Archive
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February 6, 2012
Yesterday was a great SuperBowl – and as always the ads were a big part of it. In 2012 we know viewers were on Facebook and Twitter like never before, and we even know which 10 commercials drew the most comments. But it’s surprising in this Era of Engagement, how few ads were directly promoting ...
January 31, 2012
My friend Mike Harkey wrote this back in 2006 when Facebook was a 2 year old toddler of a company. Facebook only had 100 employees and 7.4 million users – while massive competitors Bebo had 23M and mySpace had 67M. Facebook ...
January 30, 2012
It’s great to see our portfolio company ROBLOX getting noticed by publications like Forbes. 20 million user accounts, almost 10 billion pageviews in 2011 – kids are playing and it’s worth reading. ...
January 30, 2012
First Round Capital portfolio company Monetate just released a very interesting infographic showing how Pinterest and other social tools are rapidly changing how people get referred to ecommerce sites. Check it ...
January 29, 2012
The issue of worker conditions in the supply chain is not new, and it’s the same for pretty much every computer and electronics manufacturer in the world. But it’s interesting to see the finger pointing at Apple just as they approach $100B in cash and re-establish their place as the world’s most valuable company. Apple ...
January 27, 2012
Someday I’ll do a post on social identity and why I have two accounts and how Twitter could massively improve private accounts. But in the meantime, here’s a fun infographic comparing my two accounts from Visual.ly. ...
January 20, 2012
If you like Michael Lewis and want to laugh and cry about the world economy and human nature, pick up Boomerang. Follow Michel to Iceland to Greece to Italy to Ireland and back to California, and if you want to try a chapter for free, California and Bust appeared in Vanity ...
January 19, 2012
Can’t wait ...
January 18, 2012
Why SOPA and PIPA Matter by Clay Shirky
Excellent and timely TEDTalk from my friend Clay ...
January 18, 2012
Thoughts on Stop SOPA/PIPA Day
1) Wow – people are paying attention to what’s going on. 2) The companies supporting SOPA are reinforcing the stereotypes about them. 3) There are no “real people” on social media defending it, at least none I’ve seen, only companies and associations and their lobbyists and the lawmakers they’ve influenced. 4) Our lawmakers have very ...
January 17, 2012
If your CTO has become Dr. No it is probably because your designers and other product creators misunderstand the engineering ...
January 17, 2012
After two years at First Round Capital, today Charlie O’Donnell announced he was leaving to launch his own seed-stage venture fund, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures - the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn. I’m really very excited for Charlie ...
January 17, 2012
LiveIntent is a company to watch and work for
I love working with our portfolio company LiveIntent – they’re a real-time ad platform for email, they’re innovating in a huge market, and they’re having fun along the way. According to MediaPost they’re one of 9 Email-Related Companies to Watch in 2012. And according to FINS Technology they’re one of 5 Tech Startups to Work ...
January 16, 2012
Maslow and FRC’s Hierarchy of Needs
I sometimes find myself quoting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs when it comes to describing how a problem is viewed by customers. But it also occurred to me that some of our portfolio companies could nicely fit into Maslow’s chart, so I took a cut at it from Food and Shelter to ...
January 13, 2012
Courtesy of Seth Godin – feel free to click on his head and read his blog. Here’s today’s ...
January 12, 2012
Forget Ultrabooks – just get this for your iPad
Here’s one more to add to the Ninja Tech Travel Tips – the Zagg Logitech iPad 2 Case. Sure there have been keyboards for your iPad, but this one works so well, holds the iPad either horizontally or vertically, and protects it nicely too – it’s the first time I’ve felt my iPad could really ...
January 12, 2012
Entrepreneurs are builders. VCs are ...
January 11, 2012
My son went to basketball and soccer camp last year, but also ID Tech Camp and learned how to build his first iPhone video game. They offer classes in lots of areas (Video Game Design, Programming, Design, Robotics) for kids across wide age ranges (e.g. classes for ages 7-10 or 9-12 or 13-18). And they ...
