gdp's Comments

Feld Thoughts : What The Hell Does Your Company Do?

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 19:38:51 +0000

Haha, nice find Brad.

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : How I (try to) add value as an investor - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:15:07 +0000

This is investor/mentor gold Gabriel. Appreciate your honest cut at what you bring to the table. Many first time founders don't even know where to begin when it comes to seeking very early stage investors. I started by keeping track of people with philosophies that complemented my own thinking, but had much greater domain expertise in areas I need to help with. My current strategy on fund raising is not doing so until I identify an application with rapid growth or adoption. It doesn't make sense until we pattern match something that's working. I admit to thumping my chest without much response just a couple of months ago. I have applied to micro-angel funds but it's tough to get a cold invite. Even though I'm not currently fund raising, I'm doing my best to slowly grow connections to sharp folks in the industry.

Feld Thoughts : Deeply Held Beliefs

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:28:38 +0000

I was curious about that number as well Harry, as in not correcting for inflation or decreases it appears disconnected from early stage costs.

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : My history of (mostly failed) side projects and startups - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:06:09 +0000

My friend Kevin Marshall would read this and say, "see told you so Mark, hack on everything see what sticks." In fact I'll send him this link, he'll enjoy it.

The Plan Tank : Entrepreneurs don't apply, they just do it

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:11:51 +0000

Interesting perspective Terry, what's your take on micro-angel investors who put up 20k for the founders and connect you to their network for 8% of a nascent company? Many of the startups that "apply" are in prime position for venture funding or a large angel round after completing the 12 week sessions.

Feld Thoughts : Intrinsic Motivation

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:18:58 +0000

Did you come to find intrinsic motivation as a source of greater satisfaction and happiness. I can imagine extrinsic motivation to be a never ending chase, while the intrinsically motivated are always happiest in the moment. That philosophy and world outlook has a distinct Buddhist characteristic.

Feld Thoughts : An Aurora Over Alaska

Wed, 6 Oct 2010 15:39:23 +0000

Surreal view, thanks for sharing it. Good pitch for APOD.

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : DuckDuckGo implements HTTPS Everywhere - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Tue, 5 Oct 2010 22:20:27 +0000

Hey Yegg would this technique work for encrypting communication between data nodes (thinking about simple encryption for couchappspora). Couch replicates with http. ah nevermind just read up on it. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Raindrop/Security#Secure...

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : Startup micro opportunities - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Tue, 5 Oct 2010 15:59:16 +0000

Instead of the straight and narrow path, you have incorporated short and breathtaking side trips into your startup journey. How'd you get that fast at hacking in changes, that's my number one weakness at the moment. It takes me a few weeks to read up and understand new web tech before hacking it up. Meanwhile the folks I follow can hack stuff out over a night or two.

Feld Thoughts : Being Contrarian Is About To Be Mainstream

Sun, 3 Oct 2010 15:15:08 +0000

Same goes for startup founders and learning about the technology fad of the day. It's better to build the next fad while leveraging the best of todays. It just takes a helluva lot of time to understand all the nuances of today's tech in order to build something desirable for tomorrow.

Feld Thoughts : Being Contrarian Is About To Be Mainstream

Sun, 3 Oct 2010 15:12:56 +0000

Thanks Brad for the morning laugh. You paint investors as a social pack animal. I say embrace the swarm and accept that there will always be alpha dogs, hive queens as well as a buzzing army of individuals. The nifty feature of the network economy is that individuals can play off of each others strengths. Investors in medtech can leverage the deep knowledge of investors in web tech and vice versa. Companies too can create greater value as clusters of partners. I don't understand the specifics of how a social attention economy will come to pass, but all the signs suggest it's coming. We'll come to value our business relationships more than our wallets.

http://community.kentico.yoodlecorp.com/ : Kauffman - Conversation with Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur, professor and author

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:44:31 +0000

Good stuff Paul and Steve. Appreciate the conversion to text, mostly concepts that I'm familiar with but it doesn't hurt hearing them again. The more I learn about entrepreneurship, the less I see it has to do with reading/listening and studying. It has to do with hypothesis, experimentation and market research and there's no strategy for creativity. There are generic best practices: discipline, prediction, feedback, and rapid execution (learning that you're wrong faster).

