February 2012
6 posts
Internet Culture is Just Culture
On my ride to the train station this morning I was tuned into Al Jezera radio. As my mind drifted between the broadcast and my plans for the day I heard the host of the show detailing the role Facebook was playing in an upcoming election in India. A reference point that several years ago would have felt very inside baseball was dropped in passing. As if any cultural event of an significance was...
On Becoming a Leader
I’m not a big football fan, but there was a piece written about Eli Manning that grabbed my attention in the wake of his teams’ Super Bowl victory last night (note- the article was written in August).
Apparently, Manning was asked if he was the same caliber quarterback as his competitor for the Super Bowl ring last night, Tom Brady.
“Are you in the Tom Brady class? Are you in...
What's In a Number?
I’ve not been able to shake a recent exchange I had with an entrepreneur.
Though very interesting, their company was quite early, hardly launched and pre-funded. As we talked, their enthusiasm began to bubble and proceeded to boil over. Our conversation soon turned to their very aggressive fundraising strategy and I began to push back on the thinking behind it. After a fair bit of back...
January 2012
30 posts
Our First Pull Request
A few weeks back we put OATV.com and it’s underlying code up on GitHub.
At the time, I thought it would serve as a repo for sharing some of the work we’d done in designing our new site. And my hope was that it would be helpful for someone looking to build a site with a similar look and feel.
Then, last week, something happened.
In the wake of our TimeHop funding announcement, Benny...
Companies as Communities
Last night I had the good fortune of having dinner with a great group of folks from a diverse set of backgrounds. As we went around the table making introduction, each of us were asked to share one thing we’re thinking hard about right now.
As the the intro wave made it’s way around the table it eventually crashed upon the CEO of a $40B enterprise software company. As he paused, I...
A Thought on The Next Steve Jobs
MG has the canonical post on Apple’s first earnings report of the post Steve Jobs era. Read it and follow the links he includes. Cliff Notes version- the results were staggering.
As it turns out, these earnings were reported on the same day the State of the Union address was delivered. Steve’s widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, was in attendance and that was an unlikely coincidence given the...
Our Investment in TimeHop
About a year ago, while on a trip to NYC, I had back to back to back meetings at Pastis. For those who know, this isn’t that far out of the ordinary.
What was unusual about this particular morning were the two names that kept surfacing in each of the three meetings- Wegs and Benny. Apparently these two were making waves at Techstars NYC HQ, and I was instructed to keep an eye on them.
...
A Router in Every Pocket
In the early days of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen had a shared vision for the reach and impact of this new class of devices. Their ambition was to make these new devices so accessible that there would be “a computer on every desk and in every home”.
As their vision became reality, the world changed. New companies and entire industries descended on this new platform and rose to...
An Altogether New Effect
In the wake of this week’s online surge to combat SOPA and PIPA, the New York Times found Chris Dodd, the current head of The Motion Picture Association of America, in a particularly reflective mood yesterday.
Looking back on his decades as a beltway insider, he posited that this recent wave of online activism was unlike any he’d encountered. From the article:
But the startlingly...
“Every really good, really experienced CEO that I know shares one important...”
– Ben
“God knows how much money we’ve given to Obama and the Democrats and yet they’re...”
– Anonymous Movie Mogul
or as @clayshirky says “if we don’t get to buy the laws we want, we’ll take our money and go home”.
Not Everyone Gets a Seed Round
On MLK day, I decided to take my kids to the Chabot Space Center to explore and take in one of their amazing planetarium shows. As we were getting seated, our baby, who is notoriously fussy, was doing what she does. Kind of whining, kind of talking, kind of screaming. As parents do, we were trying to get her to settle down, but she wasn’t having it.
As this was going on, the couple in front...
“This idea of Big vs. Small government has got to go. It’s non-sensical....”
– Clay
Everybody Wants to Be Heard
In her final episode, Oprah was asked if there was a common thread throughout her 25 years on the air. As she reflected on decades of interactions and interviews she distilled it down to one thing all of here guests shared:
I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common: They all wanted validation. If I could reach through this television and sit...
“All I can think is: we gave you the Internet. We gave you the Web. We gave you...”
– Nat
“I talked with Nancy Pelosi about SOPA the other day, and she said that the...”
– Tim
Actions Speak Louder Than Avatars
Peer pressure has never really worked on me.
In fact, it tends to have the opposite effect.
So when my friend Hunter started pushing his little #stopsopa avatar trick on Twitter, my reaction was a hearty, “meh”.
I’ve posted my thoughts on SOPA here. I’ve written and called my senators. I’ve even channeled my dollars away from SOPA supporters.
