brinking.

Seemed appropriate somehow.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:40:01 -0500

Seemed appropriate somehow.

On becoming an investor and joining Spark Capital

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:49:00 -0500

Today I’m thrilled to say I’m joining the team at Spark, making the switch from entrepreneur to investor. I’ve known the guys at Spark for years and have admired the unique approach, and the unqualified success they have had. This is a big switch for me, but made easier by working with close friends that I respect.

As you could imagine I thought about this decision rather carefully. I’ve been an entrepreneur as long as I’ve been anything, and I still have boundless energy to work in startups. For me it felt like time to see if I could shift my focus from building a single company to impacting the broader ecosystem.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a deep believer in startup culture. Not the “startup scene” - who cares about that really - but the engine of learning, risk, and ownership culture that draws so many of us in. Thankfully that ecosystem feels really healthy right now, with more companies starting, and more angels supporting them, in those early days.

As more startups are getting started, the friction has shifted up a level. We need for entrepreneurs to be able to stick with a startup, become CEOs, figure out how their product development scales, and get past the “initial traction” phase. Its a difficult transition, one that I struggled with in my twenties at internetsoccer/Teamtalk, as the company grew from 6 to 300 in a little over a year. More recently for a little under two years at Zynga this same question of how to scale while still being able to maintain an entrepreneurial culture was a constant focus.

Becoming an investor for me feels like allowing myself to work full time on the things I’m already obsessed with. Getting to partner with great entrepreneurs, work with a great team, and making startup growth my field of study.

Stuck Like Glue: Zynga Accounts for 12 Percent of Facebook Revenue in 2011

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:51:43 -0500

Stuck Like Glue: Zynga Accounts for 12 Percent of Facebook Revenue in 2011:

Facebook said social games are currently responsible for “substantially all of our revenue” when it comes from payments.

In December, Zynga went public, raising $1 billion, and is obviously one of the companies most reliant on the social network. But now with Facebook’s financials also public, we can see that the two companies are actually interdependent.

Startups are not a chess game.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:28:00 -0500

One of the really hard things to do as an entrepreneur is to not try and solve for too many problems at once. I’ve found it is one of the first things I end up talking to early stage entrepreneurs about (twice today, actually). And something I struggle with myself.

We like to think strategically: “what if we had that many customers?” “how is this going to scale?” “how would we deal with that competitor if they did this?” This is exacerbated because we spend more time thinking about our business than anyone else. This is made worse because every time we talk to some investor or entrepreneur they ask MORE questions.

We end up playing out options like a chess game and try to optimize for the whole. This, inevitably, means you psych yourself out and get defocused.

At Conduit Labs, we were so obsessed about whether Facebook would own our customer, or control of our experience down the road that it took us forever to move to Facebook. We were thinking strategically, trying to stay two steps ahead, when the #1 question to answer was, “how will you grow users.” The answer, unequivocally, was Facebook and everything else was just over thinking the problem.

You can’t answer all your questions simultaneously, as satisfying as it can be to try and let your brain do it. In early stage startups there is simply too much optionality.

How can you help control this?

Start by trying to list out all the questions your business is trying to answer right now. ie “Will people want to keep using my service?” “Do they want green or blue on the homepage?” “Will they pay?” “How do we protect if google/microsoft/zynga/facebook come at us?” It’s fine to have a really long list, it could take you years to get to all of them.

Then, the key thing is to get ruthless about which of these questions you are trying to answer now, and which you are pushing off.

If done well, you’ll find your team suddenly knows what to do (“I don’t care about CPA optimization right now, just get me a small enough sample of users to prove if it works!”) and it’s a great way to focus the board as well (“Very good point, we’ll solve for that after we’ve finished answering how to make curation better.”).

Try picking just one thing. Try making sure you will knock out of the park in the next 1, 2, or 3 months. It’s incredibly hard. But I think we all intuitively know it virtually never “all comes together” — it happens by simply, clearly, solving things one move at a time.

"Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. Timehop is awesome."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:22:51 -0500

“Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. Timehop is awesome.”

- Timehop, A Time Machine For Your Social Media Updates, Gets $1.1M From Foursquare Founders And Others | TechCrunch

(via rickwebb)

Great day for the company, the industry, and all the great folks...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:29:35 -0500

Great day for the company, the industry, and all the great folks who helped build it. (Taken with instagram)

I’m definitely going to do this just for the hell of...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:00:05 -0500

I’m definitely going to do this just for the hell of it.

Also, Ian, this would seem to imply a loose association. Whereas you would have thought that more restaurants = less groceries this implies something even more interesting. That some months you feel like spending more on everything and some months you feel cheap.

I wonder what the secondary correlation is — if you time-slice it is does it go up over time? Is this about you simply getting richer (secondary Dropbox share selling?). Or perhaps in months you worked really fucking hard you just didn’t spend as much on anything?

