April 2012
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“No good venture investors invest in companies with the primary strategy being to...”
– Is it a tech bubble? - Chris Dixon
Thanks John.
The best part of this job without a doubt is the opportunity to work with extraordinary people.
One of those people is John Maloney.
I met John more than four years ago shortly after our first round in Tumblr. David (then 20 years old) was thinking about hiring a business partner and John was a natural fit. Besides his experience and entrepreneurial chops, John had hired David years prior at...
#newSparkCapital
We launched #newsparkcapital (our new website) last night.
via mokoyfman:
You’ll notice that the site revolves around photos — personal photos that capture a sense of our team, the entrepreneurs we partner with and the lives we live both personally and professionally. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. We couldn’t think of a better way to represent Spark Capital. Hopefully...
King And Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men Head...
Scripting News: Study English and Computer Science →
via @davewiner:
My freshman college English teacher taught me that in writing it’s better to remove words if you can. I don’t remember her name, but I remember arguing with her. I thought flowery English was good. Now I know she was right. And guess what, the same principle applies to programming. How about that.
words of wisdom.
Should founders meet every single hire?
One of the hardest things every founder must deal with is finding and hiring the best people. And it only gets more challenging over time. In the early days the founder typically hires folks he/she knows. the early team can often be an opportunity to get the old band back together again But as the company grows and staffing beyond the early team means going outside of your immediate network
...
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“Just keep playing, no matter how weird it gets.”
– kind of a great life lesson too, no?
Bob Dylan, to Levon Helm and The Band before their first concert together. (via davehyndman)
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Getting to know someone
There are people you meet in business or online (or both) over the years that go into a relationship.
And that relationship builds over shared experiences in both tough times and in good times.
You may follow them on Twitter and Tumblr, see pictures of their friends and loved ones, read their posts and you get a bit closer and closer. I know I feel closer to some people this way.
But there...
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Florence + the Machine - Shake It Out
unplugged...
The Innovator's Patent Agreement
Patents were designed to protect the innovator. The idea was if you built something special that you would have the ability to protect that right.
And in many ways the essence of the patent system was originally intended to help the little company vs the big company.
But those days are long gone. The current patent system, (when it comes to software patents in particular) doesn’t work for...
“When I watch video on my Xbox from three of these four apps, it counts against...”
– Netflix CEO calls out Comcast on net neutrality — paidContent
happy to see reed hastings taking a position on this one
Which app do you miss the most? (continued)
The other day I tweeted, “which failed startup’s app do you miss the most?”
I got a number of interesting responses.
One that touched my heart was Andy Weissmann’s response:
@bijan Tower Records
— Andrew Weissman (@aweissman) April 12, 2012
But by far, the most popular response I got was from folks like Jason who missed Kozmo the most:
@bijan Kozmo.com. Because...
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Picturelife
If you have checked out any of the three episodes of “Hallway Chat” (our podcast) you will know that @nabeel and I are on the hunt for a Flickr replacement.
A Flickr replacement isn’t Instagram or Facebook. Those aren’t places where i want to upload hundreds of family vacation photos or dozens of photos from my kids birthday party etc.
Nabeel has been using...
“But Zynga and Facebook? They seem more able to be toppled. It seems possible to...”
– Instagram and the Age of Upsets | Betabeat — News, gossip and intel from Silicon Alley 2.0.
A whole new world. My latest column for Betabeat.
(via rickwebb)
I Wonder Who She’s Kissing Now by TV Girl...
Why I donated to the Obama campaign
I voted for our President.
I had high expectations and I’m pleased to say I’m happy with many of his accomplishments.
But when it comes to privacy and foreign policy matters, well, let’s just say I’m very disappointed and I think a number of promises were broken.
I also am troubled that he hasn’t taken a leadership position on a major civil rights issue with same...
“I feel guilty when my son says, ‘Mommy, put down the BlackBerry, talk to...”
– Sheryl Sandberg: ‘There’s No Such Thing As Work-Life Balance’
there is much about this post that i agree with. but this particular line doesn’t ring true for me.
i know what’s like when my kids tell me to put my phone away. it sucks.
“Did my position on this issue evolve over the last 12 months? I am not ashamed...”
– Former MPAA tech policy chief Paul Brigner speaking to CNET about SOPA.
