Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Month: December 2009
Whistle For The Choir – The Fratellis
I was listening to last.fm neighborhood radio yesterday and this song came on. Just goes to show that the more you give, the more you get.
My biggest beef with blackberry apps is the popups they create around trust and security. Its confusing as hell to me to figure out what boxes to check and when to say yes and when to say no. It’s like the privacy hell Facebook is putting its users through right now. More options and checkboxes is not better.
Fred Wilson – http://j.mp/76kHXP
So let’s talk traffic. We’ve got people who love this goddamn phone so much that they’re living on it. Yes, that’s crushing your network. Yes, 3% of your users are taking up 40% of your bandwidth. You see this as a bad thing. It’s not. It’s a good thing. It’s a blessing. It’s an indication that people love what we’re doing, which means you now have a reason to go out and double or triple or quadruple your damn network capacity. Jesus! I can’t believe I’m explaining this to you. You’re in the business of selling bandwidth. That pipe is what you sell. Right now what the market is telling you is that you can sell even more! Lots more! Good Lord. The world is changing, and you’re right in the sweet spot.
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : A not-so-brief chat with Randall Stephenson of AT&T
Fake Steve Jobs on fire with this post.
Built to sell(out) ?
I was at an event this month where a prominent, experienced investor was talking to the audience about small being beautiful. He was talking about fund size and investment size. His fund is smaller than $100MM. For this post, I’ll just call him “Joe”.
Joe went on to say that while starting companies has become more efficient, venture funds have been getting bigger. If companies need less money then why do VCs raise more money?
That’s a fair point except for a big thing in my experience. The cost to start a company in the “early days” is now inexpensive. But then the growth phase requires significant capital (infrastructure & staff). Look at todays great companies – facebook, twitter, yelp, gilt groupe, etc. They required modest capital to start and launch the product. Then they raised big big dollars to scale.
That’s a great model and works for investors and entrepreneurs alike. Venture isn’t dead – rather it’s being staged differently. The challenges for a small fund is to avoid significant dilution over time. The challenge for a big fund is the challenging IPO and M&A market. A firm needs big returns to make big funds work properly. Both fund sizes need to be aligned with the company and founder needs. I think everyone would agree on that.
But the big problem I had with Joe’s speech was when he said that because of the tough IPO market, they invest assuming the vast majority of his investments will be sold for $50-$200M.
I waited for the clarifier but it never came.
I think our job (entrepreneurs and investors) is to build & fund companies that can become important, viable and standalone companies. That’s why I don’t consider the question “who will buy this company” when I think about making an investment.
I want to believe that these companies can innovate, grow and choose to remain independent on their own.
And more standalone companies grows the entire market.
Dead Flowers – Deer Tick
It’s cover friday so here’s mine. Original by the Rolling Stones off the record “Sticky Fingers”.
Copenhagen, however, began last month to create the real thing: a system of as many as 15 extra-wide, segregated bike routes connecting the suburbs to the center of the city. These are not bucolic touring paths; Copenhagen’s bike highways are meant to move traffic. Nearly 40 percent of Copenhagen rides a bike to work. On Norrebrogade, a two-mile street in the center of the city, 36,000 cyclists clog the bike lane every day.
Chrome
I’m using Chrome as my default browser on the Mac.
It’s clear that many sites haven’t tested against Chrome. Some fields look a bit wonky at times. But overall I’m happy with Chrome.
And it looks like many others feel the same way. According to Google Analytics, over 14% of the folks that came to my blog this week use Chrome (45% use Firefox, 30% use Safari).
Remember the days when we didn’t have a great browser on the Mac.
I’m so glad that’s over.
my new custom bag thanks to the amazing folks at Rickshaw Bagworks