January 10, 2012
I travel a fair amount, and here are some products/sites/apps I’ve found to be really useful – and most will work with any smartphone. Mophie Juicepak – my awesome iPhone 4s has a miserable battery life – this doubles it and protects at the same time. Zagg Sparq – because you still need more battery, ...
January 9, 2012
How to Create an Early Stage Pitch Deck
I saw this great post by Ryan Spoon of Polaris on how to create an early stage pitch deck. It contains really good advice, and while you don’t have to follow it exactly, I’d say it’s directionally dead-on for early stage investors like First Round. Ryan’s deck for how to create a great pitch deck ...
January 6, 2012
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Book
I’m a big fan of Steve Jobs and have already written about some of that, including a few personal interactions. I recently finished the Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson. A lot has been written about the book, but as student of Apple and Steve Jobs I thought I’d put together a list of some ...
January 5, 2012
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January 5, 2012
My New Year’s Resolution: Do Less, Slower
do less, slower because hustle without depth and focus is a waste of ...
January 4, 2012
...
January 3, 2012
I think so. Kevin Slavin on how algorithms shape our world. ...
January 2, 2012
I saw this tweet from Dana Stalder about Apple. It reminded me of some great recent return experiences I’ve had and how important they can be. One was with a with a ski resort that had no snow and allowed me to cancel my reservation right up to the day before, and in fact called ...
January 1, 2012
It’s a New Year, and like many, I like to reflect on what I’ve done and what I plan to do, what I’ve done well and what I can do better. Trust me that I have more important things to reflect on, but I did want to share this one on Email, which remains the ...
December 22, 2011
Create a cultural experience for recruits to help discover “fit”
Use your company culture as the first filter in the hiring process. If someone doesn't like the experience, they are not a fit. Move ...
December 20, 2011
We, We, We so excited for our annual holiday video
Over the last few years, one of my favorite holiday traditions has been putting together First Round Capital's annual holiday video. In the past we have used song, dance and our impressive physiques to work our way into your ...
December 19, 2011
If you’re in the Bay Area and think you might like working on awesome games and amazing physics with brilliant engineers on a site with over a billion pageviews and over 21 million hours played per month, watch this then click on this. ...
December 16, 2011
Percolate helps Brands become Content Producers
I’m excited about our newest investment in Percolate. and working with the co-founders Noah Brier and James Gross. Brands already understand they need to be on the social platforms where their customers are. They’re spending dollars and building a presence there, and moving beyond the initial “How many fans and likes do I have?” and ...
December 16, 2011
Think you are ready to start-up? Take the GRIT test and find out
Starting up takes grit. Researchers at Upenn have discovered the elements of Grit and developed a test to see if you have ...
December 15, 2011
Is your 2012 planning process optimizing opportunity or allocating resources?
(first post from my mobile) Over the past month, I have spent a lot of time working with companies on their plans for 2012. Everyone wants to do more than their resources allow and getting the most out of limited resources is in many ways what it means to be an entrepreneur. But, teams often ...
December 13, 2011
I am thrilled to announce that CeCe Cheng has joined First Round Capital as an Associate! At First Round, we understand the importance of working with talented people and we apply that philosophy to both our investments and hiring. In … Continue reading ...
December 12, 2011
3 questions every designer should ask before joining a start-up
All designers considering a role at a start-up should be asking some version of these three questions and learning if they will be a design resource or a successful ...
December 8, 2011
I went to my son’s middle school holiday music show tonight, and it reminded me of one of my favorite TED Talks by Benjamin ...
December 7, 2011
Flurry loves them so much they’re serving them free lunch from a food truck in San Francisco on Friday, Dec 9th. And you’re ...
December 7, 2011
This morning I’m heading over to the DreamIT Ventures demo day in Philadelphia. It was last year that we first met Adaptly there during the 2010 demo day, and we were very impressed with the founders Nikhil and Garrett and invested soon after. As they say, Social is the biggest shift ever in human attention, ...
December 6, 2011
The 2 must haves for success in subscription eCommerce
there are two things required to create maximum value in the subscription commerce space: Opt-out economics and Brand ...
