In late March we hired an investment banker to help us run a process to sell one of our startups. One of the last things a potential acquirer conducts (after the term sheet) is the on-site visit to meet the broader team. We have been through a few of these meetings – the last one [...]

Yahoo, which is considered by some a holding company for Chinese internet companies, learned in late March that Alibaba Group (they own 43% of the company) sold one of the company’s most valuable assets Alipay without notifying or seeking approval from Alibaba’s board of directors. The CEO, Jack Ma, of Alibaba owns the company that [...]

I got this summary of business ideas/models that persistently fail from Quora. Got an idea that solves one of these ‘problems’? Don’t bother pitching me (or anyone else). Here is the answer summary: Social recommendations and/or Recommendations based on what your friends like Why? 1) too much noise/low priority, lack of personal relevance 2) Forced [...]

When I was raising money for my first startup in the late 90s and I caught myself explaining how “I” was doing this or doing that. That “I” had the best this or the best that. Finally someone pointed this out to me and I realized how arrogant I sounded. Not only did it make [...]

Back on April 19th I wrote a ‘scathing’ post against ShopKick and their CEO Cyriac Roeding. I alleged that ShopKick was promoting their app by inserting comment spam in market reviews for ShopSavvy. I assumed they were paying a firm to insert this comment spam as it was VERY plentiful. Cyriac responded by explaining it [...]

Connie Loizos wrote a piece a couple of days ago titled, “Concern Grows Over Founders Cashing Out Too Much, Too Early.” Evidently investors in the Valley are allowing founders to ‘cash out’ as they are making their first investments. Investors like Paul Kedrosky think the practice is insane suggesting, “It [isn't] just an alignment issue; [...]

Garrett Camp, the co-founder of Stumbleupon, recommends, “Stay self-funded as long as possible.” I think I have been quoted saying the same thing, but over the past year I have come to realize that you can wait too long to raise outside capital. When I founded LayerOne I raised money first and then built the [...]

Pascal said, “Things are always at their best in their beginning.” I think the reason they are ‘best’ is because they are simple. When you start a company everything is black and white. Over time things become more and more complex and the ‘right’ decisions are not always obvious. I would argue this makes doing [...]

Many entrepreneurs spend a lot of time working on their ‘pitch’ only to fail miserably when they finally deliver it to a venture capital firm. I think many entrepreneurs are so fixated on their delivery they fail to pay attention to their audience. In high school and college I spent a LOT of time participating [...]

Have you ever started a company? The who, why, what and where often become muddled the farther you get from the start. Over the course of a startup there are usually several course corrections. Each time a team makes a correction they often alter the ‘history’ of the startup to fit their new course. First [...]