February 2012
3 posts
5 tags
An Overview of Online DIY Education →
3 tags
Employee Equity: How Much? →
“The first thing you do is you figure out how valuable your company is (we call this “best value”). This is NOT your 409a valuation (we call that “fair value”)…
The second thing you do is break up your org chart into brackets. There is no bracket for the CEO and COO…
When you have the brackets set up, you put a multiplier next to them. There are no hard...
1 tag
Complete List of Behavioral Interview Questions →
Even though I hate behavioral interview questions and think they’re abused, I think there are some gems in this list that could be useful to interviewers if used properly.
January 2012
4 posts
3 tags
5 Steps To Bootstrapping Your PR Efforts →
I really like his sample journalist outreach letter.
3 tags
Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About... →
A few that jumped out at me:
3. You must go through the motions of being creative…The more times you try to get ideas, the more active your brain becomes and the more creative you become.
6. Never stop with your first good idea.
10. You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are.
11. Always approach a problem on its own terms. Do not trust your first perspective of a problem...
3 tags
Advice for Early Management →
1 tag
“The biggest barrier to an artist is self-confidence. The artist always battles...”
– Francis Ford Coppola (via brycedotvc)
December 2011
4 posts
1 tag
This Post is Censored
I’ve censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet—a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, go here.
I don’t █████ ████████ ████ up █████████ ██████. I may ████ █████ ██████ ████ ███████, but I ██████ ████ my ██████████ on an █████ to my ████,...
How to Pick a Great Designer →
1 tag
How Entrepreneurs Can Increase Productivity by... →
9 filters for getting rid of negative thoughts from a post by James Altucher:
Pessimistic thoughts
Vice
Perfectionism/shame
Jealousy
Painful
Fear
Obsessive
Sadness
Unimprovement
4 Characteristics to Look for When Trying to Hire →
November 2011
3 posts
4 tags
A guide to Jack Dorsey's 80-hour workweek →
“Here’s a rundown on the weekly calendar Dorsey keeps as CEO of payments platform Square and chairman of Twitter.
Monday: Management meetings and “running the company” work Tuesday: Product development Wednesday: Marketing, communications and growth Thursday: Developers and partnerships Friday: The company and its culture
Weekends are a bit slower: Saturdays are for...
2 tags
What good interview questions are actually trying... →
A good outline for how to structure your interview questions. When you know this is the information you’re trying to learn, it’s easier to know what to ask to learn it.
1 tag
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us...”
– Ira Glass
October 2011
5 posts
3 tags
'You Are Not So Smart': Why We Can't Tell Good... →
“Expectation, as it turns out, is just as important as raw sensation. The build up to an experience can completely change how you interpret the information reaching your brain from your otherwise objective senses.”
2 tags
In The Ring: Problems, Problems Everywhere →
“And it’s not the easy problems that make it your way. Those already got solved. Rather, they’re the hardest problems that people bring to your attention. Day after day. That, my friends, can be tiring.”
“…it led to two pretty interesting discoveries: a) people often don’t realize they’re facing a problem. Rather, they just feel frustration. b) problem solving, and...
3 tags
BRYCE DOT VC: You're Doing It All Wrong →
brycedotvc:
Close your eyes.
Imagine, if you will, a startup that meets the following criteria:
Their recruiting process is fundamentally flawed
Their operations are a mess
They make engineers pretty much do everything, which leaves almost no time for coding
They don’t (care) about charity or…
3 tags
Make a 60 Sec Video Pitch in 500 Photos, $2 and 1... →
A fantastic post by my friend Avand Amiri from Sqoot, an API for daily deals
4 tags
Watch“How to Measure the Metrics that Determine Real Progress” By Trevor Owens on Oct 3, 2011
September 2011
9 posts
3 tags
Affordably Priced Brandable Domain Names for... →
The best list I’ve seen of prepackaged company names with the domain. At $250 the price is also great too.
3 tags
How to Sell Like Steve Jobs →
2 tags
“Self motivation is and always will be the most important form of motivation....”
– I quote Seth Godin a lot, but this one is just to relevant to pass up. I especially love the last line about it being easier than ever to measure your performance against others.
3 tags
YC NYC Meetup Twitter Feed →
A couple quotes from Paul Graham about startups that get him excited:
“…Introduce market pricing in worlds that don’t have it…”
“…startups destroying things that everyone thinks works but are artifacts…”
4 tags
How to Keep Your Employees Happy While Pushing... →
My takeaways:
Pick a day of the week where you focus on vocalizing the positive contributions team members are making to the company. Make it a habit.
