Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2016

Thus begins Snapchat and why you don’t get it. Snapchat will be used for both like the Internet (and TV) are. I just need to break you of the idea that Snapchat is for one thing – it is not. But since Snapchat uses the frequency above your hearing range it’s nearly impossible to “get” without help.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Screening Venture Capital Guide 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” I hope to publish that deck and a full write up in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my write up doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)).

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I know it may feel this way since I’m writing this tongue in cheek. I’d sooner people have my mobile phone number than my email address because as a society we know the social norm that just calling or texting somebody you don’t know isn’t acceptable. It’s why the only rude or unexpected mobile phone calls I get are from telemarketers.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Always-on connectivity of mobile (164m US smartphone users). 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.” Where are we today? Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

billion 2013 figure) have been massive financings at Honest Company ($70mm), JustFab ($85mm), ZipRecruiter ($63mm) and lord only knows how much SnapChat has actually accumulated. And of course we have great public companies that have spanned content & communications like J2 Global whose market cap as of this writing is a cool $2.5

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Think of web vs. mobile. I’ve sat on ad tech boards with board members who clearly knew little about impressions, fill rates, CTRs, RTB, eCPMs or the difficulties & opportunities of embedded mobile SDKs vs. HTML5.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens. You might write a piece now and then that catches fire but there is nothing repeatable that would be useful for a business. Simply write a great book? What about mobile?

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379