Two colleagues have died suddenly in the past two weeks – one was in his 60’s and one was in his 50’s. Both shook me up. A close friend’s mother is very ill. And a close friend’s father died earlier this year.
I’ve had a physical challenging year. I ran a marathon in February and was geared up for a lot of running and then hurt my back. Seven months later I’m better, but I had five months of solid and consistent pain (never getting below a two on a 0 to 10 scale and often reaching eight or nine.) On top of that, I’ve had a few nasty colds, including a staph infection in my earlobe that scared the shit out of at least one doctor. Oh, and two weeks ago my extrovert completely burned out.
When I read the title to Fred Wilson’s blog this morning (Pacing Yourself) I thought he was going to talk about “personal pace.” His post ended up being about investment pace (and is a very important one), but it has deep roots in personal pace, even if they aren’t obvious on the surface.
I’m turning 45 in a few weeks and this is the first year of my life that I’ve felt any amount of sustainable physical fatigue. Every year I run extremely “hot” until I burn out, but then I recover in a week or so of deep sleep and rest. Suddenly, however, I’m feeling tired on a more regular basis. My binge sleeping on the weekend is reaching new levels. It takes me a few days to recover from a redeye (and, as a result I’ve decided not to take them anymore.) The periodic intervention from my partners about “pushing too hard” seems to be turning into an annual affair.
Fear of death motivates a lot of human behavior. I’d like to believe that I’m tranquil about death (when my number is up, it’s up) and when I read posts like Regrets of the Dying (thanks @djilk) I smile and feel good about how I approach my life. But this year feels like a transformative one for me as I am suddenly acknowledging that I’m probably not in the first half of my life anymore.
I had a couple of dreams that past few days about death and dying and good versus evil. I’m 99.9% confident these dreams are a result of me watching the Star Wars episodes over the past five days (Return of the Jedi is tonight – then I’ll be done). As I come out of my latest burnout cycle, I’m starting to ponder how and what to adjust so that year 45 if a healthier one than 44 and doesn’t have a burnout week (or month) in it.
I’ve spent a lot of time this year talking about the importance of entrepreneurship to our economy and society. Hopefully the work and energy that I’ve put into understanding and helping develop entrepreneurial communities – first in Boulder – and now throughout the US via TechStars, energy around my book Do More Faster, and our investments around the country from Foundry Group reflect this belief.
As part of the mission I’m on, I’ve spent more time in 2010 in Washington D.C. than I have in the last decade. My energy there has gone into three things: (1) Startup Visa, (2) Patent Reform, and (3) Entrepreneurial Community development. I’ve learned a lot about how things work in DC and have had my share of frustration, but I’ve also come to appreciate the overall dynamics more.
I was very pleased to hear recently that President Obama has declared this week National Entrepreneurship Week and today National Entrepreneurs Day via a presidential proclamation. The folks I’ve been working with at the White House and at the Office of Science and Technology Policy definitely get entrepreneurship and the distinction between “entrepreneurship” and “small business” (both are good, just different) and I’m optimistic that the activity around entrepreneurship in 2011 will be enlightened and productive.
In the mean time, if you see an entrepreneur today, give him or her a hug and say thanks.
Next up in the StockTwits.TV Do More Faster Interview series is Ben Huh, the founder/CEO of Pet Holdings, better known as the guys who do ICanHasCheezburger, Fail Blog, and about 50 other crazy and hilarious sites.
I was introduced to Ben several years ago by my friend Micah Baldwin (Graphic.ly CEO, TechStars Mentor, contributor to Do More Faster, and hilarious dude in his own right.) I care deeply about community and have learned a lot about it from both Micah and Ben. Ben was pretty serious sounding in this interview, so if you need a good end of the work week office laugh, one follows. But – listen to the interview with Ben – you’ll learn something.
see more Monday Through Friday
Our friend Howard Lindzon (StockTwits CEO, TechStars Mentor and Investor) did an interview series with a number of the contributors to our book Do More Faster. I’ll post one each day or so over the next week. They are all short (15 minutes or so). Howard starts the series with an interview with me and David Cohen (TechStars CEO and co-author with me of Do More Faster.)
This interview happens via Skype when David and I were at my house in Keystone (where we came up with the idea for the book) during the recent TechStars Managing Director retreat. In NY starting tomorrow is the annual TechStars Alumni Retreat (gang – sorry I’ll miss y’all) followed by TechStars for a Day for folks that have applied to the New York program.
If you are an entrepreneur I hope this stuff inspires and informs you. Or, in the worst case, occasionally amuses you (if you listen carefully around minute 9, you’ll learn about my “fuck me once” rule along with why I think work-life balance is important.) Enjoy.
Yesterday, Gist released their new Gist for Gmail Firefox plugin (the Chrome plugin will be out in two weeks). As a long time Gist user and investor, I’ve been anxiously awaiting this as it makes Gist available to anyone using Gmail (vs. previously just Google Apps users.)
Since I just finally completed my move over to Google Apps, I decided to start over with Gist (by resetting my account) and document the experience of getting it set up. Over the past year I’ve found Gist to be increasing indispensable to me and with the Gist for Gmail implementation, I think it’s in a position to become a critical use application for many people. If you haven’t tried it in a while, or have never tried it, give it a shout. Here’s how.
Five minutes from start to finish. Give Gist a try – feedback welcome!