Ahhh.. data.

giantrobotlasers:

I expected some kind of more obvious relationship between restaurants and groceries. This is absolute $ spent on each in a given month, as a scatter plot. This is for a family of four living in San Mateo in the Bay Area. Are your results any different?

Pro tip: you can export all your transactions from mint, making it a unified way to get all your banking information. I used to do my own manual categorization. The categorization at Mint is junk because it isn’t 100% and the interface isn’t good for editing like a spreadsheet it. So now the process is mint export CSV -> python script -> csv -> google spreadsheets. I should probably just skip the last step, but it is a good way to do manual editing which seems to always be necessary. For example, checks that I didn’t label in Bank of America’s interface (for non trivial amounts to preschools) show up as uncategorized if the amount varies from the recurring amount.

Side note: I wish google spreadsheets could do a directed scatter plot with a line connecting the dots chronologically. Alternatively, labels on each point would be nice.

24 hours with the Fire

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:57:00 -0500

24 hours in with the Kindle Fire and I feel like I’m coming to the same emotional place as I did with the Droid. The first 10 minutes were “wow, I think this might actually make it!” — but it buckled under extended use from lack of polish.

The good.

Hardware: A better form factor for media consumption than the iPad. ”woah it looks tiny!” were my first thoughts on unboxing. But after a day of use I actually really like the dimensions. Making a tablet able to be held in one hand makes it feel more portable, usable. Ultimately because I have a Macbook Air, I often stare at the iPad when I’m putting things in a bag and think they are just too close to each other to bring both. The Kindle Fire feels like what it should be, a media consumption device somewhere between a phone and a laptop. It makes the iPad feel a little like an underpowered laptop in comparison.

The build quality is pretty good as well, it feels solid in the hand. But you can tell it has cut corners to hit a price point - from the spray-grip rubber backing to the lack of volume buttons. It has the feel that it could have been produced by anyone, not uniquely Amazon.

The Bad

Software: Wonderful home screen and browser, weak app selection. I disagree with Marco on the homescreen here, it is far superior for a media consumption device than iPad. It presents me with the right information (do you want a book? video?) and I get the things I was doing recently in my face instead of a double-tap away. It’s a cleaner way to start a session, and an interesting place where Amazon picked the constraining but simplified interface, while Apple’s is more free form but more confusing.

But the software selection is just too weak once you get past the Amazon apps. A thin selection of games that won’t run, and I just couldn’t find apps I’m starting to rely on (Spotify, Sonos). And why Amazon decided to exclude the core Google Apps (mail, maps, etc) is beyond me — they are the only apps for Android that are actually superior to their iPad counterparts and it is a ridiculous omission.

The Ugly

The UI: If you can’t trust it, it won’t get used.

Requiring a tap to bring up core menu options (like going back to Kindle’s home screen) will be at best unintuitive to the average user and at worst destructive to the user experience (what if I’m playing a game that requires a single click?)
The back button is maddening. Sometimes doesn’t work.
There is often no button to go back to the “Home” of the app you are in, forcing you to hit the back button a lot to get back to home menus (remember, back button only sometimes works). I was often left just exiting the app and re-entering hoping maybe that would take me to the main menu.
In general when I press my finger to the screen I’m not sure if it’s going to work — this is the same problem i’ve had with my Nexus One and other Android devices and it is ultimately the dealbreaker. Touch interfaces require you to feel like you are moving things, as soon as that illusion is broken the entire experience breaks down.

Basically, it feels like the v1 of a typical product (not a typically Apple product). There are enough positives to make it better in some areas, but it’s nowhere near an iPad and the underpowered hardware makes responsiveness destroy the experience.

I love that Android and Amazon are knocking on the door, they are making Apple better (notification tray anyone?) and I’m just waiting for a device that finally turns the corner. Perhaps the new Galaxy Nexus?

This wasn’t actually the ad that introduced the iPod...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:26:00 -0400

This wasn’t actually the ad that introduced the iPod — this ad was

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWqj6OQQOHA

It was more explanatory and certainly less iconic. Usually we don’t get to see Apple’s iterative process - but these two ads show that evolution of the message.

Even though the first ad was largely non-verbal, with great music, it wasn’t enough. Watching that first ad you think, “the most fun is watching that guy dance holding his iPod” And sure enough, that’s the only thing that happens in the next ad. Pushing on the single right idea and bringing it to the forefront - that’s what they do best.

shervster:

Iconic

Reading the Steve Jobs book I was struck by Steve Jobs’ consistent use of iconic imagery and music. Even to the point of minimizing the actual product. His marketing approach was to infuse the very emotional essence and spirit of the product rather than than it’s features. He sold aspirational human emotions as unlocked by the experience of beautifully designed products. As Jony Ive said the product should defer to us. From the very first starkly iconic Macintosh commercial to the fun and joyful introduction of the original iPod, the unifying principal was that icons, symbols speak to the human heart more than any whiz bang technology features. We must remember always that all our innovations should be in service and deeply rooted in the best aspects of our collective human spirit.

