Yesterday, the New York Times announced its long awaited pay fence. Today, we announced our investment in Kickstarter. These two represent different models for sustaining efforts that are socially important but are having their previous financial models disrupted by the Internet: journalism in the case of the NY Times and creative projects on Kickstarter. While I am a fan of what the NY Times stands for and would like to see quality journalism exist going forward, I am not convinced that the ...

On the flight back from Austin yesterday I started writing a longish post about SXSW. But as the news kept pouring in about the escalation of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant I found myself less and less able to concentrate on what appeared increasingly trivial by comparison. I may still post about SXSW eventually, but for now here are some thoughts about Japan. All of what is happening there underlines one of my deepest fears: as a species we are woefully unprepared for events...

Yesterday, the New York Times announced its long awaited pay fence. Today, we announced our investment in Kickstarter. These two represent different models for sustaining efforts that are socially important but are having their previous financial models disrupted by the Internet: journalism in the case of the NY Times and creative projects on Kickstarter. While I am a fan of what the NY Times stands for and would like to see quality journalism exist going forward, I am not convinced that the ...

On the flight back from Austin yesterday I started writing a longish post about SXSW. But as the news kept pouring in about the escalation of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant I found myself less and less able to concentrate on what appeared increasingly trivial by comparison. I may still post about SXSW eventually, but for now here are some thoughts about Japan. All of what is happening there underlines one of my deepest fears: as a species we are woefully unprepared for events...

foursquare rolled out version 3.0 last night. Dennis and the team have a terrific post that explains all that is new and different. While I am excited about the new leaderboards and specials 2.0, I am most looking forward to the broad availability of recommendations.The idea is pretty simple: tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll help you find something nearby. The suggestions are based on a little bit of everything – the places you’ve been, the places your friends have visited, your loya...

foursquare rolled out version 3.0 last night. Dennis and the team have a terrific post that explains all that is new and different. While I am excited about the new leaderboards and specials 2.0, I am most looking forward to the broad availability of recommendations.The idea is pretty simple: tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll help you find something nearby. The suggestions are based on a little bit of everything – the places you’ve been, the places your friends have visited, your loya...

My blog post for today is on “Innovation in Education” and you can find it over at the Union Square Ventures blog. Having three kids in school this is a topic that I care about personally not just from an investment perspective. Also think that education is an area in which the disconnect between what the Internet can help us accomplish and how (most) policy makers think about it could hardly be larger.

My blog post for today is on “Innovation in Education” and you can find it over at the Union Square Ventures blog. Having three kids in school this is a topic that I care about personally not just from an investment perspective. Also think that education is an area in which the disconnect between what the Internet can help us accomplish and how (most) policy makers think about it could hardly be larger.

As I am getting ready to go to SXSW and thus to a different timezone I thought I would share how I handle timezones and calendaring (this was in part prompted by a tweet from Andrew Parker the other day about this issue). My system is very simple: I put everything into the calendar at the exact time it will occur in whatever timezone I will be in that day. So if an event is in Austin at 2pm, I will put it into my calendar as 2pm. When I will get to Austin tomorrow, I will change my phone’s da...

As I am getting ready to go to SXSW and thus to a different timezone I thought I would share how I handle timezones and calendaring (this was in part prompted by a tweet from Andrew Parker the other day about this issue). My system is very simple: I put everything into the calendar at the exact time it will occur in whatever timezone I will be in that day. So if an event is in Austin at 2pm, I will put it into my calendar as 2pm. When I will get to Austin tomorrow, I will change my phone’s da...

Weekends seem to bring with them at least one or two good blog debates. This last one was no different with Chris Dixon’s post titled “SEO is no longer a viable marketing strategy for startups” and Danny Sullivan’s response “SEO remains a viable marketing strategy for anyone.” I am not going to comment on the merits of SEO per se (check the comments on both posts + twitter for more on that), but rather on the distinction between strategy and tactics. My own history trying to understand strate...

Weekends seem to bring with them at least one or two good blog debates. This last one was no different with Chris Dixon’s post titled “SEO is no longer a viable marketing strategy for startups” and Danny Sullivan’s response “SEO remains a viable marketing strategy for anyone.” I am not going to comment on the merits of SEO per se (check the comments on both posts + twitter for more on that), but rather on the distinction between strategy and tactics. My own history trying to understand strate...

As believers in the singularity are quick (and right) to point out, we don’t do very well as humans when it comes to understanding exponential growth. This is not a new insight as we can see from the much older story about the peasant who wins a chess game against a king and ask as his reward for simply a single grain of wheat/rice/whatever on the first square to be doubled on every subsequent square. It is worth frequently reminding ourselves of our lack of intuitive grasp for exponential gr...

As believers in the singularity are quick (and right) to point out, we don’t do very well as humans when it comes to understanding exponential growth. This is not a new insight as we can see from the much older story about the peasant who wins a chess game against a king and ask as his reward for simply a single grain of wheat/rice/whatever on the first square to be doubled on every subsequent square. It is worth frequently reminding ourselves of our lack of intuitive grasp for exponential gr...

Last week Fred wrote a post on marketing that attracted a lot of comments and replies – in part because it had some “bugs” but more because it was provocative. One thing that seemed missing from the discussion (and given that there was so much I may simply have overlooked it) was the relationship between customer acquisition and network effects. I am going to use the word customer acquisition to mean the entire set of tactics (PR, marketing, advertising and even sales) that results in new cus...

Last week Fred wrote a post on marketing that attracted a lot of comments and replies – in part because it had some “bugs” but more because it was provocative. One thing that seemed missing from the discussion (and given that there was so much I may simply have overlooked it) was the relationship between customer acquisition and network effects. I am going to use the word customer acquisition to mean the entire set of tactics (PR, marketing, advertising and even sales) that results in new cus...

Net neutrality is a recurring topic on this blog. The latest attack on the ideas behind net neutrality comes from Speaker John Boehner in a speech given to a group called the “National Religious Broadcasters.” The speech is a master piece of propaganda – it profoundly appeals to people’s emotional sense of freedom in America and brazenly states the opposite of reality as truth. Here is a particularly galling passage:‘Network neutrality,’ they call it. It’s a series of regulations that empower...

Net neutrality is a recurring topic on this blog. The latest attack on the ideas behind net neutrality comes from Speaker John Boehner in a speech given to a group called the “National Religious Broadcasters.” The speech is a master piece of propaganda – it profoundly appeals to people’s emotional sense of freedom in America and brazenly states the opposite of reality as truth. Here is a particularly galling passage:‘Network neutrality,’ they call it. It’s a series of regulations that empower...

When I was studying Computer Science at Harvard (a shocking 20 years ago this year), startups were nowhere on my radar. The big name recruiting on campus was Microsoft, where my former TA, Dean Hachamovitch, has been leading the Internet Explorer team for several years now. Things have improved a lot since then, but there are still too many talented computer science students being lured to large companies and/or Wall Street instead of joining a startup or even starting their own. That’s why I...

When I was studying Computer Science at Harvard (a shocking 20 years ago this year), startups were nowhere on my radar. The big name recruiting on campus was Microsoft, where my former TA, Dean Hachamovitch, has been leading the Internet Explorer team for several years now. Things have improved a lot since then, but there are still too many talented computer science students being lured to large companies and/or Wall Street instead of joining a startup or even starting their own. That’s why I...