Feed them. It’s a fancy perk that doesn’t have to cost a lot.
Know your team’s 5 top personal goals
3 tags
“Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see...”
– John Holt as quoted on the blog of Caterina Fake
4 tags
“You don’t need logos. Logos are for insecure people. Just like they were in high...”
– Mark Suster talking about investment rounds with a laundry list of “rock star” investors. I also related to this comment with regards to deciding whether or not to accept my admissions offer to NYU ITP.
3 tags
What's the Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your... →
Some choice quotes:
“It’s like the fight club of management: The first rule of the CEO psychological meltdown is don’t talk about the psychological meltdown.”
“Which interpretation was closer to the truth? In the absence of someone to talk to, that’s a question that I asked myself about 3,000 times. As an aside, asking oneself anything 3,000 times turns out to be a bad...
2 tags
“The most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend...”
– Paul Graham
August 2011
5 posts
4 tags
Is Verge SXSW Interactive or Ted?
The new Verge questionnaire and screening process for attending meetups prompted what I think was a good discussion yesterday about how to best manage a burgeoning startup and innovation community.
I think I have a good understanding of and appreciation for the motivations of people on both sides of the aisle. It’s actually a somewhat old debate that has been going on for about the past 18...
4 tags
Useful Hiring Tip: Write Your Job Specs as a Pie... →
2 tags
WatchMy biggest takeaway: Get a team of advisors (They had 25 advisors for a 4 person startup) who are people you want to have associated with your product. “Who’s your entourage?”
3 tags
Creating a Product Focused Startup Culture →
Written by Michael Karnjanaprakorn, the CEO and Co-Founder of Skillshare
2 tags
“I tell my kids, what is the difference between a hero and a coward? What is the...”
– Cus D’amato, legendary boxing trainer from this post by Ben Horowitz
July 2011
7 posts
2 tags
WatchHiring and Firing for Entrepreneurs by David Teten
Lots of very good relevant advice and lists other resources for how to hire at a startup.
“The key here is to be a good chess player. The key to business strategy is to...”
– Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix
2 tags
“A problem worth solving boils down to three questions: 1. Is it something...”
– Ash Maurya in “Running Lean”
2 tags
Facebook Investor Roger McNamee Explains Why... →
The iPad is the training wheels for HTML5.
Don’t try to be “social”: the big social platforms are created. You can’t create a social company, it’s just a checkbox. “The last 500 social companies funded by the VC community are all worthless. I’m serious.”
But this creates an opportunity: while everyone is focused on social distribution,...
3 tags
You are not running out of time or How I Learned... →
Early in his political career, Julius Caesar is said to have wept upon reading a biography of Alexander the Great. When asked why, he apparently said, “Do you think, I have not just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable!”
—-
Earlier, to me the game meant maximizing your time and...
5 tags
How Tristan Walker Got his Job at Foursquare →
Yes, it turns out he became one of Foursquare’s earliest employees by cold-emailing Dennis and Naveen and selling them on what value he could add.
I think it’s interesting that he sent 8 emails before Dennis finally consented to talking more about possibly bringing Tristan on. I don’t know if Dennis at least replied with “no, thanks” or “not right now”...
2 tags
How to Run a Business Model Hackathon →
June 2011
7 posts
3 tags
““What could I build that would be a like a dream come true for independent...”
– Seth Godin quoting Derek Sivers of CD Baby
1 tag
“A wise man keeps his own counsel.”
– Anonymous but related through the founder of Go Daddy
10 Things to Include in Your Startup Pitch... →
1 tag
“I was doing white-water kayaking at the time, and in kayaking if you stare and...”
– Reed Hastings
4 tags
“Right. Just like Microsoft stopped AOL from winning the early online wars. And...”
– Mark Suster
1 tag
How to Save the World from Mutually Assured... →
This post makes me want to read his other posts. It’s brutally honest and speaks to that voice inside of us that’s always reminding us what we’re bad at.
2 tags
“It’s either a hobby or a passion. A hobby you can do when the inspiration...”
– Patrick Moberg
May 2011
1 post
1 tag
“One man with courage is a majority.”
– Thomas Jefferson
April 2011
2 posts
1 tag
“The job of the smart business person isn’t to fish in waters where coders...”
– Seth Godin, “In search of a biz monkey (why bother?)”
2 tags
I'm Tiger Woods...Learning Ruby on Rails
“The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” -DuBois
I was just in middle school when Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters. My friends and I didn’t pay attention to golf until Tiger came along, so we easily identified him as the greatest golfer to ever live and pegged him as being at the top of his game.
Our convictions...