E-Tradebank has a very nice feature which let’s you do regular ACH transfers to other accounts. This weekend I was in the middle of adding such an external account when I suddenly received a notice saying something like “we are concerned about fraudulent activity in your account and need to verify your identity”. I was a bit surprised since I had added several external accounts before but on the other hand did not mind since clearly this is a way folks might try to steal money from an account...

E-Tradebank has a very nice feature which let’s you do regular ACH transfers to other accounts. This weekend I was in the middle of adding such an external account when I suddenly received a notice saying something like “we are concerned about fraudulent activity in your account and need to verify your identity”. I was a bit surprised since I had added several external accounts before but on the other hand did not mind since clearly this is a way folks might try to steal money from an account...

There are quite a few studies that have come out recently showing that multitasking is bad for performance in humans. For instance, driving your car while talking on your cell phone significantly increases your accident risk. In machines, however, we have come to love multitasking because it enables better CPU utilization. Much discussion has therefore revolved around the iPhone not having multitasking, whereas Android supports it. For starters that simplistic characterization is of course wr...

There are quite a few studies that have come out recently showing that multitasking is bad for performance in humans. For instance, driving your car while talking on your cell phone significantly increases your accident risk. In machines, however, we have come to love multitasking because it enables better CPU utilization. Much discussion has therefore revolved around the iPhone not having multitasking, whereas Android supports it. For starters that simplistic characterization is of course wr...

There was an editorial in the New York Times over the weekend talking about the likelihood of bankruptcies among companies that have gone through buyouts during the time when credit was flowing too freely. I agree with the column that this is highly likely as we are facing a significant slowdown in economic activity and these companies have way too much leverage (and given the credit crunch, no real option to refinance). Why did the companies wind up with so much leverage? That reminded me th...

There was an editorial in the New York Times over the weekend talking about the likelihood of bankruptcies among companies that have gone through buyouts during the time when credit was flowing too freely. I agree with the column that this is highly likely as we are facing a significant slowdown in economic activity and these companies have way too much leverage (and given the credit crunch, no real option to refinance). Why did the companies wind up with so much leverage? That reminded me th...

For a long time now I have been wanting to switch to a Mac. But all the Mac laptops were way too heavy. My laptop goes with me whereever I go and every extra pound counts. Then came the Air. At first I was very excited at the prospect, but then there were simply too many compromises. Having to send my machine in to replace the battery is a non-starter. I have had my current laptop – a Panasonic Toughbook W2 – for about 5 years and am on my third battery. With a relatively new battery the Toug...

For a long time now I have been wanting to switch to a Mac. But all the Mac laptops were way too heavy. My laptop goes with me whereever I go and every extra pound counts. Then came the Air. At first I was very excited at the prospect, but then there were simply too many compromises. Having to send my machine in to replace the battery is a non-starter. I have had my current laptop – a Panasonic Toughbook W2 – for about 5 years and am on my third battery. With a relatively new battery the Toug...

Finally getting around to my fourth cloud principle: In the cloud it should be easy to consume and produce web services. When you build something in the cloud, you should be able to focus on the essential innovation of your site or service and be able to rely on other web services for everything else. Conversely, it should be easy for you to expose any part of your site or service as a web service that someone else can consume. Together this is what I call “ease of assembly.” We have made hug...

Finally getting around to my fourth cloud principle: In the cloud it should be easy to consume and produce web services. When you build something in the cloud, you should be able to focus on the essential innovation of your site or service and be able to rely on other web services for everything else. Conversely, it should be easy for you to expose any part of your site or service as a web service that someone else can consume. Together this is what I call “ease of assembly.” We have made hug...

Entrepreneurs sometimes wonder why VCs are so bent on owning a 20% stake in the companies they invest in. The answer is surprisingly simple: It’s a successful heuristic. Heuristics are “rules of thumb” and they turn out to be really useful whenever you deal with a lot of uncertainty. As an investor, one might be tempted to try to optimize the ownership percentage on a deal-by-deal basis. But so much can go wrong with any particular company that such optimizations are likely to backfire – if y...

Entrepreneurs sometimes wonder why VCs are so bent on owning a 20% stake in the companies they invest in. The answer is surprisingly simple: It’s a successful heuristic. Heuristics are “rules of thumb” and they turn out to be really useful whenever you deal with a lot of uncertainty. As an investor, one might be tempted to try to optimize the ownership percentage on a deal-by-deal basis. But so much can go wrong with any particular company that such optimizations are likely to backfire – if y...

MultiplicationShooter1.0: I am a huge fan of MIT’s Scratch project. It is a visual programming environment for kids. Instead of writing code in a text editor, kids snap together templates to form scripts. The scripts are attached to sprites. Creating sprites is also super easy in the integrated graphics editor. Another wonderful thing about Scratch is that with the push of a button you can publish your project to the Web (where it runs as a Java Applet). My kids have created many projects wit...

MultiplicationShooter1.0: I am a huge fan of MIT’s Scratch project. It is a visual programming environment for kids. Instead of writing code in a text editor, kids snap together templates to form scripts. The scripts are attached to sprites. Creating sprites is also super easy in the integrated graphics editor. Another wonderful thing about Scratch is that with the push of a button you can publish your project to the Web (where it runs as a Java Applet). My kids have created many projects wit...

Given the financial crisis, there have been a lot of posts about trimming costs by laying people off. But there may also be opportunities to save money by hiring people. This (generally) does not apply to tiny startups but only to businesses that have achieved a certain scale and employ consultants. It is often the case that consultants are brought in to work on a specific project but wind up working on essentially a recurring basis. So in times like this it’s a good idea to look at all your ...

Given the financial crisis, there have been a lot of posts about trimming costs by laying people off. But there may also be opportunities to save money by hiring people. This (generally) does not apply to tiny startups but only to businesses that have achieved a certain scale and employ consultants. It is often the case that consultants are brought in to work on a specific project but wind up working on essentially a recurring basis. So in times like this it’s a good idea to look at all your ...

When I started this blog, I picked the name continuations. But at the time, continuations.com was not available and so I used a subdomain at wenger.us. I am happy to report that thanks to the capable negotiating help of Eric Friedman, I am now the proud owner of continuations.com. Old links should still work as I am forwarding requests.

When I started this blog, I picked the name continuations. But at the time, continuations.com was not available and so I used a subdomain at wenger.us. I am happy to report that thanks to the capable negotiating help of Eric Friedman, I am now the proud owner of continuations.com. Old links should still work as I am forwarding requests.

The Sequoia “RIP: Good Times” presentation: Super clear presentation about how we got ourselves into this mess and why it will take a long time to get back on track. Must reading for everyone (not just entrepreneurs).

The Sequoia “RIP: Good Times” presentation: Super clear presentation about how we got ourselves into this mess and why it will take a long time to get back on track. Must reading for everyone (not just entrepreneurs).