http://topicfire.com/Venture-Capital 2013-05-25T10:42:11+00:00 text/html 2013-05-25T11:30:23+00:00 http://www.avc.com/ http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/05/video-of-the-week-my-talk-with-john-battelle-at-cm-summit.html If you want to watch here, hit play and go to 47 minutes in. Or click on this link which will take you to you YouTube and get you to 47 minutes in. text/html 2013-05-24T15:30:43+00:00 http://www.theequitykicker.com/ http://www.theequitykicker.com/2013/05/24/roll-up-roll-up-european-tech-companies-undervalued/ <a href="http://www.theequitykicker.com/2013/05/24/roll-up-roll-up-european-tech-companies-undervalued/"><img src="http://www.theequitykicker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/NicPicturev3Nov20122-200x254.jpg" /></a><br />Ben Rooney has an article up today on the Wall Street Journal reporting that European tech companies are valued on lower multiples than US businesses in M&A transactions: The amount paid for a company as a multiple of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, for U.S.-based companies rose... text/html 2013-05-24T15:28:35+00:00 http://www.feld.com/ http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/discover-some-awe-this-weekend.html It&#8217;s the beginning of summer. That is a good thing. Spend three minutes watching the amazing video below and get inspired to open your eyes and breath in this weekend. As I come out of my depression, I&#8217;ve been systematically changing many of my tactics and habits. Simple things like deciding... text/html 2013-05-24T13:25:14+00:00 http://continuations.com/ http://continuations.com/post/51219961244/reminder-net-native-means-previously-impossible At the height of the re-engineering craze there was one fantastic HBR article titled &#8220;Re-engineering Work: Don&#8217;t Automate, Obliterate.&#8221; In light of the changes in the labor market the choice of &#8220;obliterate&#8221; may now seem unfortunate, but the basic point of the article was spot on: don&#8217;t implement your existing... text/html 2013-05-24T12:45:19+00:00 http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/ http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/51218982965/two-days-ago-was-my-three-year-anniversary-with <a href="http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/51218982965/two-days-ago-was-my-three-year-anniversary-with"><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/d2c5abb501c4ba2490628b7288016dae/tumblr_mnawg80bSb1qzqh0wo1_500.png" /></a><br />Two days ago was my three year anniversary with @DrDiver.  We had a small wedding along the coast of RI, and we loved every second of it.   When I woke up two days ago, I did what I usually do within the first 15 minutes of pulling myself out of... text/html 2013-05-24T11:16:54+00:00 http://www.avc.com/ http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/05/feature-friday-save-to-foursquare.html <a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/05/feature-friday-save-to-foursquare.html"><img src="http://www.avc.com/.a/6a00d83451b2c969e2019102797162970c-500wi" /></a><br />I am a big fan of bookmarking. I mean that in the largest sense. When I find something I want to read, watch, do, etc, I like to save it somewhere that I can find it when I need it. When it comes to restaurants I want to go to,... text/html 2013-05-23T15:19:01+00:00 http://continuations.com/ http://continuations.com/post/51149045551/immigration-reform I am an immigrant (from Germany). I work in tech (as an investor and previously as an entrepreneur). I support comprehensive immigration reform. That part is pretty simple &#8212; it would be hypocritical to argue that something that I have benefitted from tremendously should be less accessible to others. But I have... text/html 2013-05-23T14:38:09+00:00 http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/ http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/51144291666/hard-tech-challenges-are-great-but-not-necessary I met a set of founders recently that were solving a real problem for a known market. So far so good. The solution the team implemented was technically trivial. It was a simple CRUD app that, if built on top of a web framework like Rails or Django, could probably... text/html 2013-05-23T14:20:09+00:00 http://www.theequitykicker.com/ http://www.theequitykicker.com/2013/05/23/building-businesses-around-passionate-communities-of-users/ <a href="http://www.theequitykicker.com/2013/05/23/building-businesses-around-passionate-communities-of-users/"><img src="http://www.theequitykicker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/NicPicturev3Nov20122-200x254.jpg" /></a><br />There is a great opinion piece by Lawrence Lenihan on Business of Fashion today arguing that we are killing many fashion startups by over-capitalising them relative to their market opportunity. Right-sizing funding is a topic that is dear to my heart, but the interesting point here is why over-funding is becoming a... text/html 2013-05-23T14:19:21+00:00 http://www.feld.com/ http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/announcing-up-global.html <a href="http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/announcing-up-global.html"><img src="http://www.feld.