December 2, 2011
I’m about 2 weeks into using the new Jawbone Up. It help you track, measure and visualize the things you do while living (walking, running, sleeping, eating) by way of a cool wristband and a companion app on your smartphone. I had originally started with a Lark which only handles sleeping/waking – it worked but ...
December 2, 2011
Over the years, we've met with thousands of entrepreneurs who were starting consumer Internet businesses. And as we listen to them describe their business, I find myself categorizing the opportunity. One of categorizations I've found most helpful has been ...
December 1, 2011
LiveIntent Creates Real-time Ad Platform for Email
I’ve had the pleasure of working with LiveIntent and their CEO Matt Keiser since they started the company, and now they’ve released a product that’s a solution to a real problem in a huge market. They bring many of the ad tech innovations that have only been available on the web with display ads into ...
November 29, 2011
The Evolution of Search in Six Minutes
Here’s a amazing look into how far search has come over the years, and how focused Google has been on extending and leveraging ...
November 23, 2011
Want better strategy? Do a pre-mortem and turn the feedback loop inside out
Post-mortems help you do it better next time. In start-ups, sometimes you only have one shot and so I love the concept of the pre-mortem to help you do it better this ...
November 22, 2011
Last night in New York, First Round Capital hosted a screening of the documentary Something Ventured. It’s the story of the first venture capitalists and the entrepreneurs and companies they backed. I call it “The Real Life Mad Men of Venture Capital.” A friend called it “A Love Story To Capitalism.” An attendee of ...
November 20, 2011
This one is better than the famous New Yorker cover. It shows all the NYC startups that raised money from investors over the last 20 months. The article is here, and it would be great if they updated it so when you hovered on a dot it would tell you which company it was. Regardless, ...
November 18, 2011
My addiction to sneakers and our investment in Custom Made
CustomMade is building the first online peer-to-peer marketplace connecting shoppers with skilled artisans who create unique, luxury custom goods including furniture, cabinetry and ...
November 17, 2011
Continuous Feedback (founder response to the SneakerheadVC product)
A snapshot of customer feedback for the SneakerheadVC ...
November 16, 2011
Fun Fact of The Week: Path to Revenues
Last week I posted some data from our portfolio about the pace of seed-stage financings. And it sure looked like things are speeding up. This week, I thought we'd take a look at the speed at which our companies ...
November 16, 2011
I rarely (or never) post about politics here. However, today Congress holds hearings on a bill that would create the "first American Internet censorship system". This bill is being rushed through Congress without any input from the technology industry ...
November 16, 2011
Today there’s debate going on in Washington about a bill called the Protect IP Act. Critics are concerned that lots of web sites could end up looking like this as a result: I haven’t done a ton of personal research, but the folks at Union Square Ventures have and here’s a good representative post on ...
November 11, 2011
The 3 faces of the perfect pitch: Architect, Psycho Killer, Evangelical Preacher
I finally found the perfect VC pitch and it came from an architect, a psycho killer and an evangelical ...
November 11, 2011
myYearbook is now trading under (AMEX: QPSA)
Yesterday Quepasa Corp announced it had completed its acquisition of our portfolio company myYearbook.com. We’re proud to have worked with Geoff Cook and the entire myYearbook team and fellow investors – they’ve worked very hard for a long time and built real value, and we’re excited to see them become part of Quepasa as a ...
Learn to code? How about learn to sell!
Tweet[removed][removed] There are a lot of reasons not to like the space that Publicstuff is in. The company sells to local governments, real estate management companies, educational institutions--anyone responsible for public or private infrastructure. That alone is enough to make a lot of VCs throw up a little in their mouths. Slow sales cycles. Joe and Mary Bureaucrat who don't even use the internet because Smalltown, USA blocks it as the decisionmakers. Ugh, right? Except that its ...
November 10, 2011
Fun Fact of The Week: Time from Inbox to Investment
During the last few weeks there has been a lot of commentary about what’s going on in the seed funding markets. Some say that web startups face a cash crunch. Some disagree. Some think there is a “Series A ...
