BLOG STARTUPS, VENTURE AND THE TECH BUSINESS
Posts Tagged ‘Entrepreneurs’
September 27 2011
by Todd Hixon
What the Political Crisis Means For Entrepreneurs
The recent downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt, and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe stem from a century-in-the-making political crisis, which is creating big economic uncertainty: inability to borrow could throw major countries into recession, and interest rates, tax rates, and government spending will see major change that is hard to predict. The crisis will ...
June 8 2011
by Thanasis Delistathis
Feature-Not-A-Company
I wrote a post yesterday about the general euphoria in the tech market. One of the signs of things are heating up is the large volume of startups that are pursuing niche product strategies. Consumer internet is a busy space and in a race to differentiate themselves, startups are positioning themselves in tighter product spaces. ...
June 7 2011
by Thanasis Delistathis
Pinch me: is it 1999?
I attended TechCrunch Disrupt a couple of weeks ago and the scene was abuzz with talk of a new tech bubble following the LinkedIn IPO, on the heels of privately traded Facebook shares at exorbitant valuations. The Groupon IPO filing last week helped reinforce the feeling that things are heating up. So, are we living ...
May 31 2011
by Scott Johnson
Way Too Early – On Market Timing
Market timing is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for venture success. Obvious, right? The problem is that timing is obvious only in retrospect. Predicting how markets will evolve is an art, and probably is the single most important job of a venture firm. Boiled down to its essence, our role is to help companies ...
May 12 2011
by John Backus
E-Commerce 2.0: The Birth of Companies Worth $50B in Market Value
A new wave of e-commerce is upon us, but most people do not yet understand it. No, I am not talking about fashion flash sales here (though Gilt, Moda Operandi and Zulily are building very valuable businesses here.) And no, I am not talking about the wave of discount group buying that Groupon, LivingSocial and ...
May 2 2011
by Scott Johnson
Waste = Opportunity
Waste is something I abhor. Waste of time, waste of resource, I love funding businesses that help others be more efficient and stop waste. Time wasters are fertile ground for new business ideas. If anyone is wasting your time, think about how that happened and create a solution for it. Resource wasters are also ...
April 27 2011
by Scott Johnson
Color, Valuations, and the Winner’s Curse
My friend Kevin Lewis is a professor at Duke Business school and he sends out a feed of interesting abstracts describing recent research that I sift through every day or so. Today I found this one: The Bidder’s Curse Ulrike Malmendier & Young Han Lee, American Economic Review, April 2011, Pages 749-787 Abstract: We employ ...
January 30 2011
by Todd Hixon
The Hidden Truth About The Rich
Unless you are a media hermit, you have surely heard that: The distribution of wealth has become much more unequal in the last 20 years. Relatively few rich people control most of the world’s wealth, and this threatens to undermine democratic societies. “Rich” people means bankers, hedge fund managers, private equity managers, corporate CEOs, and ...
January 18 2011
by Scott Johnson
Mobile Monetization 2.0
Mobile monetization 2.0 is going to happen in 2011. Marketing budgets against mobile are showing up in the hundreds of millions, some new monetization schemes (CPL and CPD) are paying good eCPMs, 4G is coming, and this is all really great news for entrepreneurs and mobile app publishers as everyone everywhere taps into mobile apps. ...
December 3 2010
by Scott Johnson
“Do Not Track” – Some Predictions to Guide Investment
Congress has proposed an opt-out capability for user tracking. Much has been written about Do Not Track, and I won’t rehash all of that. I will simply say I think it is a good idea, and in general expecting that any industry will effectively police itself is naive. What has not been widely discussed is: ...
