One of the great things about the exponential growth of web-based content (both professional and user generated) is that it enables you to quickly get deep insights from amazing people that were previously hard to find.
Two examples beat me over the head this morning. I wrote about Lijit search yesterday – today Stan James (Lijit’s CTO) keeps the rhythm going with his Not All Links Are Created Equal post.
Earlier this week, I was part of a Silicon Flatirons roundtable at CU Boulder Law School that Phil Weiser and I have organized in the spirit of the Union Square Ventures Sessions. We spent a few hours with an awesome group of people discussing the implications of Sarbanes Oxley on innovation and entrepreneurship. The intro video was Sam Zell’s 2006 Holiday Card (MMVI) which is a damning indictment on the pox that is Sarbox (except of course – to the accounting industry – which loves it and the fees it generates.) I wanted to show it to Amy this morning and didn’t know where to find it so I hoped on Youtube, searched for Sam Zell, and found his 2005 Holiday Card (The Theory of Relativity) which is even better!
I then poked around for another 37 seconds and found the “Year End Gifts” site which has videos of all the cards going back to 1999 (The Emperor Has No Clothes) – which of course is completely brilliant and prescient.
Just add a “.com”, Tom
Front your name with an “E”, Lee
Start auctioning toys, Roy
And set yourself free
Pay on the come, son
Don’t need to make money, hon
Just set up a site, Mike
And price yourself right.
We end the morning with a presentation from David Rubenstein – the co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group explaining The Similarities & Differences Between The Tech Bubble Burst of 2000 & The Current Private Equity Markets: Are We On The Verge of A PE Bubble Burst? thanks to a short article from Dan Primack titled LBO Boom = Tech Bubble? (ok – I saw this a few days ago but just got around to blogging it.) With leaders of private equity firms on the covers of every major business magazines and Sam Zell selling Equity Office in one of the largest PE deals, is someone trying to give us a message?