November 9, 2011
I’m proud to know Frances Hesselbein and serve as Chairman of the Leader to Leader Institute, and also very pleased to see her featured in the current issue of Fortune on newsstands now. Here’s a link to the full story, and see below for a 5 minute video that tells her amazing story of leadership. ...
The end or the beginning? Thoughts on the current startup environment
Just as an additional disclosure, these are my thoughts, not that of First Round Capital, my employer. The other day, Adeo Ressi wrote in TechCrunch about how we need more venture funds, because "Every investor and entrepreneur knows there is something scary about the current startup economy. There is an enormous amount of angel capital available, while at the same time there is a small amount of Series A and a large and concentrated amount of late stage capital... At least nine out of ten ...
November 4, 2011
If you think you want to start up, please don’t
if you think you want to start up, please don't. If you have a medical grade compulsion, starting up is the ...
If you've ever overpaid for a legal document, sign up for Docracy, First Round's newest in
After funding GroupMe out of last year's Techcrunch Disrupt Hackathon in NYC and Docracy this year, it won't take long for people to catch on to First Round's secret plan--to get invited to judge every single hackathon in the country. I can't wait until next year! I met Matt and John, the developers behind Docracy, during last year's Techcrunch Disrupt, when they were working on something a little less professional. It was a mashup of Foursquare and Face.com that rated the quality of a party ...
First Round staying fashion forward with Refinery29
In continuing my theme of winding up in investments where I'm undoubtedly the last person on the face of the earth you'd associate with the company, I'm happy to announce First Round's investment in Refinery29, along with Floodgate, as reported by AllThingsD earlier. I can barely dress myself, and its not like anyone accussed the guys at First Round of being fashion trendsetters, so feedback from friends can be helpful in making you take a longer look at something. Every single time I ...
November 2, 2011
A quick story to share. Some time back, the First Round team was having some difficulty getting our email delivered. Our messages weren’t winding up in Junk folders, they weren’t showing up at all. So, I reached out to former colleagues who were now with the major webmail brands. I wanted to know whether or [...]...
November 1, 2011
The plague of clones is coming. To survive, focus on the consumer and build your Brand
Design and user experience are the new IP, not algorithms...and good design can and will be ...
October 31, 2011
I recently negotiated and signed a term sheet with a company I am very excited about working with. I’ll talk about that company later but for now wanted to talk about the process. Now that I have been a venture … Continue reading ...
October 28, 2011
As Philadelphia gets ready for Halloween and the first snowstorm of the year, it's a reminder that holiday season is right around the corner. And the approaching holiday season can only mean one thing -- it's almost time for ...
October 28, 2011
Venture is a long term business. Relationships are made and built over time. Some of those relationships turn into investments and some never will. And once I get to work with a founder I (almost ) always look forward to … Continue reading ...
October 28, 2011
Venture is a long term business. Relationships are made and built over time. Some of those relationships turn into investments and some never will. And once I get to work with a founder I (almost ) always look forward to … Continue reading ...
October 28, 2011
The dictionary defines a bot as an autonomous computer program that performs time-consuming tasks, esp on the internet. Those of you who know First Round Capital have learned that we are fanatics about measurement and metrics. We believe that ...
October 28, 2011
The dictionary defines a bot as “an autonomous computer program that performs time-consuming tasks, esp on the internet”. Those of you who know First Round Capital have learned that we are fanatics about measurement and metrics. We believe that ...
People who don't run your company
I asked a company the other day whether or not they were going to take advantage of a great event here in NYC. Its an opportunity to pitch Sony on a biz dev deal--a no brainer for nearly any company given the scope of Sony's areas of interest. (applications are due this Monday the 31st)The company said no because their main angel investor didn't think it was a good idea to let an audience see their pitch. He was afraid someone would steal the concept. I asked them how they felt, and they ...
October 27, 2011
Startup Acquisitions Panel – Nov 29th at General Assembly
I’m excited to be on this panel with a great group of NYC tech entrepreneurs and investors. If you want to go, you should sign up soon as it seems to be selling out quickly. Startup Acquisitions: The Good, Bad, And Ugly November 29th, 7:00-9:00 PM Guest Panel: Andy Weissman: Partner at Union Square Ventures (former co-founder/COO of Betaworks, ...
