Twitter killed RSS (and that’s a bad thing)

2009-09-29

I’ve used Google Reader religiously since it launched.  I’m a few days away from quitting it forever.  Pretty much every blog I read tweets…

Why content sites are getting ripped off

2009-09-29

A commenter on my blog the other day (Tim Ogilvie) mentioned a distinction that I found really interesting between intent generation and…

The new economy

2009-09-28

According to the Business Insider, Facebook is “‘Beating The S— Out Of Its Numbers’ Thanks To Zynga’s Virtual Goods.”  I wanted to try to…

What if online business model innovation is slowing down?

2009-09-28

There is a widely held assumption that new business models will continue to emerge online – that statements like “how will Twitter ever make…

Online advertising is all about purchasing intent

2009-09-27

A while ago I dug up this quote from Business Week from 2000: But how will Google ever make money? There’s the rub. The company’s adamant…

Yahoo should invest in products, not advertising

2009-09-26

For 10 years, Yahoo was my default home page.  Now I can barely stand using the site.  I still use it for Finance and Flickr, but that’s it…

Software patents should be abolished

2009-09-24

The alleged societal benefit of patent law is that it creates a financial incentive to innovate.  The societal drawback is that it reduces…

Climbing the wrong hill

2009-09-19

I know a brilliant young kid who graduated from college a year ago and now works at a large investment bank. He has decided he hates Wall…

Thanks…

2009-09-17

I got my first computer (TRS-80 Model 1) in 1980 at the age of 8.   I got my second computer – an Atari 800 – two years later.   I was…

The inevitable showdown between Twitter and Twitter apps

2009-09-14

People usually think of business competition as occurring between substitutes – products that serve similar functions for the user.   Famous…

Entrepreneurs need to learn some law

2009-09-13

I recently wrote a post where I said entrepreneurs need to understand term sheets on their own, without the assistance of lawyers.  I got…

Google and newspapers: the false choice of opting out

2009-09-12

First let me say I love Google.  I think Google created one of the greatest inventions of the past century and continues to give back much…

Non-linearity of technology adoption

2009-09-10

When I was in business school I remember a class where a partner from a big consulting firm was talking about how they had done extensive…

Getting a job in venture capital

2009-09-08

Getting a job in venture capital is extremely hard.  There are a lot of really smart, well qualified, eager people who want to work in VC…

Is now a good time to start a company?

2009-09-07

Back in 2006, my co-founder at Hunch, Caterina Fake, wrote a blog post called “It’s a bad time to start a company.”  There were no doubt…

The only college major that matters

2009-09-06

If you want to work in venture capital focusing on internet/software companies, or start one of those companies, or work as an employee in…

Which VC firm should I pitch?

2009-09-05

A friend asked me the other day “Which VC firms should I pitch?” and I started to respond to him, but then realized that most of my…

Dividing free and paid features in “freemium” products

2009-09-04

One of the most difficult decisions to make when developing a “freemium” product is how to divide the product between free and paid features…

Incubators

2009-09-04

It seems like every successful entrepreneur I know at one point or another kicks around the idea of creating an incubator. The appeal is the…

New York City needs a tech startup blog

2009-09-03

At first it seemed like Silicon Alley Insider would be this, but they seem to have moved away from covering NYC startups. The New York Times…

Don’t shop your term sheet

2009-09-02

There are all sorts of protocols in the VC world. Most of them make sense upon further examination, but if you’re a first time entrepreneur…

Question from a reader

2009-09-02

I’ve gotten some emails recently from readers of this blog with questions about early stage startups.  I’m sorry if I haven’t responded to…