I’ve been having a blast with Brad Feld’s Amazing Deals which was created by Deal Co-op, a recent graduate of the TechStars Seattle program. Last week’s deal – the Agloves – ended up getting picked up on Lifehacker and the limit of 500 gloves were sold (at 50% off) overnight! As part of the experience, I’m learning a lot about the Daily Deal business, how it works, what the actual economics are, and what the friction points are.
The latest Brad Feld’s Amazing Deal is now online. We’ve got a great one this week. You can purchase a $70 voucher for use on the Trek Light Gear website for $39. Trek Light has lots of great stuff, including some of the nicest hammocks you’ll ever see. We priced this deal to allow you to purchase their best selling Double Hammock, but you can also use it on other gear.
If you are interested in running a deal on the Brad Feld store, helping bring great deals to readers of this blog while helping me better understand the Daily Deal marketplace dynamics, let me know. I’m looking for deals that can be bought online and shipped nationally and that appeal to a high tech audience.
There have been a number of thoughtful “early warning sign” posts in the past few days including one from Fred Wilson (Storm Clouds), one from Mark Suster (What Angel Investing & Florida Condos Have in Common), and Roger Ehrenberg (Investing in a frenzied market).
The seed investing phenomenon of 2010 has been awesome to watch and participate in. The velocity of activity from individual angels, angel groups, seed VCs (the correct phrase for most of the “super angels” which have now raised actual funds), and even traditional VCs has been on a steep climb throughout the year. When the numbers are tallied up at the end of the year (I’m sure someone will do it – and it won’t be me) I expect there will be all kinds of new records set.
But the warning signs from Fred, Mark, and Roger are worth reading and pondering carefully. I have a few choice quotes to add to the mix that I’ve heard over the past thirty days.
In both cases, when I speculate on the next sentence they would have said if they were being direct and blunt, it would be something like “I expect the balance of them will go out of business after thrashing around for a while.” The optimist would have a different view (e.g. that they would be quickly acquired or they would never need additional capital), but anyone that has been investing for a while knows this isn’t the likely outcome for any but a small number of these companies.
Mid-year I felt compelled to write a post titled Suggestions for Angel Investors. When I reflect on that post, my fear is that most seed investors aren’t implementing a “double down on the first round” strategy. Some percentage of seed deals will quickly raise their next round (30% if you believe the two anecdotes above.) Some percentage of seed deals will fizzle out. But some percentage will get stuck in the middle. They will be interesting ideas with solid teams that realize their first idea out of the gate needs a pivot. Or they’ll be in the middle of a pivot when they run out of cash. In the absence of the existing seed investors stepping up and writing another check (without any new / outside validation) it’s going to be hard for these companies to get to the place where they raise a next round financing.
While all entrepreneurs are optimistic on the day they raise their seed round that they’ll be one of the hot deals that easily raises a significant next round, it’s worth starting to plan from the beginning for the case where you “are interesting, but not unambiguously compelling.” In these cases, you need more time and the only place you are likely to get it is from your existing investors. If they are willing to keep investing on their own without a new outside lead, you’ll at least have a chance to get to the next level. But if they aren’t, you could find yourself in a very uncomfortable situation.
I’ll end with Fred’s money quote:
“Anything that is unsustainable will eventually stop happening. And when it stops happening, there will be a dislocation event that will cause people to change their behavior. ,,, When will it stop? Who knows? But be prepared for it to end. And when it does, things will be different. And we should all be prepared for that time.”
Having worked alongside Fred for a long time in a number of companies through several cycles, I can assure you these words come from a place of wisdom, experience, and shared pain.
I formally declare year one of TechStars Seattle a huge success. I was absolutely blown away by the companies at Demo Day last week along with the reaction and support of the Seattle tech community.
John Cook at TechFlash wrote a great summary post titled My five favorite startup pitches from TechStars Demo Day. There’s been plenty of great chatter among the blogosphere and folks I’ve talked to. But what was really remarkable to me was the tone in the room during, around, and after demo day.
The Seattle tech and entrepreneurial community has really embraced TechStars. Andy Sack, who in addition to running TechStars Seattle, also runs Founders Co-op and Revenue Loan, did an incredible job of engaging a broad set of the Seattle entrepreneurial community in TechStars. TechStars wouldn’t have ended up in Seattle without Andy continually nudging, pleading, and demanding that we pay attention. Greg Gottesman from Madrona also deserves a special call out for encouraging us to bring TechStars to Seattle and working with Andy to make it happen.
There was plenty of other great press describing the event and the companies so I’ll leave it to you to look at it on TechCrunch, TechStars, BizSpark, and Xconomy. And, if you like interpretive dance as a way to understand the companies, take a look at the short video below.
Of course, the magic was in the 28 entrepreneurs that went through the program. To all of you, congrats on an awesome first year!
About once a year I completely use up my extrovert capacity. I drain it completely to zero. Whenever this happens, I remember that I’m fundamentally an introvert. If you don’t know how to relate to someone like me when he goes into deep introvert mode, take a look at the great Atlantic Monthly article from 2003 titled “Caring for Your Introvert.”
The last sixty days have been awesome but extremely intense. My ordinarily full days had the Do More Faster book tour layered on top along with a bunch of other public appearances, interviews, speaking engagements, and events. About two weeks ago I started feeling a fatigue that I couldn’t get in front of and the last two weeks pushed me over the edge.
I’ve got one more big extrovert push this week at Defrag this Wednesday and Thursday and then I’m done for a while. Oh – I’ll be available – but if you have a physical sighting of me, you might be interacting with my new avatar.