October 27, 2011
Startup Acquisitions Panel – Nov 29th at General Assembly
I’m excited to be on this panel with a great group of NYC tech entrepreneurs and investors. If you want to go, you should sign up soon as it seems to be selling out quickly. Startup Acquisitions: The Good, Bad, And Ugly November 29th, 7:00-9:00 PM Guest Panel: Andy Weissman: Partner at Union Square Ventures (former co-founder/COO of Betaworks, ...
The Best Community Manager I know
Over the course of the last year, I've seen a community grow into a thriving resource for all its participants. Engagement, both online and through offline events, is through the roof. It's a high quality, experienced, and focused community of participants who have leveraged each other's knowledge to get a ton of value out of it. Its not a fluke, though. It's the result of an incredibly detailed, well executed, and continuously adjusted plan--a science, if you will. There is a lot of ...
October 21, 2011
Business Development for Startups
I was in a board meeting today and found myself referring to this talk I gave back in 2009 at Dreamit Ventures. There are some things that probably should be updated, but for authenticity’s sake (and to save time), here it is in the original form. ...
October 21, 2011
Business Development for Startups
I was in a board meeting today and found myself referring to this talk I gave back in 2009 at Dreamit Ventures. There are some things that probably should be updated, but for authenticity’s sake (and to save time), here it is in the original form. ...
October 19, 2011
Liftopia and The Art of Flight
I’m excited about our investment in Liftopia, and you can read about it here and here and here. And now that I’m in a snow/ski/mountain mood, I also wanted to share the trailer from the best ski movie I’ve seen in a long time. Actually it’s all snowboarding, and totally amazing. The Art of Flight ...
October 19, 2011
If a chairlift spins in the woods but nobody is around to ride it, does it make a sound? Does it turn a profit? Does it make a skier happy? There are few multi-billion dollar industries that have yet to harness the power of the Internet. At First Round, we thought car services was one [...]...
October 19, 2011
I’m so glad that Mary Meeker continues to put out her amazing Internet Trends even after she joined Kleiner Perkins – they’ve always been and continue to be a “must read” for me. The full deck is here. But if you’re interested in online advertising and only have time for 4 slides, here are my ...
October 18, 2011
I was on my iPad and noticed this very cool cover on the most recent booklet/digital issue of WIRED. This caused me to flip through my WIRED collection to see how many other Steve Jobs covers there have been over the last 19 years. The answer is only one – Wired 4.02 from February 1996, ...
October 18, 2011
Investing in Design (with slides from Web 2.0 NYC)
Companies that view their product (feature sets and functionality) as commodity and see design as THE way to differentiate will ...
October 16, 2011
The Worst Steve Jobs Demo Ever
As California celebrates Steve Jobs Day it might be good to remember that he was human, and that every presentation wasn’t inspired or worked smoothly or was about a great product. This video proves it. The Motorola ROKR with iTunes was released on September 7, 2005. Fortunately the first iPhone was announced 15 months ...
October 11, 2011
Subscription Commerce and Kiwi Crate
I've previously shared some of my thoughts on ecommerce. Specifically, that there is the potential for massive disruption in ecommerce due to the explosion in interesting technologies and opportunities such as mobile, social networks, user generated content, virtual goods, ...
October 11, 2011
Having done my fair share of sponsorships over the years, I really enjoyed the Morgan Spurlock movie The Greatest Movie Ever Sold – you can get it here on Quikster/Netflix. It’s 71% Fresh on Rottentomatoes, from the same guy who brought you SuperSize Me. Funny and insightful look into the whole process with a bunch ...
October 11, 2011
Michael Lewis is an amazing writer, and in the article below he gets to the core of the issues affecting California and the rest of the country, from the economic/math problems though the people/attitudinal issues. California has been such a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country, and Lewis paints a ...
October 8, 2011
I liked this documentary on the digital creation and distribution revolution – if you like the trailer you should watch it too. There are multiple free and paid ways to get it from the PressPausePlay Website: iTunes, Amazon, interactive download – I took the opportunity to watch it via downloading my first BitTorrent. The subtitle ...
