Yesterday evening I wanted to bone up on the racing rules in sailing after having had a close encounter while rounding the leward mark last Thursday (which elicited quite a blue streak from the skipper of the other boat). I really wanted to see some animations of different situations that one might encounter to test my understanding of the rules. After a quick search I wound up on the UK Halsey site, only to remember that I was on an iPad and none of the animations would work because they are...

Yesterday evening I wanted to bone up on the racing rules in sailing after having had a close encounter while rounding the leward mark last Thursday (which elicited quite a blue streak from the skipper of the other boat). I really wanted to see some animations of different situations that one might encounter to test my understanding of the rules. After a quick search I wound up on the UK Halsey site, only to remember that I was on an iPad and none of the animations would work because they are...

As in the past 8 years, we went to see the Scarsdale Memorial Day parade earlier this year. Attendance was incredibly low. I remarked to Susan then that this is a direct function of virtually no one in Scarsdale having a family member in the military. As far as I can tell, we have essentially “outsourced” fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the poorer parts of the States. I was reminded of this on 4th of July, where around here everything was idyllic and not a single conversation I h...

As in the past 8 years, we went to see the Scarsdale Memorial Day parade earlier this year. Attendance was incredibly low. I remarked to Susan then that this is a direct function of virtually no one in Scarsdale having a family member in the military. As far as I can tell, we have essentially “outsourced” fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the poorer parts of the States. I was reminded of this on 4th of July, where around here everything was idyllic and not a single conversation I h...

Following our recent recruiting effort to find Christina and Gary I have been spending a fair bit of time meeting with people we encountered in the process who wanted career advice. Here are some of the points I have found myself talking about repeatedly. First: many people think they want to be an entrepreneur but few actually are. The best way to tell is to look at the things you have already done. If you have never taken the initiative to create something from scratch (and even if that som...

Following our recent recruiting effort to find Christina and Gary I have been spending a fair bit of time meeting with people we encountered in the process who wanted career advice. Here are some of the points I have found myself talking about repeatedly. First: many people think they want to be an entrepreneur but few actually are. The best way to tell is to look at the things you have already done. If you have never taken the initiative to create something from scratch (and even if that som...

Yes it is officially hot in New York City these days. I don’t know if I can stand this when I am older, but for now I quite enjoy the huge seasonal differences. They are a reminder that much as we may obsess about things that happen at work or at home, there are much bigger forces surrounding us (we all live on a rock traveling through space). This is a useful bit of perspective. One of the books that is part of my summer reading adds to this view: 13 Things that Don’t Make Sense: The Most Ba...

Yes it is officially hot in New York City these days. I don’t know if I can stand this when I am older, but for now I quite enjoy the huge seasonal differences. They are a reminder that much as we may obsess about things that happen at work or at home, there are much bigger forces surrounding us (we all live on a rock traveling through space). This is a useful bit of perspective. One of the books that is part of my summer reading adds to this view: 13 Things that Don’t Make Sense: The Most Ba...

I love to blog about all the awesome things that the Internet is bringing and how that creates great investment opportunities. But once in a while I have first hand experiences that remind me how much innovation could/should/will (?) occur in other areas. Last week was one of those. One of our kids suddenly had areas of skin the size of quarters essentially dissolve. The pediatrician thought that it was some kind of bacterial infection. But here is where the interesting part starts. In order ...

I love to blog about all the awesome things that the Internet is bringing and how that creates great investment opportunities. But once in a while I have first hand experiences that remind me how much innovation could/should/will (?) occur in other areas. Last week was one of those. One of our kids suddenly had areas of skin the size of quarters essentially dissolve. The pediatrician thought that it was some kind of bacterial infection. But here is where the interesting part starts. In order ...

The Supreme Court handed down a bunch of rulings yesterday. The two that I find most interesting relate to patents and guns. Both rulings are disappointing, as I am against software patents and for stricter gun control. But they are also not as terrible as I feared they might be. As far as I can tell, on both counts the Supreme Court handed down fairly narrow rulings. The initial analysis over at Groklaw of the Bilski decision (patents) suggests there are plenty of openings in this ruling for...

The Supreme Court handed down a bunch of rulings yesterday. The two that I find most interesting relate to patents and guns. Both rulings are disappointing, as I am against software patents and for stricter gun control. But they are also not as terrible as I feared they might be. As far as I can tell, on both counts the Supreme Court handed down fairly narrow rulings. The initial analysis over at Groklaw of the Bilski decision (patents) suggests there are plenty of openings in this ruling for...

Yesterday saw the “wire transfer heard ‘round the world,” as Bryce put it in a tweet. Foursquare did indeed close a Series B financing as has by now been widely reported. My job of writing a blog post about this has been made very easy: Dennis wrote a terrific announcement on the foursquare blog, Ben Horowitz from “A16Z” does a great job in his post of describing why all the investors are excited about Foursquare; and my partner Fred provides a refreshing perspective on the process. The only ...

Yesterday saw the “wire transfer heard ‘round the world,” as Bryce put it in a tweet. Foursquare did indeed close a Series B financing as has by now been widely reported. My job of writing a blog post about this has been made very easy: Dennis wrote a terrific announcement on the foursquare blog, Ben Horowitz from “A16Z” does a great job in his post of describing why all the investors are excited about Foursquare; and my partner Fred provides a refreshing perspective on the process. The only ...

Paul Kedrosky has kicked off an interesting debate by suggesting we will see a “super-angel crash." Paul’s initial post resulted in a bunch of strong disagreement in tweets and comments, enough to cause an update to the initial post. While the update says many nice things about "super angels” and a bunch of negative ones about “incumbent vcs,” it ends on the same note by reiterating that we are seeing too much of a good thing. From a social perspective I believe that overfunding of startups (...

Paul Kedrosky has kicked off an interesting debate by suggesting we will see a “super-angel crash." Paul’s initial post resulted in a bunch of strong disagreement in tweets and comments, enough to cause an update to the initial post. While the update says many nice things about "super angels” and a bunch of negative ones about “incumbent vcs,” it ends on the same note by reiterating that we are seeing too much of a good thing. From a social perspective I believe that overfunding of startups (...

First time entrepreneurs who are just getting going frequently ask me about how to find angel investors. I usually tell them about my theory of “concentric circles” of angel investors. The innermost circle are people who know you and love you and will give you money no matter what (even if you were opening an ice cream store on the South Pole). These are the friends and family angel investors.The next circle out are people who care deeply about the thing itself that you are doing. So if you a...

First time entrepreneurs who are just getting going frequently ask me about how to find angel investors. I usually tell them about my theory of “concentric circles” of angel investors. The innermost circle are people who know you and love you and will give you money no matter what (even if you were opening an ice cream store on the South Pole). These are the friends and family angel investors.The next circle out are people who care deeply about the thing itself that you are doing. So if you a...

Yesterday, a judge granted YouTube’s Motion for Summary Judgment in the Viacom v. YouTube litigation. This is a major victory for all user generated content (UGC) companies because it strongly affirms the DMCA safe harbor. Congrats to David Drummond and the legal team at Google. Given that Google has been defending Internet freedom on a number of fronts it must feel good for them to score this victory. Great coverage can be found over at the EFF. With this decision it is even more important t...

Yesterday, a judge granted YouTube’s Motion for Summary Judgment in the Viacom v. YouTube litigation. This is a major victory for all user generated content (UGC) companies because it strongly affirms the DMCA safe harbor. Congrats to David Drummond and the legal team at Google. Given that Google has been defending Internet freedom on a number of fronts it must feel good for them to score this victory. Great coverage can be found over at the EFF. With this decision it is even more important t...