A while back I did a series of posts on board effectiveness. In it I wrote the following about conducting a board meeting:Actively solicit input on decisions from every board member. Some people are oddly quiet in group meetings. Don’t assume that means they are in agreement with everything that is being said. Yes, it should be the directors responsibility to speak up but that doesn’t mean they will. So don’t be afraid to call on a director and ask them what they think. That is especially tru...

A while back I did a series of posts on board effectiveness. In it I wrote the following about conducting a board meeting:Actively solicit input on decisions from every board member. Some people are oddly quiet in group meetings. Don’t assume that means they are in agreement with everything that is being said. Yes, it should be the directors responsibility to speak up but that doesn’t mean they will. So don’t be afraid to call on a director and ask them what they think. That is especially tru...

So most people would not think of the sudden closing of Gourmet Magazine as a good day for Ruth Reichl, the magazine’s editor. I assume for the moment that is true for Ruth Reichl herself (the New York Times quotes her today as being sad about the loss of an institution). Yet I think she might find some time from now that this was a good day for her. A day that liberated her from the many constraints of print publishing and allowed her to start an independent online publication. Ruth Reichl h...

So most people would not think of the sudden closing of Gourmet Magazine as a good day for Ruth Reichl, the magazine’s editor. I assume for the moment that is true for Ruth Reichl herself (the New York Times quotes her today as being sad about the loss of an institution). Yet I think she might find some time from now that this was a good day for her. A day that liberated her from the many constraints of print publishing and allowed her to start an independent online publication. Ruth Reichl h...

Someone recently said to me that the most interesting things happening on the net these days are breaking down the walls between disparate realms of information and between different modes of interaction. Google Wave is a big attempt to at breaking down walls. Another take is launching today from our portfolio company Tracked.com. Tracked.com breaks down two walls: first, it smoothly integrates information on private and public companies and the people who work for them. Up until now these ha...

Someone recently said to me that the most interesting things happening on the net these days are breaking down the walls between disparate realms of information and between different modes of interaction. Google Wave is a big attempt to at breaking down walls. Another take is launching today from our portfolio company Tracked.com. Tracked.com breaks down two walls: first, it smoothly integrates information on private and public companies and the people who work for them. Up until now these ha...

This afternoon I am participating on a panel for Yahoo! OpenHack NYC titled “Building on Others’ APIs: A Strong Foundation or Recipe for Disaster." That will make a good complement to yesterday’s discussion at the USV portfolio summit where we spoke about the importance of having an API. In preparation for the summit, I asked Oren Michels from Mashery whether he had a good example illustrating the importance of having an API. Oren kindly send along this impressive chart: Now of course this do...

This afternoon I am participating on a panel for Yahoo! OpenHack NYC titled “Building on Others’ APIs: A Strong Foundation or Recipe for Disaster." That will make a good complement to yesterday’s discussion at the USV portfolio summit where we spoke about the importance of having an API. In preparation for the summit, I asked Oren Michels from Mashery whether he had a good example illustrating the importance of having an API. Oren kindly send along this impressive chart: Now of course this do...

In yesterday’s “Dealbook” column in the New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote that Goldman Sachs is headed for record bonuses and is thinking about making a $1B charitable contribution as a way to deflect criticism. That to me seems to fall far short of what they should do. First, a one-time charitable contribution is a case of “So fuehlt man Absicht und man ist verstimmt” (Goethe), which translates into “one senses the intention and is annoyed." Charitable contributions will only make a d...

In yesterday’s “Dealbook” column in the New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote that Goldman Sachs is headed for record bonuses and is thinking about making a $1B charitable contribution as a way to deflect criticism. That to me seems to fall far short of what they should do. First, a one-time charitable contribution is a case of “So fuehlt man Absicht und man ist verstimmt” (Goethe), which translates into “one senses the intention and is annoyed." Charitable contributions will only make a d...

Yesterday was an impressive day in tech news. Here are three announcements that caught my attention:Wolfram Alpha releases an APIApple makes in-app purchases available for free appsGoogle announces it will distribute ebooksI believe that each of these is important in their own right (and they may make it into their own blog posts). But what is mostly on my mind is how much is changing and how quickly that change is occurring. When people ask me whether investing in web services is a long-term...

Yesterday was an impressive day in tech news. Here are three announcements that caught my attention:Wolfram Alpha releases an APIApple makes in-app purchases available for free appsGoogle announces it will distribute ebooksI believe that each of these is important in their own right (and they may make it into their own blog posts). But what is mostly on my mind is how much is changing and how quickly that change is occurring. When people ask me whether investing in web services is a long-term...

As I wrote last year, I am not a fan of the reasoning behind taking the Large Hadron Collider into operation. If you have followed this story, then you know that last fall, the attempt to start experiments failed with a meltdown of some magnets causing a significant delay. Then this summer, there was a report of more problems with magnets, which somehow lost their ability to operate at high energies. Over the same time period two theoretical physicists have published several papers arguing th...

As I wrote last year, I am not a fan of the reasoning behind taking the Large Hadron Collider into operation. If you have followed this story, then you know that last fall, the attempt to start experiments failed with a meltdown of some magnets causing a significant delay. Then this summer, there was a report of more problems with magnets, which somehow lost their ability to operate at high energies. Over the same time period two theoretical physicists have published several papers arguing th...

One of the highlights at the Union Square Ventures Portfolio Summit last week was having Danny Meyer speak. Danny is the founder of Union Square Hospitality Group (which includes some of the best and most enduring restaurants in New York) and the author of the must-read book “Setting the Table,” in which he describes his approach. Danny spoke about what it takes for a business to become someone’s “favorite” (as in “abc is my favorite restaurant” or “xyz is my favorite web site”). He pointed o...

One of the highlights at the Union Square Ventures Portfolio Summit last week was having Danny Meyer speak. Danny is the founder of Union Square Hospitality Group (which includes some of the best and most enduring restaurants in New York) and the author of the must-read book “Setting the Table,” in which he describes his approach. Danny spoke about what it takes for a business to become someone’s “favorite” (as in “abc is my favorite restaurant” or “xyz is my favorite web site”). He pointed o...

I am really looking forward to today. We have the founders and/or CEOs of our portfolio companies in town for our annual portfolio company summit. We consider it a privilege to be able to convene such an awesome group of folks. We always come away having learned a ton of things. Here are some of the topics that we are planning to cover today: Living in a multi-device world. With iPhones selling like hotcakes, Android beginning to take off, various tablets in the offing, etc. companies will ha...

I am really looking forward to today. We have the founders and/or CEOs of our portfolio companies in town for our annual portfolio company summit. We consider it a privilege to be able to convene such an awesome group of folks. We always come away having learned a ton of things. Here are some of the topics that we are planning to cover today: Living in a multi-device world. With iPhones selling like hotcakes, Android beginning to take off, various tablets in the offing, etc. companies will ha...

Apparently some of the early television shows were essentially “filmed radio" (I know I have heard this quote a number of times, but of course right now I don’t seem to be able to find a link on google). In other words instead of developing a format native to the new medium, things got started with an essentially literal adaptation. The equivalent in online education is putting entire long lectures up on the web. Don’t get me wrong, I love some of the stuff that’s on Academic Earth, but the v...

Apparently some of the early television shows were essentially “filmed radio" (I know I have heard this quote a number of times, but of course right now I don’t seem to be able to find a link on google). In other words instead of developing a format native to the new medium, things got started with an essentially literal adaptation. The equivalent in online education is putting entire long lectures up on the web. Don’t get me wrong, I love some of the stuff that’s on Academic Earth, but the v...