Why You Need to Take 50 Coffee Meetings

50 coffee meetings. It should stick in your head as a metaphor for networking. For getting outside of your comfort zone. For starting relationships today that won’t pay off for a year. It’s the entrepreneur’s equivalent of “10,000 hours.”

What Startups Can Learn About PR and Crisis Management

I was recently approached by Fast Company to comment on “crisis management” at startups in the wake of the Airbnb “ranksackgate” story. I agreed to do the interview because the story was about what other companies can learn rather than…

Explaining FNAC: Feature, Not a Company

FNAC. I first heard the term from Chris Fralic at First Round Capital. Feature, not a company.

Why Online / Offline Mobile Integration is Going to be a Huge Business

“People still want calls …”

When I first got into VC I decided I better have some investment themes. My macro theme was “great entrepreneurs” who mapped to my belief system about the…

Avoid Monoculture. Travel. Read Widely. Let Experience be Your Compass.

I sometimes feel that the Silicon Valley culture and we as technologists more broadly can breed monoculture in our approach to entrepreneurship, problem solving, market analysis and technology solutions.

Want to Know How This Guy Got His Startup Endorsed by Oprah?

I’d like to start by asking each of you to consider helping under-privileged children in America get a little bit more than they have today. Sure, you can give a small amount of money. Even $10. Please. It’s better than zero.

Mea Culpa

On this blog I’m often trying to combine lessons for entrepreneurs and market commentary. Yesterday it was my turn for the lesson.

In my zeal to prove a point I often take a strong stance on an issue. I then debate the topic in the comments section and hope that we all learn from the…

Stock Market Drops. Then It Rallies. What Happens Next for Funding?

This article was originally published on TechCrunch.

Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. Why is that? Who knows. But probably because as a group we travel a…