Sync is Zen Magic

Jean-Gabriel Morard – formerly of SugarSync – has a great post up on GigaOm titled Why Sync Is So Difficult. It was one of the things I read before my run yesterday and it was in my head the entire time. Jean-Gabriel’s main points are: Push sync is deeply asynchronous Sync matches different data models Sync messes with third-party applications Sync is hard to test I sent the URL to Hong Bui, the CEO of Memeo (one of our investments) who responded with “Great article. I agree. Our approach is zen-like, on one use case at a time.”

May 11, 2009 · 2 min

My May Foodzie Care Package

Each month my friends at Foodzie send me and Amy a “blogger care package” to taste and review. My friends Joanne and Fred Wilson also get one – Joanne blogged their reviews earlier this week. Amy’s in Africa so I just ate everything myself in one sitting. I generally have poor impulse control (sort of like Hiro Protagonist) so I didn’t feel like waiting until Amy got home next week. Here’s how it went down in my house.

May 8, 2009 · 2 min

Relationships Matter – A Lot

It blows my mind how many people think they can treat entrepreneurs and other investors poorly and think that it won’t come around to negatively impact them some time in the future. I had two interactions last week with companies around a particular VC investor. I’ve worked with them in the past and had a crummy experience. I have a “fuck me once” rule where I’ll always give someone a second chance, but I’m wary and – if I have a second bad experience – I’m done.

May 8, 2009 · 2 min

How to Raise Capital as a First Time Entrepreneur

Earlier this week Dave Lavinsky, who writes the Growthink Blog, interview me on How to Raise Capital as a First Time Entrepreneur. Other than me doing a crappy job of answering the first question since I was distracted by something going on in my office, I thought Dave put together a great interview. His post also summarizes three important points he drew out of me: Your VC firm is your partner Angel investors are the friend of the first-time entrepreneur Don’t look for investors who are not a good fit If you are a first time entrepreneur, wander over to Dave’s blog and have a listen.

May 8, 2009 · 1 min

I Miss Firefly – xkcd’s The Race

Summer Glau just totally kicks ass. So does xkcd – it’s my every other day dose of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. You’ll have to go to xkcd for the rest of them. Race 2, Race 3, Race 4, and the grand finale – Race 5. How could anyone possibly thing that it was a good idea to cancel this show. Weren’t they afraid Summer might kill them?

May 8, 2009 · 1 min

Gist – My Cerebrum Communicator

Yesterday Gist announced that we led a $6.5m Series A financing. Gist is right in the cross section of our email theme and our implicit web theme. To better understand this, spend three minutes and watch the video below that explains the cerebrum communicator. I first met T.A. McCann, the founder/CEO of Gist, at the Defrag Conference. We helped Eric Norlin create Defrag because we wanted to go hang out with a bunch of smart people and talk / learn about the Implicit Web. At the beginning of Defrag last fall, T.A. sent me a tweet that he was looking for a running partner during the conference. We ran both days, sweated together, and got to know each other. I started playing around with Gist shortly thereafter and was immediately hooked.

May 6, 2009 · 1 min

Browser Innovations – The Blink Tag

Do you remember when the blink tag appeared on the scene? I do. I was giving a reference on a great CEO I’ve worked with since 1996. The VC I was talking to and I took a trip down memory lane to 1994 or so and the blink tag came up. I wondered if it still worked – let’s see. I’ve always hated the fucking blink tag. It’s so obnoxious.

May 4, 2009 · 1 min

The Variable in Work Life Balance

If you watch Lost and are current, you know that the “Variable” is extremely important. As Daniel Faraday says, “we spend way too much time trying to figure out the constants – we need to pay more attention to the variables.” On Saturday I was at the Nantucket Conference (the 10th one.) I did not have a great time getting there (note to self – you get seasick even on the high speed boat thing) but I had a great time hanging out, participating (I was on the VC panel), seeing a bunch of people I hadn’t seen for a while, and meeting some new ones.

May 3, 2009 · 3 min

My Airplane Super Power

I’m a big believer in super powers. Each human has at least one super power even if they haven’t discovered it yet. I fly on planes a lot. While I’m looking forward to my own personal teleportation machine and that damn jetpack that I was promised in my childhood, I survive all the travel I do because of my airplane super power. I can go to sleep immediately upon sitting down in my seat and sleep until the plane begins its final descent, regardless of the length of the flight.

May 2, 2009 · 2 min