Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
Intent-based Collaboration Environments
AI Native IDEs for Code, Engineering, Science
Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
Intent-based Collaboration Environments
AI Native IDEs for Code, Engineering, Science
Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
Share Dialog
Yesterday’s piece by Claire Cain Miller in the NYT titled Angels Flee From Tech Start-Ups prompted many blog responses, including one by Roger which also got picked up by Bijan.
Here is what it Roger wrote on his blog
Are fewer companies getting funded by angels? Of course. Should all the companies that had previously been funded by angels, many of them dabblers, gotten funded? Definitely not. So is value creation in the early-stage space really being inhibited by a dearth of angel investment? I don’t think so.
Bijan more or less agrees with Roger that the good deals are getting done.
While that may well be true, I believe this view misses a crucial point on seed financing. If only the good deals are getting done, then not enough deals are getting done! That’s for two primary reasons: First, the social value created by a startup (e.g., experience for the founders) far exceeds the benefit that accrues to investors. Second, among even the most unlikely tier of startups there will be some real winners.
Dabblers therefore play an important role in the overall system. Case in point: Etsy! The original seed funding for Etsy did not come from and I believe would not have come from any of the professional angels operating today. When Etsy got going, none of the founders had any entrepreneurial track record to speak of or built an ecommerce site (or any high traffic site for that matter). Add to that the scepticism that many professionals (not just angels) had about the size of the market for handmade goods. The first money for Etsy came from two Brooklyn real estate guys who had never before made a tech investment.
Share Dialog
Yesterday’s piece by Claire Cain Miller in the NYT titled Angels Flee From Tech Start-Ups prompted many blog responses, including one by Roger which also got picked up by Bijan.
Here is what it Roger wrote on his blog
Are fewer companies getting funded by angels? Of course. Should all the companies that had previously been funded by angels, many of them dabblers, gotten funded? Definitely not. So is value creation in the early-stage space really being inhibited by a dearth of angel investment? I don’t think so.
Bijan more or less agrees with Roger that the good deals are getting done.
While that may well be true, I believe this view misses a crucial point on seed financing. If only the good deals are getting done, then not enough deals are getting done! That’s for two primary reasons: First, the social value created by a startup (e.g., experience for the founders) far exceeds the benefit that accrues to investors. Second, among even the most unlikely tier of startups there will be some real winners.
Dabblers therefore play an important role in the overall system. Case in point: Etsy! The original seed funding for Etsy did not come from and I believe would not have come from any of the professional angels operating today. When Etsy got going, none of the founders had any entrepreneurial track record to speak of or built an ecommerce site (or any high traffic site for that matter). Add to that the scepticism that many professionals (not just angels) had about the size of the market for handmade goods. The first money for Etsy came from two Brooklyn real estate guys who had never before made a tech investment.
With the current retreat of dabblers, the next Etsy may well not be funded and that would be a shame.
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With the current retreat of dabblers, the next Etsy may well not be funded and that would be a shame.
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