
But there is only way to find out.
Before we jump in, I’d love to get some thoughts on best software to make this happen. (not looking to get specialized microphones at this time).
I’m thinking about using Soundcloud on the iphone...
“I am not writing this in defense of Facebook. They can and will defend...”
– Fred Wilson
Nailed it.
“Am I the only one who doesn’t want to sign up for Facebook in order to use...”
– Bob Leftsetz
Breaking up your app
It can be quite seductive to try and stuff your entire website into
your mobile app.
And many companies do exactly that. Their mobile app is a functional
equivalent of the website.
And in some cases it works well. For example I can do everything with
Twitter’s iPhone app that I can do on twitter.com
But for many other apps, over time, the app feels crowded, confusing
and awkward.
...
The danger of acting like a big company
In many ways it’s fairly obvious why some startups can innovate & execute faster and better than a big company.
The startup is focused and has one mission. There are no warlords, mixed interests, VPs battling for control, massive performance reviews to plough through, strategy meetings followed by more strategy meetings, “move the needle” conversations, etc.
As a startup...
Bobby's Draw Something Addiction →
Love it. A tumblr dedicated to awesome drawings from the game #DrawSomething
The new exfm for mobile
Everyday I goto exfm and listen to music. It’s a free web service where I can listen to what my friends are curating, listen to trending songs and search for music.
This is my profile on the service. The songs in my profile come from songs I’ve loved on exfm or songs that I’ve discovered on a wide range of 3rd party sites and blogs.
To date the mobile version of exfm has...
The social web: helping each other out, one person...
My first encounter with the social online was usenet.
It blew my mind where i could find people all over the world to talk about things I was interested in like computers, consumer electronics or photography.
Since then of course the social web has evolved at an accelerated pace with new experiences and new capabilities.
I think one of the best parts of the todays social web is seeing...