Here is the iconic “Hey Mama” iPod commercial that Apple used to introduce the iPod. It also was the first time for many that they were introduced to the now iconic Black Eyed Peas. Watching it I imagined Steve Jobs watching it back when it was originally produced and nodding with a knowingly wise smile across his face. I imagine him envisioning millions of people looking up to watch it for the first time on television and beginning to involuntarily twitch and move their heads, feet and bodies to the rhythm. In those silhouettes we could project our very selves, wearing this new jewelry of the purest white, feeding our souls with a vibrant beat that made us feel so alive with joy and happiness. We couldn’t even see the iPod yet and yet we knew right there and then that it would be ours. And our lives have been lyrical and full of rhythm since. As we dance to our music now, let’s all give a knowing nod and wink to that man who gave us so much of his soul and stirred us to move again.

Entrepreneurship is taking the things we have taken for granted...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:02:54 -0400

Entrepreneurship is taking the things we have taken for granted as being broken and fixing them. Like the thermostat. (PS - I assume someone at Nest may have seen Ambient Devices in their past :)

I’m not a particular fan of Monthly Active Users as a...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:54:24 -0400

I’m not a particular fan of Monthly Active Users as a metric. But still, there have been worse headlines.

Featured in Harvard Square, Made in Cambridge. 25m monthly...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:58:06 -0400

Featured in Harvard Square, Made in Cambridge. 25m monthly users. (Taken with Instagram at MBTA Harvard Square Station)

Moving into our new digs in Harvard Square. Loving it.

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:12:00 -0400

Moving into our new digs in Harvard Square. Loving it.

We are live. (Taken with Instagram at Zynga)

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:33:53 -0400

We are live. (Taken with Instagram at Zynga)

Booze, cake, and the Charles River. Not a bad way...

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:06:00 -0400

Booze, cake, and the Charles River. Not a bad way to celebrate with friends at Zynga Boston.

A little classic americana via the rails on July 4 on Flickr.

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:51:00 -0400

A little classic americana via the rails on July 4 on Flickr.

Quality or quantity

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:00:00 -0400

I’ve been a member of Netflix since the year they were founded, yesterday I cancelled. Netflix remains one of the companies I absolutely love. Their ability to eat away at their current business to invent their next business is inspiring.

But as a user I find I have little time to watch television. If I’m going to fill those hours, I want it to be something really excellent, and I found that HBO Go fit that much more than the largely second rate nature of Netflix’ streaming offering. I would much rather spend an hour on John Adams or The Wire than Killers or The Accidental Spy. Megan and I still go to the movies, so generally the movies we’ve really wanted to see we already saw - but that’s not the case with HBO.

Most people equate quantity with what it takes to scale, and having every movie type, or game genre, or music category, or thought, is certainly a laudable goal. But considering how much media we can actually consume, and how much more discerning we are becoming as our choices increase, there are increasingly companies of huge scale that are doing so by lazer focus on a few products.

- Pixar, Blizzard, Valve, Apple, HBO all focus on a small number of releases that are of the highest quality (Cars 2 and Mobile Me excepted). They rely heavily on trust with their audience, which creates anticipation for new products.

- Electronic Arts, Flickr, Netflix, Amazon, Universal Music all focus on mining massive numbers of SKUs, trying to have breadth while still making smart choices about the few major products to push (“pay attention now!”).

I’m conflating publishers and content creators here, but with good reason - I think the distinction is becoming less relevant. PopCap has relatively few releases, for instance, but they pursue a hybrid developer & publisher strategy. What they have is a brand their players trust. At Conduit Labs we had the largest catalog of music of any music games company, and I’m not sure it was a better choice than perhaps going deep with a few bands that believed in us to build more customized experiences.

It’s worth thinking about where your company lies on the spectrum of quality vs quantity, since I’m pretty sure in the middle is not a good place to be.

Um ... Yeah

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:50:07 -0400

Um ... Yeah:

It’s a VCs job to take meetings. So them reaching out to you is more about them than you.

tedr:

Received: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 12:30 PM

Hi Ted,

My name is Aaron and I’m an analyst with ***** Venture Partners, a $2 billion fund that specializes in profitable, fast-growing software and internet companies. Given Dogster’s impressive track record, I thought that a quick chat about…

Wishing Color the best. Envy gets you nowhere, and building companies is a tough business no matter...

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:39:04 -0400

Wishing Color the best. Envy gets you nowhere, and building companies is a tough business no matter how much money you have.

Bring me men to match my mountains: Bring me men to match my...

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 23:57:00 -0500

Bring me men to match my mountains: Bring me men to match my plains: Men with empires in their purpose and new eras in their brains. - Sam Walter Foss

(taken at top of Elk Camp. Snowmass, CO)