I have been struggling to articulate why I feel quite so concerned about the economy but in a dinner conversation last night I had a kind of Eureka moment. It is now well understood that for at least two decades or so we had economic growth that was fueled (at least in the US) by consumer debt, which in turn was made possible by a housing bubble. Much of the political discussion today seems premised on the idea that once we are done with de-leveraging, households will return to spending and e...

I have been struggling to articulate why I feel quite so concerned about the economy but in a dinner conversation last night I had a kind of Eureka moment. It is now well understood that for at least two decades or so we had economic growth that was fueled (at least in the US) by consumer debt, which in turn was made possible by a housing bubble. Much of the political discussion today seems premised on the idea that once we are done with de-leveraging, households will return to spending and e...

Peter Thiel was interviewed by Francis Fukuyama (he of the “End of History”). The interview is well worth reading as it contains a lot of provocative thoughts. I agree with Thiel that the US government has lost its ability to achieve the kind of progress represented by the great public works projects or the Apollo program. I disagree though on the causes for this believing that it is primarily due to the pervasive influence of special interests and money in politics. I also don’t agree that w...

Peter Thiel was interviewed by Francis Fukuyama (he of the “End of History”). The interview is well worth reading as it contains a lot of provocative thoughts. I agree with Thiel that the US government has lost its ability to achieve the kind of progress represented by the great public works projects or the Apollo program. I disagree though on the causes for this believing that it is primarily due to the pervasive influence of special interests and money in politics. I also don’t agree that w...

Yesterday, a major barrier was crossed with the creation of the first artificial lifeform. Craig Venter and his team created a cell from scratch. Well not exactly from scratch: they created the DNA and inserted into an emptied cell. This is very similar to programming a computer – the hardware is the same but the software tells it what to do. When I explained this to my kids this morning, they surprisingly immediately grasped some of the potential consequences as my older son blurted out “the...

Yesterday, a major barrier was crossed with the creation of the first artificial lifeform. Craig Venter and his team created a cell from scratch. Well not exactly from scratch: they created the DNA and inserted into an emptied cell. This is very similar to programming a computer – the hardware is the same but the software tells it what to do. When I explained this to my kids this morning, they surprisingly immediately grasped some of the potential consequences as my older son blurted out “the...

Last week in Tech Tuesday I asked for topics to write about in my series on technology in startups. There seemed to be a fair bit of interest in security, so here we go. First off a disclaimer. As with any general purpose advice, you need to think a lot about what it is you are trying to do. The security requirements for a bitcoin startup are vastly different from those for a social media one. When you are just getting going you should treat security the same way as scalability: make sure you...

Last week in Tech Tuesday I asked for topics to write about in my series on technology in startups. There seemed to be a fair bit of interest in security, so here we go. First off a disclaimer. As with any general purpose advice, you need to think a lot about what it is you are trying to do. The security requirements for a bitcoin startup are vastly different from those for a social media one. When you are just getting going you should treat security the same way as scalability: make sure you...

The current Tech Tuesday series is about technology in startups. I started the series out with posts on initially choosing and evolving your technology. Since then I have been writing about best practices for growing and structuring your engineering team, with separate posts on hiring and retaining engineers and one on remote team members. Now that I am eight posts into this series, I am curious what questions readers may have that I should cover in upcoming posts. Here are some ideas to get ...

The current Tech Tuesday series is about technology in startups. I started the series out with posts on initially choosing and evolving your technology. Since then I have been writing about best practices for growing and structuring your engineering team, with separate posts on hiring and retaining engineers and one on remote team members. Now that I am eight posts into this series, I am curious what questions readers may have that I should cover in upcoming posts. Here are some ideas to get ...

If ever we needed a reminder that technology can both make our lives better and more terrifying this week provided plenty of them. Pressure cookers for cooking and bomb making. Fertilizer for agriculture and explosions (sadly also used in the Oklahoma City bombing). Social media for collaborative (re)search and public witch hunts. This is why we need values. Without being guided by strong values we will not enjoy the benefits of technology but will be leaving in fear of it instead.

If ever we needed a reminder that technology can both make our lives better and more terrifying this week provided plenty of them. Pressure cookers for cooking and bomb making. Fertilizer for agriculture and explosions (sadly also used in the Oklahoma City bombing). Social media for collaborative (re)search and public witch hunts. This is why we need values. Without being guided by strong values we will not enjoy the benefits of technology but will be leaving in fear of it instead.

Last Tech Tuesday I offered some very rough guidelines for making technology choices in a startup. I was going to write today about how to evolve that over time, but one of the comments suggested that it would be great to pick something that won’t immediately require a massive rewrite if you hit user growth. So a bit more today on this initial choice. I agree with the suggestion but with an important caveat: make a choice where you don’t sacrifice agility. At the earliest stages the single mo...

Last Tech Tuesday I offered some very rough guidelines for making technology choices in a startup. I was going to write today about how to evolve that over time, but one of the comments suggested that it would be great to pick something that won’t immediately require a massive rewrite if you hit user growth. So a bit more today on this initial choice. I agree with the suggestion but with an important caveat: make a choice where you don’t sacrifice agility. At the earliest stages the single mo...

This is the first of a new series of Tech Tuesday posts on Technology in Startups. Today’s topic: choosing your technologies. As a startup when you are just getting going, you have the luxury of picking any technology you want – you don’t yet have a legacy set of choices to contend with. It’s completely greenfield and that level of choice can be both exhilarating and daunting (what if I pick the wrong technology? cf Paradox of Choice). So what are some guidelines for thinking about that choic...

This is the first of a new series of Tech Tuesday posts on Technology in Startups. Today’s topic: choosing your technologies. As a startup when you are just getting going, you have the luxury of picking any technology you want – you don’t yet have a legacy set of choices to contend with. It’s completely greenfield and that level of choice can be both exhilarating and daunting (what if I pick the wrong technology? cf Paradox of Choice). So what are some guidelines for thinking about that choic...

I have started a series of posts which I called Scylla and Charybdis – or why startups are hard. The idea is that on pretty much anything you can err on both sides and only a relatively narrow middle will let you succeed. One of those that will merit an entire post shortly is the adoption of new technologies. You can be too early or too late! The particular technology I want to talk about today is HTML5. For some time now we have had several of our portfolio companies explore whether they can...

I have started a series of posts which I called Scylla and Charybdis – or why startups are hard. The idea is that on pretty much anything you can err on both sides and only a relatively narrow middle will let you succeed. One of those that will merit an entire post shortly is the adoption of new technologies. You can be too early or too late! The particular technology I want to talk about today is HTML5. For some time now we have had several of our portfolio companies explore whether they can...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about choosing technology as a startup. Today we are talking about what to do once you are up and running. Let me start by categorically stating what you should never, ever do: rewrite everything from scratch. There is a terrific piece on why this is a bad idea written in 2000 by Joel Spolsky that you should go off and read right now (Joel is a very entertaining writer). Etsy early on made this mistake and it almost killed the company. When I first invested in ...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about choosing technology as a startup. Today we are talking about what to do once you are up and running. Let me start by categorically stating what you should never, ever do: rewrite everything from scratch. There is a terrific piece on why this is a bad idea written in 2000 by Joel Spolsky that you should go off and read right now (Joel is a very entertaining writer). Etsy early on made this mistake and it almost killed the company. When I first invested in ...