I’ve been thinking about the future of work lately, and I keep coming to the same puzzling conclusion: there is a seemingly unbridgeable gap in the market for engineering talent between the elite class of software “makers” and the wealthy enterprise customers who most need their help. The story goes something like this: As Marc continue…
A few months ago I was invited to speak to the Bellevue, WA chapter of Rotary International on my favorite topic: how to create a globally competitive early-stage technology ecosystem here in the Pacific Northwest. As I was putting my thoughts together (full deck below + full props to Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, Mark Suster and Marcelo continue…
I spent last Thursday up in Vancouver BC at GrowConf (thanks again to Boris Wertz and Debbie Landa for the kick in the pants) and was incredibly impressed both by the quality of folks who showed up, and by the overall energy of the scene up there. Andy and I created Founders Co-op to help build continue…
A few weeks ago I read a fantastic blog post by Venkat Rao titled “A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100” (hat tip to Paul Kedrosky for the lead). Apart from just being a great read, the macro thesis of the post — that the corporation is no longer the primary locus of commercial innovation continue…
This article originally appeared on Seattle 2.0 Early-stage investors (disclosure: I’m one of them) are famous for saying ‘no’. Entrepreneurs seeking capital will spend hours building PowerPoint decks, crafting emails and asking friends for introductions to prospective investors, only to receive an inbox full of one-line ‘thanks but no thanks’ replies. And that’s when they continue…
A few weeks ago Fred Wilson reflected on the tight market for engineering talent: “[T]here is a war for talent, particularly developer talent, going on. Not just in Silicon Valley but also in NYC and many other places around the country.” In chemistry terms, developers are now the limiting reagent for high-growth software firms. The scarcity continue…
A lifetime ago (actually in the mid-1990’s) I worked for an outdoor apparel company called Patagonia, running several of their product lines and leading their first foray into online retailing. The company was (and is) still owned and the original founder, Yvon Chouinard. Yvon is a brilliant entrepreneur who defies easy classification: a gifted capitalist continue…
Step 1: From Team + Opportunity to Company Just over a year ago Founders Co-op invested in a new company called Untitled Startup. The co-founders, Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi, were well-known hackers in the social media community. They knew that social media marketing was headed for the mainstream and had a long list of continue…
Today the White House announced Startup America, a new economic initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. I’m proud to announce that Founders Co-op is a launch partner for this initiative as a charter member of the TechStars Network. Andy and I started Founders Co-op to help the best local technology continue…