Howard Lindzon was nice enough to have me on his Stocktwits.tv show recently. For those who don’t know Howard, he writes a fantastic blog. He writes in such an irreverent way it’s easy to overlook the wisdom behind what he says. My favorite recent Howard-ism was, talking about investing, “I like to look outside and see my [investments].” I take this to mean he likes to invest in things he understands, can touch, go visit, etc. This is probably the single best piece of advice in order to have survived the recent financial crisis. Fancy things like CDOs, Auction-Rate Securities, etc turned out to function much differently than advertised. Diversification across asset classes (CAPM etc) turned out to be useless: when things got bad, correlations went to 1. One reason I like investing in startups is you can go visit them – they are something tangible and understandable.
Howard is also the founder of Stocktwits. Stocktwits is potentially genuinely disruptive in that it dis-intermediates Wall Street. It is one of those things that some people think is a toy now but could end up being the next big thing.
Anyways, here’s the interview:
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[...] Howard Lindzon interviews Chris Dixon. Joy. (cdixon.org) [...]
Nice interview.
Loved your reason for going alone, i.e. dickhead bosses.
And capital vs money argument.
Hey Chris- Thanks for the DocVerse shout-out in your “investor portfolio” in the video
Excellent stuff. I agree with everything in your post, especially the potential at StockTwits. I almost worked for them last summer and I wish I could've done it.
thx chris. awesome getting to know you. good times ahead.
i didn't make the video but i do list it on my about page which i assume is where they got it…
Really like your philosophy on money. It's definitely better to be driven by 'doing something cool' and being in control of your own destiny. I think this also separates startup and finance folks. Though I have to admit I'd avoid the NY subway if I could.
Dude, the subway rocks. I took it today cdixon.posterous.com
Nice interview Chris.
One question I would like to know the answer to is: how do you juggle working at a startup and investing as an angel (both being time consuming activities)? How do you manage your time?
I am full time at Hunch and fortunate enough to have 2 great full time partners who invest with me.
Great interview. Really liked the bit on starting and selling SiteAdvisor and how the VC community was effectively offloading R&D for large, stable companies like McAfee. It really aligned with my current thinking and understanding of this portion of the startup ecosystem.
Hedge fund vs. porn star? Ha.
Liked the interview a lot. Especially like and agree with your notion of capital versus money.
Good show!
I, along with a few other startups, met Howard this week and he is quite impressive in person. He offered helpful feedback with a I-am-an-entrepreneur-also-and-we-are-all-in-it-together energy that makes him approachable and engaging to chat with. I wish him all the best with Stocktwits and his impressive portfolio.
“I like to look outside and see my [investments].”
No offense but sounds like wisdom in hindsight. There was a tech bubble burst back when, remember?
I discovered you only today. I went from someone's tweet, to a Silicon Alley Insider 2009 Top 100 list, from there I came over to your blog, promptly put it on my blogroll, read some of your blog posts, starting with the one that says the NY tech scene is heating up, it was a bummer I was not able to leave a comment there, because that topic really gets me. And now after having watched this interview – I started out thinking you were interviewing the other guy, it ended up being the other way round – I am looking for your email address.