Online Aspect : My 3 rules about reading

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:58:44 +0000

I've been giving away books for years, awesome habit! I finally got rid of all my old gaming books (hundreds) and their in the trunk of my car now ready to be dropped off at a nearby gaming store. Almost every technical book, algorithmic book, or fun book that comes my way gets stashed on my kindle ebook account, a pdf on dropbox, or now iOS apps. Favorite trends/futurist tech book: Kevin Kelly's New Rules for the New Economy, preorded his next book created from the Technium, What Technology Wants All time favorite fantasy book: The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazney (I read the series separately then got this awesome compilation of both series). The books I'm actively reading or have read recently. My backlog is growing much faster than I can read them (some of the books on my list): Design Patterns in Ruby CouchDB the definitive guide Javascript the good parts Seth Godin's work, idea Virus, everyone is an expert, Tribes, Zen Unicorn, Four Steps to Epiphany The Search Don't Make me Think Fun stuff that I read and affected who I am over the past few years: Awakening The Buddha Within The Art of happiness Peace in Every Step How to Get Rich Other fun fiction books: Pandora's star and the sequel Ender's Game sequel The Dark tower series (didn't finish) The Wheel of Time (didn't finish, stopped book before last) Stuff I haven't read yet but purchased/downloaded (in the queue): Viral Loop Getting Real The innovators dilemma The Age of Spiritual machines Cognitive surplus I live in the future, here's how it works BhagavadGita The Rails Way (great reference), Why's Poignant Guide, The book of ruby Beginning Scala, Scala By Example Byte of Python, Think Python, Dive into Python, Learn Python the Hardway (can you tell I'd love a chance to learn more about python programming) older stuff ( I blame wikipedia for getting me going on these): Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs The Critique of Practical Reason Politics: a treatise on government An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the wealth of nations How to make friends and influence people The only book I've released/written (based on my first few months blogging) 3 Steps to Satisfaction Hopefully soon to be released, a future fantasy rpg I coauthored primarily with one friend with input from another. My coauthor is finishing the final editing while I work in a shrinking industry (systems engineer), push forward with a startup (go web apps!) and look for potential positions at active startups (love meeting people that dream big). Children of the Ark Presentations: My slideshare favorites Startup Metrics for Pirates (nice Dave Mcclure!) Dean Keynote Ladis (Google Designs, Lessons and Advice building large distributed systems) The Interoperable Web Digital Intuition: Applying Common Sense Using Dimensionality Reduction (Classification, Suggestion algs, Hunch!) Design with Intent (more slides than cards) Learn to Use semantic technologies using open source tools Skill vs Luck in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital: Evidence from Serial Entrepreneurs ubuntu pocket guide If anyone needs a copy of a pdf of one of the above presentations, let me know

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : How-to get that guy as your mentor - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:44:51 +0000

If nothing else, the financial commitment shows other angel investors that you have a sharp investor already in your corner. Time is money, but money is a signaling method of trust between investors.

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : How-to get that guy as your mentor - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:57:53 +0000

Yegg this compliment's Steve Blank's post last week, Negotiate Commodities, Seize Opportunities. Nice to see a practical approach to getting a powerful ally for a young startup. I would prefer an adviser who pumps in 10-50k for 2-4% ownership with the best deal for an early investor/adviser. They'll more than answer emails with skin in the game.

Max Klein : A chinese villager who sells more software daily than you do

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:47:49 +0000

The most inspirational tales about entrepreneurs always begin by recognizing a pattern of need, then building a product that solves the problem. I'm surprised he tried selling firefox, and repackaging and selling open source, for shame. It's kind of funny though that people purchase it. Let me know if he's interested in any affiliate deals for his legitimate software packages. He may not have time to do proper marketing with all his farming chores.

Feld Thoughts : Trying Gmail For A Week

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:44:15 +0000

Primary stuff you'll care about: -rules are called filters -labels instead of folders (so messages can have multiple categories) -get Rapportive it's a great way to get instant information about folks who contact you. After you get it I'll send you an email asking if any startups in your portfolio or network are looking for a fanatically motivated web hacker. I found out I was laid off today from my part time day job as a defense contractor and have never felt more ready for a big shift.

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : First-timer entrepreneur symptoms and cures - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:49:46 +0000

Guilty on this one big time: "Symptom: you think that if you build it, they will come. Cure: spend a lot of your time thinking about customer acquisition (for me it's ~50%). Only very rarely will they come on their own early on." I'd like to add learning about your target customer/market is more important than any prototype work. Just put together enough to talk about and begin learning how users/customers operate, where they look for solutions, and how you can make that easier. That's the driving force behind Garagedollar.com, the simplest location based update service we could construct (cofounder did a brilliant job in a very short time). I'm working with Google Maps and considering an iphone app as additions but only after we get this basic system flushed out.

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : A Board of Directors is not an advisory board - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:29:35 +0000

Making a mental note for the day I need to better understand boards. For now the importance of experienced folks as informal advisers sits well with me.

Gabriel Weinberg's Blog : Traction trumps everything - Gabriel Weinberg\'s Blog

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 13:57:49 +0000

Short and sweet Gabriel, love the post. Viral patterns to traction and social proof are always on my mind.