It’s not too late to find a summer internship! In fact, my wife Susan and her co-founder Oliver over at Ziggeo are looking for marketing and sales interns for the summer. So if you know of any students who are looking, please send them their way. Thanks!

It’s not too late to find a summer internship! In fact, my wife Susan and her co-founder Oliver over at Ziggeo are looking for marketing and sales interns for the summer. So if you know of any students who are looking, please send them their way. Thanks!

Today Dwolla announced a new financing led by A16Z with Scott Weiss joining the board. The funding will go towards establishing a new office in San Francisco, an expanded presence in New York and much needed additions to the team in Des Moines starting with a lot of engineering hires. I am of course excited about this as an investor but even more so as a user of Dwolla. It already works well for me in in paying contractors but I can’t wait for it to be more broadly available. It is 2013 after...

Today Dwolla announced a new financing led by A16Z with Scott Weiss joining the board. The funding will go towards establishing a new office in San Francisco, an expanded presence in New York and much needed additions to the team in Des Moines starting with a lot of engineering hires. I am of course excited about this as an investor but even more so as a user of Dwolla. It already works well for me in in paying contractors but I can’t wait for it to be more broadly available. It is 2013 after...

When it comes to files we are beginning to take synchronization as a given. You work on a file at work and through the magic of Dropbox or similar services the copy of that file on your personal laptop winds up reflecting the changes. Increasingly we are expecting the same for applications. For example, when you have read a Direct Message on a Twitter App and then notice that it is still shown as unread in the web applications we experience that as a bug. This enduser expectation of data and ...

When it comes to files we are beginning to take synchronization as a given. You work on a file at work and through the magic of Dropbox or similar services the copy of that file on your personal laptop winds up reflecting the changes. Increasingly we are expecting the same for applications. For example, when you have read a Direct Message on a Twitter App and then notice that it is still shown as unread in the web applications we experience that as a bug. This enduser expectation of data and ...

I love meeting with entrepreneurs because most of them are full of optimism and often driven by a big vision. It is then easy to get into a conversation about that vision and how awesome it will be. But therein lurks a great danger and one that both entrepreneurs and investors (myself included) can easily fall prey to. Outside the room nobody really knows or even cares about your grand vision. Instead, your product is all there is. What do I mean by this? Even if you do a fair bit of marketin...

I love meeting with entrepreneurs because most of them are full of optimism and often driven by a big vision. It is then easy to get into a conversation about that vision and how awesome it will be. But therein lurks a great danger and one that both entrepreneurs and investors (myself included) can easily fall prey to. Outside the room nobody really knows or even cares about your grand vision. Instead, your product is all there is. What do I mean by this? Even if you do a fair bit of marketin...

I love science fiction movies and recently saw two that couldn’t be more different. Here are two mini reviews: Oblivion: Oblivion was an enjoyable ride while it lasted but didn’t really stay with me. The production values are off the charts with some particularly stunning visuals of a house situated above the clouds. But the storyline is kind of quite predictable (at least for adults, our 13 year old didn’t think so) and the movie borrows very heavily from others. During one scene even our so...

I love science fiction movies and recently saw two that couldn’t be more different. Here are two mini reviews: Oblivion: Oblivion was an enjoyable ride while it lasted but didn’t really stay with me. The production values are off the charts with some particularly stunning visuals of a house situated above the clouds. But the storyline is kind of quite predictable (at least for adults, our 13 year old didn’t think so) and the movie borrows very heavily from others. During one scene even our so...

The last two posts on Tech Tuesday were both about growing your engineering organization. Someone wrote to me saying: it’s all well to talk about best practices for organizational design, but we can’t find enough qualified engineers in the first place! So today a post about hiring. I have been able to observe many companies over the years and even in the toughest markets some have a steady flow of high quality candidates and others always seem to struggle. The main distinction between the two...

The last two posts on Tech Tuesday were both about growing your engineering organization. Someone wrote to me saying: it’s all well to talk about best practices for organizational design, but we can’t find enough qualified engineers in the first place! So today a post about hiring. I have been able to observe many companies over the years and even in the toughest markets some have a steady flow of high quality candidates and others always seem to struggle. The main distinction between the two...

As longtime readers of Continuations know, I have been a strong proponent of the Benefit Corporation. I am therefore thrilled that Delaware, which is the home to almost all venture backed corporations, has introduced Benefit Corporation legislation. This will allow companies to charter or recharter in Delaware and add one or more public benefits as goals that are on equal footing with maximizing shareholder value. This is critical for allowing mission driven companies to raise money from priv...

As longtime readers of Continuations know, I have been a strong proponent of the Benefit Corporation. I am therefore thrilled that Delaware, which is the home to almost all venture backed corporations, has introduced Benefit Corporation legislation. This will allow companies to charter or recharter in Delaware and add one or more public benefits as goals that are on equal footing with maximizing shareholder value. This is critical for allowing mission driven companies to raise money from priv...

The stock market indices are above their pre financial crisis highs. One interpretation of this is that the financial crisis was just that: a crisis of the financial sector that left the rest of the economy largely untouched. Another interpretation is that we are simply looking at the results of way too much cheap money provided by the Fed. The latter is supported by a chart that I saw yesterday for the first time which shows the Dow divided by the price of gold. That chart is essentially fla...

The stock market indices are above their pre financial crisis highs. One interpretation of this is that the financial crisis was just that: a crisis of the financial sector that left the rest of the economy largely untouched. Another interpretation is that we are simply looking at the results of way too much cheap money provided by the Fed. The latter is supported by a chart that I saw yesterday for the first time which shows the Dow divided by the price of gold. That chart is essentially fla...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote that the companies which do well on hiring engineers are the ones that “prioritize both hiring *and* having a great work environment.” The post went on to talk about some of the best practices in hiring. Today’s follow-up is about creating a great work environment for engineers. There is obviously a lot that goes into creating a great work environment including overall company culture, office space, company mission etc. Instead of those more general points, here are ...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote that the companies which do well on hiring engineers are the ones that “prioritize both hiring *and* having a great work environment.” The post went on to talk about some of the best practices in hiring. Today’s follow-up is about creating a great work environment for engineers. There is obviously a lot that goes into creating a great work environment including overall company culture, office space, company mission etc. Instead of those more general points, here are ...

One of the major issues we are struggling with in this flood of data is the question of what data belongs to whom and in particular how much access and control endusers should have over their data (or for that matter what “their” data even means). In California a “Right to Know” bill has been introduced that would require companies to let endusers access what data has been stored about them and which third parties that data has been shared with. The definition of personal data in the bill is ...

One of the major issues we are struggling with in this flood of data is the question of what data belongs to whom and in particular how much access and control endusers should have over their data (or for that matter what “their” data even means). In California a “Right to Know” bill has been introduced that would require companies to let endusers access what data has been stored about them and which third parties that data has been shared with. The definition of personal data in the bill is ...