Crash Dev is created by Chris DeVore. Seattle-based startup guy + seed-stage investor at Founders' Co-op, Managing Director at Techstars Seattle, Stanford GSB, Yale / Y150
I recently had a fun and wide-ranging conversation with a Founders Co-op limited partner (i.e., an investor in our fund) who’s now a principal at another early-stage fund. One of the recurring themes in the discussion was the fractal similarities between starting a new company and starting a new fund — as my friend observed, continue…
I’ve heard several disappointing stories recently from first-time entrepreneurs who are out building their mentor and investor networks. The companies’ specific situations differ, but the basic story goes like this: — A credible-seeming business person reaches out to the company offering “help” with their business or fundraising. — This person represents themselves as an active continue…
Eminently quotable comedian Groucho Marx once sent a telegram to the Friar’s Club of Beverly Hills — to which he belonged — stating: “PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER” This phrase pops into my head at least once a day, usually continue…
WARNING: This is one of those posts I occasionally write to organize my thoughts and test some ideas — it won’t hold together that well and feedback is what I need most, so please comment if you’re interested in the topics below.Q: What do smartphones, robotics, mobile health, quantified self, and the singularity all have in continue…
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…
At the end of a call today with a nascent mobile advertising company, the entrepreneurs described me (fairly) as having dumped “a bucket of cold water” on their idea. When I spoke at a local event a few weeks ago on “location-based services and the mobile ecosystem” (slides below), an attendee pointed out that I 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…
NOTE: I started this post before Steve Jobs announced his resignation as Apple’s CEO, but it’s particularly poignant in light of that news… I had a fun, thought-provoking conversation this morning with Darien Brown, CEO and co-founder of YongoPal (a recent 500 Startups grad). The general theme of our conversation was the new kinds of social continue…
TechCrunch’s article on this financing had already hit Techmeme by 10 this morning so pretty much the entire world has already heard the news, but I wanted to take a minute to officially welcome Habit Labs co-founders Jen McCabe and Buster Benson to the Founders Co-op family. We’ve been looking for a way to work continue…