I am a fan of using puzzles in interviews, especially for developers. But it is important to do it right and to draw the right conclusions. Here are some things that I have learned over the years. 1. Puzzles should be just one of many different parts of the interview. 2. Try to find a set of puzzles that works for you and use the same puzzles with many candidates to get better comparability. 3. Focus primarily on approach and behavior and only secondarily on outcome. 4. Unless the position sp...

I am a fan of using puzzles in interviews, especially for developers. But it is important to do it right and to draw the right conclusions. Here are some things that I have learned over the years. 1. Puzzles should be just one of many different parts of the interview. 2. Try to find a set of puzzles that works for you and use the same puzzles with many candidates to get better comparability. 3. Focus primarily on approach and behavior and only secondarily on outcome. 4. Unless the position sp...

I am sorry to see Amazon buy Zappos. Not because I have bought a lot of shoes at Zappos (still liked this as a title for the post though), but here are three reasons: First, I felt that Zappos could be a real competitor to Amazon for online retail. And I love competition. It is great not just for customers but also for suppliers. Second, Zappos was an IPO-able company based on size and apparently profitability. It takes IPOs to build confidence in the financial markets. IPOs beget IPOs. Now w...

I am sorry to see Amazon buy Zappos. Not because I have bought a lot of shoes at Zappos (still liked this as a title for the post though), but here are three reasons: First, I felt that Zappos could be a real competitor to Amazon for online retail. And I love competition. It is great not just for customers but also for suppliers. Second, Zappos was an IPO-able company based on size and apparently profitability. It takes IPOs to build confidence in the financial markets. IPOs beget IPOs. Now w...

When we invested in Covestor it was in part because of the fit with our “Power to the People” thesis:To us, this appears to be one of the great constants of the web. It is taking power away from existing large institutions and pushing it out to smaller entities and often all the way to individuals.In the case of Covestor the institutions in question are large investment management firms and the individuals are people who are investing their own money. In its first phase, Covestor made it poss...

When we invested in Covestor it was in part because of the fit with our “Power to the People” thesis:To us, this appears to be one of the great constants of the web. It is taking power away from existing large institutions and pushing it out to smaller entities and often all the way to individuals.In the case of Covestor the institutions in question are large investment management firms and the individuals are people who are investing their own money. In its first phase, Covestor made it poss...

Union Square Ventures Coffee - Or How to Really Engage Your Audience Yesterday, I met with the team from TalkMarket. Instead of just demoing their site and providing screen shots of how a video is created using their tool, they actually had me create a video! Not only was this a lot of fun, but it really kept my attention. It was also the most compelling way to demonstrate TalkMarket’s basic proposition, which is that using their tools anyone can create a pitch video in minutes. So, if you ar...

Union Square Ventures Coffee - Or How to Really Engage Your Audience Yesterday, I met with the team from TalkMarket. Instead of just demoing their site and providing screen shots of how a video is created using their tool, they actually had me create a video! Not only was this a lot of fun, but it really kept my attention. It was also the most compelling way to demonstrate TalkMarket’s basic proposition, which is that using their tools anyone can create a pitch video in minutes. So, if you ar...

I believe that manned space exploration is essential. There I have said it. Not irrational, not an expensive gimmick, but essential. Why? Some day, leaving Earth may be the only way the human species can go on. Let’s hope that’s not the case, but hope is no substitute for preparation. Species go extinct all the time as their habitat changes dramatically or disappears altogether (these days often due to human impact), but we are the only species that can pro-actively explore new habitats. The ...

I believe that manned space exploration is essential. There I have said it. Not irrational, not an expensive gimmick, but essential. Why? Some day, leaving Earth may be the only way the human species can go on. Let’s hope that’s not the case, but hope is no substitute for preparation. Species go extinct all the time as their habitat changes dramatically or disappears altogether (these days often due to human impact), but we are the only species that can pro-actively explore new habitats. The ...