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/UP_Launch_BlogGraphic_01.png" /></a><br />Startup Weekend and Startup America Partnership are joining forces to create UP Global.  In addition to Startup Weekend, UP Global also runs Next, StartupDigest, and NYSE Big Startup. Marc Nager, the CEO of Startup Weekend, will be the CEO of Up Global. Steve Case, the chairman of Startup America Partnership, will... text/html 2013-05-23T12:25:45+00:00 http://bostonvcblog.typepad.com/ http://bostonvcblog.typepad.com/vc/2013/05/should-i-join-an-accelerator.html <a href="http://bostonvcblog.typepad.com/vc/2013/05/should-i-join-an-accelerator.html"><img src="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2008/01/080131161812-large.jpg" /></a><br />Today is Demo Day for Techstars Boston.  I love Techstars Demo Days for many reasons, not the least of which is the amazing community that gathers to hear the brief, well-rehearsed pitches from the various start-ups who have spent months planning for this big event. As accelerators like Techstars gain in... text/html 2013-05-23T11:18:30+00:00 http://www.avc.com/ http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/05/imarch.html Yesterday and today we are conducting a virtual march on Washington to let our elected officials know that the time has come for comprehensive immigration reform. If you are of the opinion that we ought to keep things as they are now, stop right now. This post and this march... text/html 2013-05-22T21:23:47+00:00 http://www.feld.com/ http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/patent-and-immigration-reform-activities.html <a href="http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/patent-and-immigration-reform-activities.html"><img src="http://www.feld.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/h1b-in-canada.jpg" /></a><br />Two of the public policy things I care about are patent reform and immigration reform. I believe our patent system &#8211; especially with regard to software and business method patents &#8211; is completely and totally broken. And our immigration system &#8211; especially concerning immigrant entrepreneurs &#8211; is an embarrassment. There is... text/html 2013-05-22T13:18:28+00:00 http://continuations.com/ http://continuations.com/post/51065634453/antifragile-by-nassim-taleb-book-review Ok, so this isn&#8217;t so much a review as an exhortation to read Antifragile by Nassim Taleb which I consider one of the most important non-fiction books I have read. Let me start with some disclaimers: 1. I don&#8217;t read a lot of non-fiction books, not because I don&#8217;t start them... text/html 2013-05-22T11:17:05+00:00 http://www.avc.com/ http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/05/the-ipa.html No, I am not blogging about India Pale Ale, although I must say that I am a big fan of it. I am writing about one of the best patent hacks I have seen in the decade that I have been working to find relief from the ridiculous patent system in... text/html 2013-05-21T19:22:57+00:00 http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/ http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/51001261436/garychou-this-is-a-sign-of-a-healthy-and <a href="http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/51001261436/garychou-this-is-a-sign-of-a-healthy-and"><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/ae8d7c434ecba05ee5a07cfeadd5ce89/tumblr_mn5s2nBI3c1qz6llgo1_500.png" /></a><br />garychou: This is a sign of a healthy and prosperous Yahoo! Group. People totally underestimate the asset Yahoo has in Yahoo Groups. Once they build a killer mobile app to access these communities, they’ll realize the Ning vision that Ning never could. Networks of networks. text/html 2013-05-21T16:30:33+00:00 http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/ http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/50989082569/self-driving-cars-software-will-eat-auto-makers <a href="http://thegongshow.tumblr.com/post/50989082569/self-driving-cars-software-will-eat-auto-makers"><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/bd338ce9ec1e6ca62fc7cdfa782bf95b/tumblr_inline_mn5b2aXQsS1qz4rgp.jpg" /></a><br />The auto industry is on the edge of a revolution. Self-driving cars are on the path to commercial viability, and once they arrive, the industry will go through the same transition that cellular phones, portable music players, cameras, and publishing have all experienced. Software will become the competitive differentiation in... text/html 2013-05-21T14:19:32+00:00 http://www.feld.com/ http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/an-unexpected-night-in-the-hospital.html First things first &#8211; we are fine. Amy had an emergency appendectomy last night. She&#8217;s recovering extremely well and feeling great, albeit a little sore, this morning. We&#8217;ll be going home in a little bit once the doctor gets here. Yesterday was a typical Monday. Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion.... text/html 2013-05-21T13:46:31+00:00 http://continuations.com/ http://continuations.com/post/50985829440/tech-tuesday-security-in-startups Last week in Tech Tuesday I asked for topics to write about in my series on technology in startups. There seemed to be a fair bit of interest in security, so here we go. First off a disclaimer. As with any general purpose advice, you need to think a lot... text/html 2013-05-21T11:17:08+00:00 http://www.avc.com/ http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/05/native-advertising-event.html This Thursday from 1pm to 6pm, our portfolio company Zemanta is co-hosting a summit on native advertising here in NYC.  I've written and spoken a fair bit about native advertising so regular readers will likely be quite familiar with this topic. However, from what I am seeing out there, native... text/html 2013-05-20T22:27:58+00:00 http://www.usv.com/ http://www.usv.com/2013/05/yahoo-acquires-tumblr.php Yahoo announced today that they will acquire our portfolio company Tumblr. In September of 2007 we, together with Spark Capital, invested in a 3 person start-up founded by David Karp, a 21 year old coder who had not finished high school. At the time, our biggest challenge was convincing David... text/html 2013-05-20T20:18:20+00:00 http://www.feld.com/ http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/bolt-making-hardware-easier.html Over the past few decades, the most compelling engineers and entrepreneurs I&#8217;ve met have tended to be working on problems that can be solved with software. Software has some great advantages but it comes with a few big drawbacks, namely it&#8217;s tied to a few standard types of input, although... text/html 2013-05-20T16:08:00+00:00 http://www.feld.com/ http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/sometimes-failure-is-your-best-option.html <a href="http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/05/sometimes-failure-is-your-best-option.html"><img src="http://www.feld.com/wp/images/bradSm.jpg" /></a><br />This post originally appeared last week in the Wall Street Journal as part of their Accelerators Program in answer to the question &#8220;When and how should you wind down a failing business.&#8221; Some entrepreneurs and investors subscribe to the creed “failure is not an option.” I’m not one of them. I strongly... text/html 2013-05-20T13:31:24+00:00 http://www.theequitykicker.com/ http://www.theequitykicker.com/2013/05/20/will-there-be-a-wave-of-maker-centric-companies/ <a href="http://www.theequitykicker.com/2013/05/20/will-there-be-a-wave-of-maker-centric-companies/"><img src="http://www.theequitykicker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/NicPicturev3Nov20122-200x254.jpg" /></a><br />Venturebeat has an article up this morning titled Startups and big corporations embrace the maker movement which reports that the annual Maker Faire has this year introduced a ‘Startup Pavillion’ which it cites as evidence that the maker movement is moving beyond hobbies to being a ‘rich source of economic... text/html 2013-05-20T13:17:14+00:00 http://continuations.com/ http://continuations.com/post/50903435935/tumblr-and-yahoo It is now official that Tumblr will become part of Yahoo. Marissa announced the news in style with an animated gif. I have been lucky to be part of Tumblr&#8217;s journey as an angel investor and as an active blogger on the service since February 2008. I am excited about the...