My post for today is over on the Union Square Ventures blog. It is about the future of making stuff (and has lots of Star Trek references).

My post for today is over on the Union Square Ventures blog. It is about the future of making stuff (and has lots of Star Trek references).

Yesterday I tweeted the following quick thought about healthcare reform:Reading abt passage of healthcare reform. At this point any reform beats no reform: once there is movement, the course can be correctedJust wanted to quickly expand on the idea behind this, which comes from sailing (one of my favorite hobbies). With a sailboat you can find yourself “in locks” which happens when you get stuck with the wind coming directly from the front. In that situation you may slow to a complete stop an...

Yesterday I tweeted the following quick thought about healthcare reform:Reading abt passage of healthcare reform. At this point any reform beats no reform: once there is movement, the course can be correctedJust wanted to quickly expand on the idea behind this, which comes from sailing (one of my favorite hobbies). With a sailboat you can find yourself “in locks” which happens when you get stuck with the wind coming directly from the front. In that situation you may slow to a complete stop an...

Since we held the Hacking Education event last year, I have continued to look at education as an area that will be deeply disrupted by the Internet. I recently cited the $7B or so annual college textbook market as a prime example. One of the trends that will contribute to this disruption is the still small but growing movement against getting a formal college degree in the first place. I am excited to read Anya Kamanetz’s upcoming book DIY U which is all about this trend. Until it comes out, ...

Since we held the Hacking Education event last year, I have continued to look at education as an area that will be deeply disrupted by the Internet. I recently cited the $7B or so annual college textbook market as a prime example. One of the trends that will contribute to this disruption is the still small but growing movement against getting a formal college degree in the first place. I am excited to read Anya Kamanetz’s upcoming book DIY U which is all about this trend. Until it comes out, ...

“As kids, we say stupid things, and because there’s not a record of it, nobody is going to give you a hard time at 30 years old about something you said or did when you were 8 years old. Online, you have all these social networks that are moving to a state of persistent identity and in turn we’re sacrificing the ability to be youthful. In 10 years, everything you say and do will be visible online and I think it’s really unfortunate.” - Christopher Poole in NYT interview with Nick Bilton. This...

“As kids, we say stupid things, and because there’s not a record of it, nobody is going to give you a hard time at 30 years old about something you said or did when you were 8 years old. Online, you have all these social networks that are moving to a state of persistent identity and in turn we’re sacrificing the ability to be youthful. In 10 years, everything you say and do will be visible online and I think it’s really unfortunate.” - Christopher Poole in NYT interview with Nick Bilton. This...

The range for early stage valuations is probably broader than I have seen it since the first Internet bubble. I am aware of raises at the moment all the way from pre-moneys of below $2 million to $50 million. These are all early-stage pre-revenue companies but with launched services. What accounts for the huge range? There are of course the usual factors, such as the strength of the team and the potential size of the market. But the real driver seems to be whether a company is perceived as be...

The range for early stage valuations is probably broader than I have seen it since the first Internet bubble. I am aware of raises at the moment all the way from pre-moneys of below $2 million to $50 million. These are all early-stage pre-revenue companies but with launched services. What accounts for the huge range? There are of course the usual factors, such as the strength of the team and the potential size of the market. But the real driver seems to be whether a company is perceived as be...

“ The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it. ” - Tim Bray in his post on joining Google

“ The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it. ” - Tim Bray in his post on joining Google

Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreesen Horowitz has a guest post on All Things Digital titled “The Case for the Fat Startup." In it he makes a case for raising a lot of money and investing it aggressively. Ben’s argument is related to my post from yesterday about ”Winner Take All and Early Stage Valuations.“ He justifies massive fundraising and spending by saying it’s worse to be in "startup purgatory” than to run out of money:What is start-up purgatory, you ask? Start-up purgatory occurs ...

Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreesen Horowitz has a guest post on All Things Digital titled “The Case for the Fat Startup." In it he makes a case for raising a lot of money and investing it aggressively. Ben’s argument is related to my post from yesterday about ”Winner Take All and Early Stage Valuations.“ He justifies massive fundraising and spending by saying it’s worse to be in "startup purgatory” than to run out of money:What is start-up purgatory, you ask? Start-up purgatory occurs ...

At Union Square Ventures we have backed a couple of companies that use browser plugins at the core of their services (Adaptive Blue, Zemanta). We have always been concerned about the potentially lower sign-up rates from requiring someone to install a plugin. The installation process on Firefox required an onerous restart (even for updates to already installed plugins!). In fact, our concern has been so significant that we have passed on a few opportunities that had plugins as central to their...

At Union Square Ventures we have backed a couple of companies that use browser plugins at the core of their services (Adaptive Blue, Zemanta). We have always been concerned about the potentially lower sign-up rates from requiring someone to install a plugin. The installation process on Firefox required an onerous restart (even for updates to already installed plugins!). In fact, our concern has been so significant that we have passed on a few opportunities that had plugins as central to their...

This has been a fairly rough winter. We had at least three separate storms that dumped over a foot of snow. And then just as it looked as if spring was around the corner with a couple of absolutely gorgeous days, we got a storm with a combination of tremendous rainfall and such high winds that more trees than ever before were knocked down. Here is one just a couple of corners from our house that came up with its entire root ball and missed the nearby house only by a bit: Here is one that went...

This has been a fairly rough winter. We had at least three separate storms that dumped over a foot of snow. And then just as it looked as if spring was around the corner with a couple of absolutely gorgeous days, we got a storm with a combination of tremendous rainfall and such high winds that more trees than ever before were knocked down. Here is one just a couple of corners from our house that came up with its entire root ball and missed the nearby house only by a bit: Here is one that went...

Chris Dixon had a great post yesterday about “the importance of investor signaling in venture pricing” that every entrepreneur should read. Leaving aside the classical economics strawman from the first paragraph (does anybody think that classical economics would apply to a small numbers situation with extreme information asymmetry?), the rest of the post is spot on. Here are a couple more reasons why investor signaling plays such a powerful role in the venture market:Most companies need more ...

Chris Dixon had a great post yesterday about “the importance of investor signaling in venture pricing” that every entrepreneur should read. Leaving aside the classical economics strawman from the first paragraph (does anybody think that classical economics would apply to a small numbers situation with extreme information asymmetry?), the rest of the post is spot on. Here are a couple more reasons why investor signaling plays such a powerful role in the venture market:Most companies need more ...