This morning in scanning Techmeme while having my early morning cup of coffee, I noticed two separate items about TLDs. First up, a post from Techcrunch on how .cm domains are opening up for pre-order. Second, an entry from Slate on how ICANN is planning to further expand the available TLDs. Last year, I wrote that I believe “New TLDs Are Highway Robbery” – they are simply a tax on the system. To some extent search is solving this problem as few people these days type domain names directly in...

This morning in scanning Techmeme while having my early morning cup of coffee, I noticed two separate items about TLDs. First up, a post from Techcrunch on how .cm domains are opening up for pre-order. Second, an entry from Slate on how ICANN is planning to further expand the available TLDs. Last year, I wrote that I believe “New TLDs Are Highway Robbery” – they are simply a tax on the system. To some extent search is solving this problem as few people these days type domain names directly in...

Much of the discussion of the real-time web has focused on content generated by humans, such as tweets. But the bigger growth over the next decade is likely to come from m2m interactions. One big source of data will be smart meters. For instance, the UK government recently unveiled a plan to equip every home with a smart meter by 2020. The real-time electricity usage data from these meters can be used for better management of consumption by individuals, companies and utilities. In addition to...

Much of the discussion of the real-time web has focused on content generated by humans, such as tweets. But the bigger growth over the next decade is likely to come from m2m interactions. One big source of data will be smart meters. For instance, the UK government recently unveiled a plan to equip every home with a smart meter by 2020. The real-time electricity usage data from these meters can be used for better management of consumption by individuals, companies and utilities. In addition to...

For a while it seemed that Android would be the Google OS, especially with new Android devices such as netbooks appearing on the market. But as I recently wrote, Android seems native app centric at a time when Google is showing with Wave that the Web can be the app (see http://continuations.com/post/133482897). Now Google has taken the logical step of putting a fast-booting version of Linux under its Chrome browser to create a complete OS (http://bit.ly/1ae7vz). While their own post tries to ...

For a while it seemed that Android would be the Google OS, especially with new Android devices such as netbooks appearing on the market. But as I recently wrote, Android seems native app centric at a time when Google is showing with Wave that the Web can be the app (see http://continuations.com/post/133482897). Now Google has taken the logical step of putting a fast-booting version of Linux under its Chrome browser to create a complete OS (http://bit.ly/1ae7vz). While their own post tries to ...

So I am late to this party (because I don’t blog on weekends), but James Altucher’s column “The Internet Is Dead (As An Investment)” is just too tempting an invitation for rebuttal. Fred already provided his take here, stating our (at USV) belief in the transformative nature of the Internet and taking on Altucher’s comments about business models. My own point of departure is this quote from the column:The days of infinite margins, 1,000% productivity gains, and growth of market throughout the...

So I am late to this party (because I don’t blog on weekends), but James Altucher’s column “The Internet Is Dead (As An Investment)” is just too tempting an invitation for rebuttal. Fred already provided his take here, stating our (at USV) belief in the transformative nature of the Internet and taking on Altucher’s comments about business models. My own point of departure is this quote from the column:The days of infinite margins, 1,000% productivity gains, and growth of market throughout the...

Apparently, Twitter had a lot of confidential documents stolen via unauthorized access to gmail and google docs (writing on BB, so no links). This brings the security of cloud computing / web apps very close to home, especially as we are contemplating moving all of USV to gmail and google docs. The threat of access by a third party increases exponentially with the move to the cloud, because the machines that now contain the documents and the links to those documents (as sent by email) are acc...

Apparently, Twitter had a lot of confidential documents stolen via unauthorized access to gmail and google docs (writing on BB, so no links). This brings the security of cloud computing / web apps very close to home, especially as we are contemplating moving all of USV to gmail and google docs. The threat of access by a third party increases exponentially with the move to the cloud, because the machines that now contain the documents and the links to those documents (as sent by email) are acc...