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Half Lives. Social Media. And Snapchat Stories.

Both Sides of the Table

As somebody who invested his time heavily in writing and wanting to share his thoughts through a blog I learned that I had to Tweet a post 3 times to get it read: 5am, 8am and 10pm. Facebook had an elegant solution to the “half life” problem in that it developed an algorithm that determined what users saw in their feeds.

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Who Should be on Your Startup Board?

Both Sides of the Table

Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.

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Why Has LA Suddenly Gotten So Much Attention from VCs and Entrepreneurs?

Both Sides of the Table

Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. LA By The Numbers. But even this is changing.

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The Changing Structure of the VC Industry

Both Sides of the Table

Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. But it still takes VC to scale a business (thus large capital into industry winners like Uber, Airbnb, SnapChat, etc). Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.”

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This is the Dumbest Op Ed I’ve Read in a While

Both Sides of the Table

Should Jeff Bezos be required to address every written complaint that shows up in Seattle or Satya Nadella at Microsoft? I know it may feel this way since I’m writing this tongue in cheek. I try to speak at universities, high schools, startup accelerators?—?as It was a sufficient barrier and we developed social graces.

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Why I Backed a 24-Year-Old Trying to Assess Human Potential

Both Sides of the Table

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. How does one come up with the right idea to start a company? We led a $4 million investment along with Thrive Capital, GLG and Sound Ventures.

Design 150
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Why You Need to Ring the Freaking Cash Register

Both Sides of the Table

I work with a lot of startups. I start to notice when bad behavior creeps into the system as a whole. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” ” Case in point: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, SnapChat. Should I write off my $2.5