Archives
Our founding document
July 2, 2009 | Filed under Politics, Startups
Over this fourth of July weekend it is important to remember how a simple declaration started a revolution and allowed us to create our great republic. If you haven’t read the Declaration of Independence in a while, take a minute and read the words one more time.
When in the Course of human events it becomes [...]
Is your VC well connected?
June 29, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Two years ago Yael Hochberg, Alexander Ljungqvist and Yang Lu wrote a paper called “Whom you know matters: Venture Capital Networks and Investment Performance.“ This may seem obvious, but their research is very interesting. Erick Schonfeld’s piece today titled, “The Top 100 Networked Venture Capitalist” explores the paper’s findings. He notes the top ten VCs [...]
Summer Startup Happy Hour!
June 28, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Join us for the Startup Happy Hour on July 6th (the first Monday after the long weekend). RSVP here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/3012068/
My Twitter Updates for the Week
June 28, 2009 | Filed under Startups
@futurelevel Working on the iPhone release of ShopSavvy. Apple turn around on these sort of apps is 17 days. Best case mid-July. in reply to futurelevel #
Good news, no voter fraud in Iran!: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/21/iran.election/index.html #
Signing off for the night. Great father’s day! Iranian people in our prayers here in Dallas, TX #iranelection [...]
Infidelity and Startups
June 25, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Today marriage seems like a fleeting institution, between 30% and 60% of married people will be unfaithful during their marriage. Just yesterday Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, confessed his own adultery in a twenty minute act of self assassination. Bill Clinton eventually admitted his own infidelity and like it or not it has [...]
Non-Compete Agreements in Texas
June 22, 2009 | Filed under Startups
First, lets dispel the myth that non-compete agreements in Texas are invalid - it isn’t true. Employees explain to me time and time again that “Non-compete agreements are not worth the paper they are written on here in Texas.” The Texas Supreme Court disagrees, since 2006 ruling that non-compete agreements ARE enforceable. I believe the [...]
Facebook Developer Garage - Dallas 6/26
June 22, 2009 | Filed under Events
This Friday Facebook Developer Garage makes its way back to Dallas, this time powered by Intel. Come connect with fellow developers at the Crescent Hotel on Friday, June 26th with a party to follow at CoHabitat.
The Garage will feature two tracks:
-Developing for Platform/Connect
-Marketing/Business Opportunities
Covering:
-OpenStream API
-Connect
-Connect for iPhone
-Social Metrics
-App Verification Program
-fbFund
-and more…
You can RSVP -http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=93629945905
My Twitter Updates for the Week
June 21, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Lots of people dying in Iran today. Not much US coverage, no comment by Obama. #iranelection #cnnfail #tcot #
RT @jayran English translation of Mousavi’s latest statement http://bit.ly/IOInY #iranelection #cnnfail #tcot #
RT @ViewsNews pictures #iranelection http://twitpic.com/7c85l AND http://ow.ly/e11H #cnnfail #tcot #
rt @parhamdoustdar: Watch Ahmadinejad’s speech on http://simpl.es/iiV6l It’s maddening. #IranElection #CNNfail #tcot #
The internet was cut [...]
US Power Projection
June 19, 2009 | Filed under Startups
It isn’t too hard to understand why much of the rest of the world resents America - they resent our wealth. For example, North Korea announced they would be firing a ballistic missle toward Hawaii next month. To answer this threat our military simply floated in a MASSIVE sea based x-band radar system (SBX) into [...]
Iranian Freedom Rally Details
June 19, 2009 | Filed under Politics, Startups
Our friend Vahid Bahzadi is organizing a Democracy Rally in support of the Iranian people. The event will be next Tuesday between 1-3PM at Dallas City Hall. If you want to volunteer to help just ping Vahid at Vahid.Behzadi@CyberCoders.com or Shawn Amoei at rxa2929@gmail.com.
We are planning to attend. If you can join us, wear a [...]
Venture Capital to be Regulated?
June 17, 2009 | Filed under Politics, Startups
Earlier today, Obama’s team rolled out an 85-page document that lays out his plan to regulate the private equity and venture capital businesses. The plan creates three new agencies to oversee hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital firms. Of course this drives me nuts. The reasons for our current situation are largely related [...]
iPhone 3.0 Bugs!
June 17, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Dave Rutledge from Woot (i.e. the guy that hasn’t returned my calls over the past year) found a number of bugs in the iPhone 3.0 release. Wow, that was fast. Anyway here they are:
Multimedia messaging does not support sculpture, macrame, or interpretive dance.