So I didn’t...
Conditioning Company Culture
Last week, Renee and I dropped by Facebook to grab lunch with a friend of hers who has been at the company for a little less than a year. After the obligatory tour and oohs and ahhs over the new campus, we settle into lunch at the cafeteria. As we talked of his transition into a new company culture, I started noticing a reflexive response to how decisions were made and how teams operated.
...
“We have no exit strategy, we have long time horizons. We are digging our heels...”
– Jason
Yet another reason I heart Runkeeper.
“Stop designing the compromises you expect to have to make. Your fear of being...”
– Mike_FTW
Big Change From Tiny Habits
5 years ago today the iPhone was launched. The relationship with my mobile phone was forever changed. What was once singularly a device for emails, and occasionally calls, transformed into something much much more. And I began spending much much more time swiping, pinching and unlocking my way into a new world of connectedness.
Since that launch, AMR and I have stayed up to date on each...
Here Come The Tweens
Over the holidays I had a chance to spend lots of time with my two oldest daughters. They’re in that awkward phase of life where they’re not really little kids anymore, but they aren’t adults, or even teenagers yet either. It’s a phase marketers have come to call “tweens”.
Wedged between these two developmental phases, tweens flit around, trying to figure out...
WatchThis presentation from Tom Preston-Werner, founder of GitHub, is a veritable master class on building teams and company culture.
Have a flip through here or click/tap to see the speaker notes which add much more depth to the slides.
Data Data Everywhere and Not a Drop of Value
As I tune in and out of the recent flurry of discussion around “big data” I can’t help but be reminded of the the old sailor poem:
Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.
If I had a nickel for every founder who told me how much data they were going to collect, well, I’d have a lot of nickels. If I...
WatchTop Funding Sources For Startups:
1. Personal Savings 2. Credit Cards 3. Friends and Family 4. Banks 5. VCs
Interesting to note that less than 20% of the fastest growing companies in the US were VC backed.
A great reminder that the traditional venture capital product is not for everyone. Nor is it a predictor of future success.
“The biggest barrier to an artist is self-confidence. The artist always battles...”
– Francis Ford Coppola
“Not only are the market applications for disruptive technologies unknown at the...”
– Clay Christensen
Putting Away Childish Things
During his inaugural speech in 2009, President Obama referenced a passage from the Bible I’ve never liked much: 1st Corinthians Chapter 13, verse 11. It reads:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
The verse always sounded preachy to me (well, it’s the Bible afterall). Like some...
December 2011
33 posts
At a Loss for Words
After a year of trying to be consistent in posting something here every day I’m finally at a loss for words.
It’s been an amazing year on BRYCE DOT VC for me.
The ideas this place has helped me unlock, the dots this place has helped me connect and the doors this place has opened for me have been unexpected and, at times, amazing.
When I started posting in earnest, I would often...
The Power of Being Provocative
Back in 2010 Peter Thiel announced a controversial program called the “20 Under 20”. The plan was to make grants to 20 kids 20 years old or younger to stop out of school. The aim of the program was to not only to spot young and restless talent early on, but highlight what Peter believed was a growing bubble in education.
In an interview he did with Sarah Lacy he says:
A true bubble...
“The good news, bad news part about this industry is that it’s a little bit like...”
– Scott McNealy
“While the best personal trainers are giving advice based on dozens, or perhaps...”
– Jason
THIS is the real opportunity of data networks.
I Believe in Ghosts
One of the more thought provoking pieces I’ve read recently comes from Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, who sketches out a methodology for shaping a digital representation of ourselves:
Suppose you wanted to create your own digital ghost to live for eternity in the Internet and maybe do some haunting. What would that look like?
You’d start now, backing up everything that happens on...
“What I do have is an offer to be more than just an employee with a...”
– Andre
“I’ve been doing location and mobile stuff for a while - for more than 10...”
– Dennis
Holiday Observations (Kid Edition)
WIth the holidays comes a winding down of sorts as email transitions from a torrent to a trickle and commutes to the office are exchanged for family time with an unhealthy dose of phone fidgeting.
It means more time with the kids too. Which has led to a few new observations about how my world of technology and theirs intersect.
Tweens <3 video: maybe tween boys are different, but my two...
“With today’s approval of the first TV white spaces database and device, we are...”
– Julius Genachowski
This is a very VERY big deal.
“When I was 18, I spent one night trying to paint LATE AGAIN in big silver bubble...”
– Banksy
Necessity being the mother of invention and all.
Or, don’t miss the exact move you should make when it’s staring you right in the face.