Are you looking to hit a 5 run homer?

I love a good baseball metaphor. There is nothing better than using the lens of baseball to make a point simple, clear and biting. So let me tell you what I’ve been thinking today. You can’t hit a 5 run homer – it just can’t be done. Doesn’t matter how smart you are; doesn’t matter… Continue reading Are you looking to hit a 5 run homer?

Can we please stop talking about monetization?

I can’t take it anymore – I just can’t. NOTE – this post was triggered by a fine post (and subsequent FriendFeed discussion) by Mark Evans – which you can find here. The idea that you can create a “cool” service, attract massive numbers of subscribers, and then monetize the subscriber base is insane. Always… Continue reading Can we please stop talking about monetization?

More bad news for Startups.

Today Stacey Higginbotham of GigaOm wrote an article about the deterioration in VC and Angel funding in 2008. While the picture she paints is far from rosy – I think she understates the issue in some ways. With others calling for a startup depression I think we need to be realistic. That’s not great news,… Continue reading More bad news for Startups.

Tech Making Traditional VCs Obsolete

Via Wired. Bob Rice gives us his take on the VC landscape: Well, the classic V.C.’s simply have too much money under management, and too expensive a talent pool, to waste time looking at investing anything less than $10 million in a project. Meantime, no entrepreneur wants to give up equity by taking in more… Continue reading Tech Making Traditional VCs Obsolete

America’s Innovation Deficit

Judy Estrin – former Cisco CTO – has written a book entitled Closing the Innovation Gap. She is Featured today in a article at Wired. America is facing an innovation crisis. To fix it, corporations need to find new ways of funding fundamental research into physics and environmental sciences. There is no question this is… Continue reading America’s Innovation Deficit