Recently I started tweeting startup related quotes at the start of each day. This morning I read a quote by Ryan Freitas the founder of Second Verse. He is quoted as saying, “Your reputation is more important than you paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career.” The quote reminded me of a [...]
How much should startup CEOs make?
March 24, 2011 By 1 Comment
More than a decade ago I asked for $145,000 as CEO of the startup I founded. The investors didn’t balk. I would have been embarrassed to ask for more, but I bet I could have asked for more. Ryan Roberts, the Startup Lawyer, suggests that $300,000 is an unreasonable yearly salary for a CEO to [...]
Thirteen Months of Hell
March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I run across people who want to start their own business all of the time. Sometimes I even hire them (typically a bad idea). Most people have no idea how much hard work and time it takes to create a new business. In most cases I think it is impossible to start seeing returns before [...]
The VC Address of Choice: Sand Hill Road
March 23, 2011 By 1 Comment
The most active VCs in the world are located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. Just take a look at the map above and you will get a sense of just how many firms are located on this one small street. FYI – the rent in this area is higher than Manhattan or London’s [...]
Picking an office location in the Bay Area
March 22, 2011 By 1 Comment
John and I have been looking around for office space in San Francisco for ShopSavvy and were surprised to learn that the City of San Francisco has a payroll tax. This unique tax for a municipality (San Francisco is the only city in the country who does this) levies a 1.5% tax on payroll. Really? [...]
How to take a “NO” from a VC
March 22, 2011 By 2 Comments
Last night John and I had dinner with a rather prolific venture capital partner who was explaining that over the past 12 months he has met with over 300 companies, done deep dives with 30 and offered term sheets to 6. What struck me was the sheer number of ‘Nos’ he has to deliver each [...]
The Talent War: 490 B.C.
March 20, 2011 By 1 Comment
In the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. the Greeks used a double-envelopment flanking maneuver to beat the Persians. Coming at the problem from two directions is often a formidable strategy in warfare and I will argue that it can be effective in the war for talent. Fred Wilson in a post yesterday titled, “The [...]
My experience with Virgin America – DFW-SFO
February 8, 2011 By 9 Comments
Our San Francisco team members are HUGE fans of Virgin America airlines so when they announced service to Dallas they wouldn’t leave me alone until I tried it out for myself. I bought a full-fare, first class, round trip ticket from DFW to SFO. The flight out was pretty good. Mood lighting, nice flight attendants, [...]
Startup thought No. 124: How to divide the cadaver
December 17, 2010 By 1 Comment
How do you a startup has died (at least one that is pre-funding)? When the co-founders begin to argue about how to divide the assets of the once promising venture. It amuses me to see how vigorously they fight over the cadaver. If they invested as much passion in actually executing on their vision as [...]
Is the Dallas Business Journal Relevant Anymore?
November 21, 2010 By 7 Comments
I would argue that for the Entrepreneurial Community in Dallas the Dallas Business Journal is irrelevant. We don’t read it. We don’t advertise in it. Of course it doesn’t have to be this way. Gary Hooker, who is one of the owners of Imaginuity, copied me on an email he sent the editor of the [...]
