Yesterday, I was on a conference call with an entrepreneur that I’ve backed in the past. He wanted to walk me through the idea for a new business that he was working on. His goal was simply to get feedback from me at the very early stage of his idea – he wasn’t pitching me for an investment. We got about five minutes into the pitch when I interrupted him.

I was in a meeting today in Redmond when someone mentioned something about Passport and Live ID. It reminded me of something that happened a few weeks ago that I meant to write about, but forgot. A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting at one of my portfolio companies using the CEO’s computer when I did something that caused a password request box to appear on some random website that I had surfed to. I turned to the CEO and asked “what’s your password that everyone knows.” He laughed and said it out loud, which I then used to log in successfully to the random website. I then turned to the person next to the CEO and said “What’s your password that everyone knows?” He looked shocked and said “I don’t have one.” I responded with “c’mon – of course you do.” “Nope, he replied smugly.” I then asked if his girlfriend knew any of his passwords. His smug look disappeared – he had figured out which of his passwords everyone knew.

Amy and I love art – it is an integral part of our existence on this planet. The Boulder art scene – while modest by New York standards – is vibrant and we love to participate in it whenever we can. One of the major events of the year is the annual Art Auction at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s happening this year on October 19th from 6:30pm – 10:30pm and Amy and I are the title sponsors. If you like art, this is a great venue to see over 75 original pieces – many by local artists – have a fun time hanging out at a great party, and contribute to one of Boulder’s important local arts-related non-profit organizations.

On my Q3 Vacation, I read Anonymous Lawyer and loved it. Jason – one of the lawyers in my life – just read it and had the following to say. It’s a great read for anyone – non-lawyers included. Jeremy blogged as a fictional hiring partner at a top law firm while still a student at Harvard and many people thought he was the real deal. The book is one of the funniest books I have read in recent memory and is the perfect way to unwind at the end of the day or while traveling. Please buy this book so Jeremy doesn’t have to go work at a law firm.

There’s nothing quite like taking a major spill an hour into a 90 minute trail run – in the mountains – alone – early in the morning. At least it matches my shoes and my house. I was going downhill – pretty fast – when all of a sudden I was falling forward for no discernible reason. My knee took most of the impact (hence the torn pants and a cut the size of a silver dollar) – quickly followed by my forearms (yup – I’ve had a lot of practice falling when running.) A 30 second system check later and I was back up on my feet. I shook it off and continued on my way.

All serious runners know that ice has special properties and is a critical part of one’s recovery regimen (e.g. “Sore muscle? Ice it.”) However, I only recently discovered the magic of an ice bath. Last month, immediately after running the Albuquerque Marathon, I went back to my hotel room (the bridal suite at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town – we asked for the “best room”) and immersed myself in a 10 minute ice bath. Amy, Raj, and Stef (my traveling marathon fan club – at least for this race) were in the other room watching the US Open (tennis, not golf) and were subjected to an outburst of “holy fucking shit” and 60 seconds of maniacal laughter as I got used to the temperature. The last 9 minutes were fine, although I was disoriented and bemused when I got out of the tub. I felt great the next day, although I forced myself to take a week off from running (every time I thought about running, Amy said “Brad – rest” using her best golden retriever command voice.)

I woke up to two big local Boulder deals. The first hour of my day (usually 5am – 6am) is “reading time” – online newspaper, catch up on email, blogs – so I always get a good dose of “whatever new happened” first thing in the morning before my run. M&A activity in Boulder is always a highlight, and there were two fun deals today. Our local amazing shoe company – Crocs (which sports a number of now very wealthy angel investors (one of them refers to his Crocs stock as “his shoe money”) – acquired Jibbitz for $10m plus a $10m earnout. Congrats go to Sheri and Rich Schmelzer, who created Jibbitz in their basement in 2005, created a phenomenon that road on the “soul” of Crocs, got the business up to $2m / month in revenue, and scored a great exit. Rich and I worked together for several years on an ill-fated company called Xaffire (which was ultimately acquired by Quest Software, but not for very much.) Nice comeback Rich!

Congrats to my friend Scott Maxwell who just launched his new venture capital firm – OpenView Venture Partners. I’ve gotten to know Scott over the past few years while working together with him on the Microsoft Emerging Business Team Venture Capital Advisory board. Scott is a tireless, deeply focused, thoughtful, and supersmart guy who has developed and perfected his unique approach to venture capital investing at his previous firm Insight Venture Partners. His performance and track record shows and I am happy to count myself as an investor in his new fund.

Pascal Levensohn and his partners at Levensohn Venture Partners have started a new podcast on Venture Capital called VC-Inside Out. The first two episodes are up: (1) Six Early Warning Signs of Trouble in the VC Board Room and (2) Creativity Meets Reality – Understanding the Completeness of your Idea.