October 2, 2011
Very interesting and thoughtful piece on hackers, why they become what they are, and the best things to do with them. ...
September 29, 2011
The lean start-up methodology has fundamentally changed the way companies are being built and investors need to adjust their strategy to fit this reality. I talk about that in this Ignite talk at the Lean Start-Up NYC ...
September 29, 2011
If you like books and words and data
Fascinating and often funny dive into 5 million digitized and indexed books out of the 129 million books that have been published since the beginning of time. Thanks to The Google for making it ...
September 29, 2011
Is the ad business growing or not?
I’ll save my answer for a full blog post later, but for now am just testing out my new blog with my first post in the new format. Stay tuned… ...
September 6, 2011
The Tech Stars Mentor Manifesto is great advice for investors as well as mentors
The Tech Stars Mentor Manifesto is great advice for investors as well as ...
And now for something a little different: First Round portfolio company chloe + isabel launches [#fr
Tweet[removed][removed] Last August, Chantel Waterbury walked into First Round's New York City office and told me all about jewelry, empowering women entrepreneurs in the fashion space, and what it means to design inspiring accessories. She expounded on the completely missed opportunity to combine offline and online direct selling into a singular complementary vision. She had a powerpoint deck, 15 years of jewelry industry experience, and I couldn't have been more excited by the chloe + isabel ...
August 29, 2011
Steve Jobs announced last week that he’s resigning as CEO of Apple, and there’s been a remarkable level of reaction to the news. This post will add my drop to the river of thoughts about Steve Jobs and what he built. My career has spanned a lot of Steve’s products, starting back in 1984 when ...
GroupMe, a First Round portfolio company, just announced its acquisition by Skype. (Techcrunch story here, AllThingsD here, Betabeat here) What's cool is that they'll be staying in NYC--a win for the Big Apple! In my opinion, GroupMe built the very best team in the space, never stopped iterating, and still has a very big vision for the service. Through Skype, they’ll have a huge distribution channel, so this will be only the beginning for the company. It’s exciting to have gotten a ...
August 19, 2011
Birchbox is winning with Brand (with a capital B)
Building a brand requires consistent delivery of a simple value. Birchbox is building a brand by seeking, creating and delivering delight from content to ...
August 17, 2011
Don’t cross the streams…Let me know if you have already spoken to someone else at First
Don't cross the streams...Let me know if you have already spoken to someone else at First Round. transparency adds value to the process and moves both sides toward a decision rather than a ...
August 16, 2011
Verizon 4G MiFi doesn’t live up to the hype
I've been using my 4G Verizon MiFi 5410L mobile hotspot for about 8 weeks now, and because I was such a fan in the early days telling everyone to buy it, I think I need to give an update that tells the whole story, at least where I live and how I use it. To ...
August 13, 2011
Thirty years ago I was in college and workign summers for my Dad's computer leasing company. On August 12, 1981 he walked in and showed me this full page Wall Street Journal ad that Apple had taken out on the day the IBM Personal Computer was announced. He said it was a very big deal, ...
July 20, 2011
We're really excited for Geoff Cook and the entire myYearbook team on the announcement of their merger agreement with QuePasa. The combined entity will have $33.6 million in trailing 12 month revenues and $5.9 in EBITDA, over 70 million registered users, over 4 billion monthly advertising impressions, and a strong gaming portfolio and virtual currency ...
June 17, 2011
My partner @joshk has written about finding entrepreneurs who are “heat seeking missiles” , and this past week has driven that point home to me and the entire @Firstround team. When we fund a company, we hope that we ...
June 8, 2011
Medico.com - Health Care is more than a US concern
It’s always easy to think of the United States as the greatest market in the world, and ignore the rest of the world (except maybe our Canadian cousins) as we develop businesses and web sites. Often the next step ...
May 27, 2011
If your business is still finding its way, you need to fill the tank with gas, forget the milestones, and start reading the map. Re-frame your board conversation to focus on test and ...