October 2008
25 posts
2 tags
Today's Startup Advice
A lot of startup advice today from other entrepreneurs. Listed in no particular order:
Seed and angel money is gone if not going away for a while.
As always, raise more than you need, but now with the goal of simply surviving the economic downturn.
An entrepreneur should be able to do three things:
Sell something
Tell a story
Be Objective
Ideas are stupid, tell everyone your know...
September 2008
15 posts
3 tags
6 tags
Silent Runs
This new century and all of its technology has changed the way a number of things look from the outside. One thing I’m pretty sure almost nobody considered until now was how bank runs would look in the age of computers.
IndyMac, WaMu and now WB’s failures illustrate this phenomenon. Around $100 Million a day was being drawn from IndyMac, and over $1B a day from WaMu leading up to...
Playing a Game With the Economy
No, this isn’t a post about how the economic bailout plan has been politicized by the presidential candidates. I said no more politics, remember?
This is about a great post I saw that talks about how the changes to the Plan to make it more palatable to those who are putting the $700B might defeat the plan’s effectiveness, even if they do make it more fair.
The article uses Game...
As Nelson would say, "HA, HA" →
2 tags
The Caffeine Habit
I’ve gone off (and rebounded) the caffeine habit at least 5 times, so I’ve got ample experience. Here are my findings:
Cold Turkey
This is the most painful and least effective method. You are likely to get splitting headaches every day for around a week and a half, and then there will be some time where you are still groggy before you start to feel normal. Even after being off...
Today's Startup Advice
In no particular order here is the advice I was given today by other entrepreneurs:
Revenue is instant validation. Once you have even one person paying you for what you produce, you have validated your model, and your valuation instantly changes.
Find the right lead investor and once they really understand the idea, they will find the right people to get involved.
http://www.1440wallstreet.com/index.php/site/comments/james_chanos_and_jim_grant_stand_up_for_capitalism/
StockJockey has the transcript of an interview with James Chanos and Jim Grant that was on Bloomberg, which contains some great opinions on the current round of bailouts. There are some real gems inside:
“capitalism on the up-side and socialism on the down-side”
“Our...
Scary: Best 2 day rally since 1929 →
2 tags
Other Ideas to Stimulate the Economy
The SEC banned short-selling of financial stocks. While some use “logic” to demonstrate this is a “bad idea”, I say why stop there? Here are my proposals.
Immediately ban layoffs and terminations of any employees. Goodbye unemployement issues!
Impose an immediate $5000+ fee for leaving the US. This will help recoup money from visiting foreign nationals, or encourage...
1 tag
My One and ONLY Political Post
“I don’t see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you”
- Anyone Else But You, The Moldy Peaches
I follow politics, I vote, I have strong opinions, even — I simply don’t see the point of political debate. No amount of debate will change someone’s mind about politics. Chances are if you are in a debate with someone, they’ve already made up their...
3 tags
Today's Startup Advice
In no particular order here is the advice I was given today by other entrepreneurs:
Get really good card-stock and fancy business cards (suggested this place) some people will think you are as cheap as your business cards.
Again, I’ve heard it both ways. You also don’t want to look like you’re wasteful.
Keep your business burn rate and personal burn rate as low as...
3 tags
The Goal of the Advice Seeker
One of the things you learn in golf is to fight the instinct to tweak your form to incorporate whatever worked well on your last shot. Invariably it doesn’t work, so you make another tweak and another until soon your swing no longer reflects any of the basics you’ve practiced. If you’ve golfed much, you’ve probably also been on the course with some helpful person who...
