I have written before on Tech Tuesday on how to grow engineering teams but wanted to tackle this issue again from a slightly different perspective: what is the role of experience? Startup engineering teams often start out skewing very young as young founders tend to hire more young people. The overall bias tends to be to hire “bright young people who will figure it out” (whatever the relevant it may be). Many companies will go so far as having what they consider tests for brightness. The prob...

I have written a lot about the challenges of charging for content as digital content production and distribution has skyrocketed. The fundamental problem from here on out is that the supply of content far outstrips the demand which means that at the margin the price for content will be zero. That doesn’t mean people won’t pay for content at all, for instance, blockbuster movies or books by well established authors can likely continue to be sold for a price. But what about emerging authors? Th...

I have written before on Tech Tuesday on how to grow engineering teams but wanted to tackle this issue again from a slightly different perspective: what is the role of experience? Startup engineering teams often start out skewing very young as young founders tend to hire more young people. The overall bias tends to be to hire “bright young people who will figure it out” (whatever the relevant it may be). Many companies will go so far as having what they consider tests for brightness. The prob...

I have written a lot about the challenges of charging for content as digital content production and distribution has skyrocketed. The fundamental problem from here on out is that the supply of content far outstrips the demand which means that at the margin the price for content will be zero. That doesn’t mean people won’t pay for content at all, for instance, blockbuster movies or books by well established authors can likely continue to be sold for a price. But what about emerging authors? Th...

It’s been a while since I have written a post in my Scylla and Charybdis series. As a quick refresher, the basic premise of the series is that startups are hard because on pretty much anything you can do too much or too little and the path to success thus requires navigating a narrow straight with deadly obstacles on both sides. Today’s post is about listening. As an entrepreneur you can do too much or too little listening. How can you do too much listening you may ask? Well, by listening her...

It’s been a while since I have written a post in my Scylla and Charybdis series. As a quick refresher, the basic premise of the series is that startups are hard because on pretty much anything you can do too much or too little and the path to success thus requires navigating a narrow straight with deadly obstacles on both sides. Today’s post is about listening. As an entrepreneur you can do too much or too little listening. How can you do too much listening you may ask? Well, by listening her...

I love going to the movies and I love science fiction. This summer is bringing a bumper crop of scifi movies (broadly defined). One of the fun aspects for me of going to see a movie is that I will get to see trailers for upcoming movies. Some people seem to dread this part as they just want to get on with the movie they have come to see, but I love trailers. Except when they wind up being spoilers and that’s increasingly a problem. Too many trailers seem to feel the need to reveal pivotal sce...

I love going to the movies and I love science fiction. This summer is bringing a bumper crop of scifi movies (broadly defined). One of the fun aspects for me of going to see a movie is that I will get to see trailers for upcoming movies. Some people seem to dread this part as they just want to get on with the movie they have come to see, but I love trailers. Except when they wind up being spoilers and that’s increasingly a problem. Too many trailers seem to feel the need to reveal pivotal sce...

Short post because I am away with the family, but I can’t help myself given the shutdowns of Lavabit and Silent Mail. This is what I mean when I say we are headed for a spy-versus-spy society between citizens and government. The way forward is not for citizens to embrace these crypto services and setting of an ever stronger government reaction. The way forward is for us to take back government from lobbyists and the military-industrial-surveillance complex. One starting point for that is redo...

Short post because I am away with the family, but I can’t help myself given the shutdowns of Lavabit and Silent Mail. This is what I mean when I say we are headed for a spy-versus-spy society between citizens and government. The way forward is not for citizens to embrace these crypto services and setting of an ever stronger government reaction. The way forward is for us to take back government from lobbyists and the military-industrial-surveillance complex. One starting point for that is redo...

I have written about prioritization previously on Tech Tuesday, introducing a prioritization heuristic and emphasizing the importance of a healthy mix of different projects. Today I want to add some point on how to think about competition in the context of prioritization. This is particularly important when you are in a somewhat crowded field and need to differentiate yourself from the competition. What features should you prioritize when competing? Go back and take a look at the post on the ...

I have written about prioritization previously on Tech Tuesday, introducing a prioritization heuristic and emphasizing the importance of a healthy mix of different projects. Today I want to add some point on how to think about competition in the context of prioritization. This is particularly important when you are in a somewhat crowded field and need to differentiate yourself from the competition. What features should you prioritize when competing? Go back and take a look at the post on the ...

Whenever a new medium or technology becomes available the initial approach is to “repurpose” existing content, such as filmed radio on television. Many of the big education publishers have been approaching tablets that way. They try to grab some assets from the web or even further back from print and push them out. There are two reasons for doing so: first, it seems like low hanging fruit and second, these companies tend to believe that their existing content libraries are a big part of their...

Whenever a new medium or technology becomes available the initial approach is to “repurpose” existing content, such as filmed radio on television. Many of the big education publishers have been approaching tablets that way. They try to grab some assets from the web or even further back from print and push them out. There are two reasons for doing so: first, it seems like low hanging fruit and second, these companies tend to believe that their existing content libraries are a big part of their...

Last week in the starter edition of Homeschool Wednesdays, I got a ton of fantastic advice on key things everyone should know. I will figure out how to get these into some kind of wiki or maybe use Firepad (suggestions welcome). Today I want to air one of my pet peeves with how we learn most things: knowledge is broken down into isolated silos that are taught in a largely disconnected manner. For instance, within math the relation between algebra and geometry is either never established or on...

Last week in the starter edition of Homeschool Wednesdays, I got a ton of fantastic advice on key things everyone should know. I will figure out how to get these into some kind of wiki or maybe use Firepad (suggestions welcome). Today I want to air one of my pet peeves with how we learn most things: knowledge is broken down into isolated silos that are taught in a largely disconnected manner. For instance, within math the relation between algebra and geometry is either never established or on...

Sorry, no Tech Tuesday today as I am catching up on email. My excuse: I took our daughter out for an evening sail and overnight on the boat last night which I had originally promised for the weekend …

Sorry, no Tech Tuesday today as I am catching up on email. My excuse: I took our daughter out for an evening sail and overnight on the boat last night which I had originally promised for the weekend …

I often talk to people about how the fundamental premise of our investing at Union Square Ventures is that the Internet is disrupting everything. Sometimes people ask whether that includes Venture Capital. I always answer: Of course it does! It would be more than a bit strange to assume otherwise. In fact, when I compare what it is like for an entrepreneur to fundraise today compared to when I was raising myself for the first time in 1996 it is already completely different. For starters, in 1...

I often talk to people about how the fundamental premise of our investing at Union Square Ventures is that the Internet is disrupting everything. Sometimes people ask whether that includes Venture Capital. I always answer: Of course it does! It would be more than a bit strange to assume otherwise. In fact, when I compare what it is like for an entrepreneur to fundraise today compared to when I was raising myself for the first time in 1996 it is already completely different. For starters, in 1...