I’ve always been kind of a word geek. One of my favorite games when I was a kid was “Mad Libs“, a notebook of short stories with blank spaces provided for strategically placed nouns, adjectives and verbs. Depending on the words you or your friends chose, the resulting story could be hilarious, obscene, or just continue…
Andy and I spend a good amount of time talking about startup ideas we’d like to see at Founders Co-op. Sometimes we get so excited about an idea we start it ourselves, but that’s not something we can do every day. So I was inspired the other day to hear that Y Combinator had initiated continue…
I’ve spent more time on planes than usual lately, which means I’ve actually had time to read something more than my inbox, feed reader and streaming-sources-of-distraction. Two recent reads worth mentioning for this audience are: Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big (Bo Burlingham) This book did nice job of articulating continue…
I’m sitting in the Denver airport heading home (if the air travel gods allow it) from TechStars Boulder Demo Day 2009. I’ve been a fan of the organization since it started, not least because Brad Feld (a Judy’s Book investor and board member) is a prime mover behind the project. But this was my first continue…
One of the most accurate business cliches I know of is this one: “success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Most good entrepreneurs come up with new business ideas constantly, but also know from experience that those ideas have no value if they aren’t backed up with commitment, sustained effort and constant adaptation to market continue…
…and The Google taketh away. All of our companies at Founders Co-op rely on organic search traffic to drive revenue and margin (some more so than others), and we’re very careful to stay well on the “white hat” side of SEO best practices to ensure that our hard-fought gains on that front are lasting. But continue…
A few weeks ago VentureBeat emailed to tell me that AppStoreHQ had been selected as one of seven finalists for the Best Services Startup competition at their upcoming MobileBeat show. More than 100 companies had applied for the competition, so I was stoked to get picked but had no real expectation of winning. We just continue…
I love the New York Times – it’s one of the only publications I still read in paper form (every day, no less), so it’s always a good day when one of my projects gets a mention in the Gray Lady. Today was that day for AppStoreHQ. Roy Furchgott gave us a nice shout-out in continue…
A few months back a friend here in Seattle asked if I’d like to help out with a new non-profit idea he’d been cooking up. My friend – Digvijay Chauhan – had worked in the U.S. for years, first at Microsoft and later as co-founder and CTO of AskMe. But he was born and raised continue…
Just a quick update for those of you following our investment in Frugal Mechanic: Eric and Tim don’t make much noise but they’re quietly dominating the world of auto parts price comparison. That may not sound like a big market, but DIY auto parts is actually a $19B market in the U.S. alone, and none continue…