There’s a startup in Seattle I’ve been tracking for a while. They’re a part of Techstars (where I serve as a mentor) so that’s not particularly unusual. But I’ve been keeping a particularly close eye because they’re working in a product area that overlaps ...
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I want to buy some clothes. Â From From Holden (not a typo). Â And I can’t. Â Because they’re full of Kickstoppers. More and more, I’m seeing exciting, fun projects on Kickstarter that make me think they’re being run by the cast of Community. Â Clever, well meaning, ...
Much as I did before, I’m running a live, world-writable spreadsheet of my notes on the pitches from Techstars demo day 2012. Things are just getting started as I write this now and the lineup of companies looks strong. You can follow along in realtime (questions & comments very ...
This blog post was originally published in Xconomy, after which I promptly forgot about it and left it to languish in my drafts folder until today. There is no love like a first time entrepreneur’s love with nondisclosure agreements. They are a romantic dream: secret pacts bonding two ...
Welcome to StartupVille! It was a few mint juleps in to the evening when Joe Heitzeberg and I started talking about the common experiences of startuphood. “I just maxed out one of my credit cards”, Joe told me, consulting his iphone nonchalantly at 1 in the morning. “I ...
(apologies in advance: the content of this blog post is for startup financing geeks) I was having drinks with a dozen founders who should know better. “So YC company valuations are up around $10mm. Â And some are $20mm+.” “What!?” I exclaim. Â “That’s crazy! ...
When I founded Ontela with my friends Charles and Brian, we were all sick of big companies.  There were a lot of things we wanted to do differently, but one of the big ones was to build a company that wasn’t a faceless bureaucracy.  (Hindsight: good goal) A company where everyone was ...
Everyone knows of the mythical elevator pitch. You find yourself in an elevator, rocketing towards the penthouse suite of a downtown office edifice, when you realize that the person standing next to you is a powerful and influential investor. She asks what you do, and you calmly deliver your ...
Whenever I’ve been involved in fundraising, I’ve hit a frustrating rejection: “Sorry, but I have an investment that could be competitive.” As an entrepreneur, this drives me nuts. I always marshal the same counterarguments: I know what they’re doing, and ...
It’s been seven years since I started my first company. My successes over that course have had a great deal to do with the generosity and wisdom of the startup community, particularly in Seattle – countless meetings, meetups, blog posts, backchannels, and a mind boggling number of ...