I had the pleasure of working with Scott Thompson and his team at PayPal back in 2009 and 2010. I was impressed by his energy and drive – if I wasn’t building my own startup I would have jumped at the chance to work with him. Today Yahoo announced that they have appointed him their [...]
Hardest Decision An Entrepreneur Must Make?
I would argue that the most difficult decision an entrepreneur must make is which idea to turn into a business. If you hang out with entrepreneurs you will quickly realize that ideas are infinite while time is finite. Picking the ‘right’ idea is key to success. If you start with an idea that could easily [...]
Obama, Kill This Startup Now!
Normally I am railing against government intrusion into the private sector, but today I am making a personal appeal to President Obama to DESTROY a startup called Blueseed. Peter Thiel has backed Blueseed and according to BI and the AP, “The company aims to sidestep the U.S. current regulations by building vessels that would float [...]
Junior Achievement: My First Real Startup
I got my start in business at a fairly young age delivering papers, mowing lawns, shoveling driveways and walking dogs, but my first real startup experience happened in high school in a program sponsored by Junior Achievement. We began the year by splitting up in companies and over the next several weeks we learned how [...]
Why is capitalism maligned by the Left?
Have you followed the latest meme started by Mike Arrington? It began with a post titled, “Startups are hard. So work more, cry less and quit all the whining.” The title seemed innocuous and content to of the post basically explained that startups have always been hard, highlighting a 1994 quote from early Netscape engineer [...]
My thoughts on our latest release: ShopSavvy 5
I can’t believe it, but we have been working on ShopSavvy for over three years – the original version of the app was released in November 2008. Today we released the fifth major update to the application (on iOS and Android). The primary focus of the release is our new wallet feature. Here is a [...]
Counteroffers and Threats
Companies like ShopSavvy are in hiring mode. They are looking for the best and brightest in their fields to come join their teams. Often the ‘best and brightest’ are working for other companies and aren’t actively seeking new employment. Of course many of these candidates aren’t opposed to looking at new opportunities. Tip One: Make [...]
Why Google+ will release Twitter and Facebook for me
Mike Elgan helped explain why I think Google+ is a game changer. “Instead of saying, “I’m going to write a blog post now,” or “I’m going to send an e-mail” or “I think I’ll tweet something” you simply say what you have to say, then decide who you’re going to say it to.” - If [...]
Where should you start your startup?
I have lived in Dallas since 1996 and over the years I have started more than my fair share of startups. I have been a big proponent of living and working in Dallas, but over the past few years it has become very apparent to me that my decision to locate my startups here in [...]
What is the biggest risks for a VC?
If you said, “Investing in bad deals” you would be dead wrong. Mike Arrington asked Sequoia partner Roelof Botha the same question and Botha explained that missing winners was the biggest risk. Botha explained that it is a MUCH bigger problem to miss winners versus investing in too many losers. Botha and his team passed [...]
