I wrote this to some friends in November of 2013, and one person asked me not to publish it for fear of ruining a live deal conversation. I held it, because my rant was less important than the livelihoods of people at that…
From a talk with a group of Rhodes Scholars — who are fortunate to have some of the most attractive “safe options” in the history of humanity.
Investigating your potential investors is different than referencing a potential recruit — yet people tend to treat it the same way. Error!
When our venture fund speaks with founders, we often encourage them — even in our first meeting…
What are the others?
Starting a company isn’t like other jobs, just like startups are different from “regular businesses, only smaller.” And the founder-investor…
Same could be said for politics…
Yet more fuel for the fire that that startups are not just “little versions of big companies” — they’ll keep drawing further and further apart.
As a VC, it’s nice to be asked for feedback — it just satisfies that human itch to be wanted. That doesn’t make the feedback valuable.
As a founder, feedback feels like a good way to discover if there’s an obvious hole in your idea —…
This might have been a better title for this post, pride-swallowing notwithstanding.
The more I think about how school teaches you to succeed within a well-understood, known environment, I believe it is a mismatch for teaching life success — and especially for that special flavor of extra-intense life that founders live.
(Trying a new way to share a book.) This practical handbook for change — of any sweep — drips wisdoms on almost every page.
I get asked this a bunch, enough that I wrote a piece to explain my view:
https://blog.markgrowth.com/early-startup-pitches-are-like-movie-pitches-not-business-pitches-d6ab3754758a
My view: both.
https://medium.com/the-wtf-economy/the-corporation-is-dead-long-live-the-corporation-13b787e33b29
Step 1. Do the things everyone else imagines you need to do.*
Step 2. Hire a guy named Dan Strickland.
Step 3. Profit.
Sara had the idea, right after the election, to get some friends together to talk about what we need to do now that the country’s gone upside down. We started out planning a dinner, and then it turned into the meeting we had yesterday — more than 80 people…
I spoke recently to a group of former foreign ministers about technology’s effect on the future of work. I surprised myself by sharing the idea that economic security should be a right, in part because of the risks technology poses to work, and in part because it…
My wife wrote about our son’s thoughts on today, and I just want to share the text of what he wrote, without comment.
Making introductions is one of the most rewarding things we do as backers and builders of startups — it’s the fastest way to share one of our most important sources of power, our relationships, with promising startups and friends.
With about a hundred other volunteers, I spent a day at Solano State Prison judging a business plan pitch competition.
Thanks to an organization called Defy Ventures that partners with incarcerated men to launch new careers and startups upon their release…
The form of mobile apps has had a challenging go of it — hard to find users, hard that so few even download apps, and until recently almost impossible to develop a product with any regular feedback. So apps serve either only the most committed users (who are…