Month: June 2011

Sometime last year, I saw a few people tried to create a new site that would allow folks to add comments to tweets. None of those efforts created any meaningful traction as far as I can tell. Adding comments to tweets wasn’t a native Twitter experience.

Why do I bring that up? Well, I’ve been using Disqus to power the commenting system on my Tumblr account since the day i joined Tumblr back in 2007. And it serves me well. I truly believe that Disqus offers the best commenting platform on the planet and I find myself commenting more often when blogs and sites use Disqus than otherwise. I value my Disqus profile and the rich community within their network.

Over the years, the Tumblr team has made it easier to integrate Disqus comments into various Tumblr themes which is fantastic for people that want to include comments into their Tumblr accounts. And that’s valuable for Tumblr users that want that experience. Perfect example: the Tumblr Staff account includes Disqus comments.

Lately I’ve noticed that I’m getting as many Tumblr gestures, ie “notes”, such as reblogs, replies and “likes” as comments. I’m also paying more attention to the latest update to Tumblr Ask now that I can respond publicly and privately. Those things (reblogs, likes, ask, and replies) are native to the service and show up in the Tumblr Dashboard. Comments do not show up in the Dashboard.

So I’m running a little test and going to remove comments from my Tumblr account for a short period of time (likely few days or a maybe a few weeks). I’m a bit nervous this test since I value comments – especially on my favorite blogs. But Tumblr isn’t quite a blog. It’s something else. So I want to give this test a try.

During this test, there are lots of ways to interact with my posts

-you can email me directly: bsabet at gmail

-you can ask me something with Tumblr Ask

-you can @reply me on Twitter

Let me know what you think and I’ll keep you posted on my little experiment. 

Increasingly I’m meeting students in undergrad that want to be a work at a venture capital firm one day.

It’s interesting to me because I didn’t know what a VC was until after I got out of college and well into my first job (which was VC backed). 

Yesterday, I was at Angel Bootcamp. The organizer, @jonpierce, did something different this year. In addition to investors and aspiring investors, he opened it up for a select number of entrepreneurs and students as well. Great idea.

So yesterday, I met another student who came up to me at the break and told me about his desire to be a VC someday and asked how to do it. He seemed quite passionate about it.

The best advice I could come up with at the time was to get involved in the startup scene while he’s in college. Reach out to startups early on and see if you can help them somehow. Maybe it’s giving them constructive feedback about their product, or the market, or some other insight. Building relationships with founders is critical. 

The other thing is to start to get to know VCs and angel investors by doing exactly what he did yesterday. Go to events and be fearless. Introduce yourself to strangers in a respectful way and make connections. Angel investors and VCs are much easier to reach these days than ever.

Then once you make a connection, send them your thoughts about important trends and new startups. Evaluate products before they hit the market or just as they hit the market. Write a blog post about why you think the idea is impactful, disruptive or otherwise. Don’t want to write a public post? Fine, send a personal email to your angel and VC connections with the same insight. Find students at your college that are building products. Help them out. Get involved. When the time is right (and with their permission) introduce those founders to your VC and angel connections with your thoughts on why the idea is powerful.

If it ends up leading to an investment, you have created tremendous value to the founders and the investors. And even if it doesn’t lead to an investment, your insight, dedication and judgement will make you stand out. People will take notice and you’ll come out of college with an amazing running start. 

Its hard to get a job at a VC firm right out of college (or anytime frankly). Most likely the first stop will be at a tech company – either big or small. But you can always keep those connections you made during undergrad alive and well.