Voice memo recordings totally don’t sound like me. I don’t sound like that, [...]
Startup Profile: Traxo
June 17, 2009 | Filed under Startup Profile, Startups
We’ve known Andres and Andy with Traxo for quite a while. In fact they were the first company to cowork at the Big in Japan offices back in July. Since that time a lot of exciting stuff has happened with their team.
Traxo (www.traxo.com) is a travel service that allows users to automatically collect their travel [...]
Off-Topic: Iran and Freedom
June 15, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Sorry for the off-topic post, but I have had little else on my mind these past few days. When I was a senior in High School I watched with millions of other Americans as Chinese students stood up for freedom in June 1989. Their revolution was short lived, but it made quite an impact on [...]
My Twitter Updates for the Week
June 14, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Headed to church. Looking for a good church? Try ours: http://www.wilshirebc.org #
At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action. - Bono #
Best live Apple WWDC coverage: http://live.gizmodo.com/ #
ShopSavvy Country Manager Training Video No. 1 Completed! #
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others [...]
Failure shouldn’t be your goal
June 11, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Jason Fried’s recent talk at Big Omaha caught the attention of David Cohen (my partner in SpringStage). In his talk, Jason railed against the recently popular meme among entrepreneurs, “Fail Early, Fail Often!“ He suggests, ‘this industries obsession with failure has got to stop.‘ Check out the video here:
David suggests that Jason might be offering [...]
Cloud Computing event - June 16th
June 11, 2009 | Filed under Events
Our friend Babar Bhatti asked us to mention the upcoming cloud event next Tuesday.
The MIT Enterprise Forum of Dallas-Fort Worth and Technology Review present an exclusive program on Cloud Computing.
If you’re a senior level manager of a company with 100+ employees, this evening of networking followed by an expert panel
moderated by Technology Review editor Jason [...]
Charity Poker Tournament this Friday
June 10, 2009 | Filed under Events
This Friday, 6/12/2009 there will be a charity poker tournament benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas at the ‘W’ Hotel in Victory Park.
The 4th Annual Texas Hold’em tournament is a signature event for Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas where individuals compete to out-smart, out-bet and out-play fellow players to secure [...]
Bob’s Steak & Chop House Chapter 11
June 10, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Bob filed Chapter 11 recently. Thankfully, Bob won’t get any special treatment from the bankruptcy judge unlike the folks from Chrysler and GM. Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code is perhaps the single greatest contribution our country has made to capitalism. Failure MUST be an option if we want entrepreneurs to take the sort of [...]
Venture Capital Admissions?
June 9, 2009 | Filed under Startups
VC Non Admissions
View more Microsoft Word documents from vcobserver.
Is your VC too old?
June 8, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Judith Elsea suggests the “venture gods in the 1990s are ten years older than they were,” ouch. She continues, “Technology is so dynamic it just moves on, and it takes a lot of work to have your networks refreshed and changed. A lot of people don’t jump innovation curves. It’s awfully hard to stay at [...]
Why start a company?
June 8, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Max Chafkin explains Paul Graham’s reasoning, “Because for all the pain, [Paul] believes that founding a company is the most efficient way to create wealth — for investors, for founders, for society at large.”
Paul is exactly right and it seems everyone knows it too. Why else would so many people leave the security of full-time [...]
My Twitter Updates for the Week
June 7, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Nice weekend at Rough Creek Lodge. #
@cohabitat No worries, we should do some events together. I say Startup Happy Hour next month at cohabitat? Thoughts? in reply to cohabitat #
The thing always happens that you REALLY believe in and the BELIEF is
what makes the thing happen.
- Frank Lloyd Wright #
Hope to see you at [...]
U.S. v Ford
June 6, 2009 | Filed under Startups
The US auto industry is under attack, not from the Japanese or the Germans, but from our own leaders. I believe we may have witnessed the end of the American car industry. Ironically, the very ‘help’ that our government is providing is the primary reason for its extinction. First, our government (even with the best [...]
Incredible Shrinking VC Market
June 5, 2009 | Filed under Startups
Not suprisingly to anyone who is trying to raise money - VCs are getting harder and harder to find. Just a couple of years ago there were more than a thousand active funds, now you would be hard pressed to find eight hundred. The prospects for VCs are becoming bleaker and bleaker - with the [...]
