January 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Hiring Lessons from Craft Coffee (part 1)
Craft Coffee is hiring. If you’re interested, check out our jobs page at http://craftcoffee.com/jobs
Hiring at a startup is a big deal. The people you bring on board will be the foundation of a company that is expected to do a lot with a little. You’re expected to grow a lot and to do it quickly—all based on the blood, sweat and tears of your core team. At Craft Coffee, the...
1 tag
Oh Forsaken Album
Fred Wilson wrote a post a couple days ago talking about how experiencing music has changed for him. Everything is digital and social and streaming and such.
I would just like to say that this might be how things are now, but I think that sucks.
It’s true that most albums, in toto, are not great. But isn’t that the point, Fred? A great album is a beautiful work of art. For me,...
July 2011
2 posts
June 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Dear Entrepreneurs,
You’re awesome! You envision ideas that don’t yet exist, and you manifest them into the world through passion and pure force of will.
Along the way, lots of people will try to hold you back and pin you down. Investors can be good. But remember that you’re building the company, not them. Don’t give them undo credence.
Folks will sometimes come along wanting all the...
April 2011
1 post
2 tags
Open-Sourcing WhatIsFresh.com
About 18 months ago, I taught myself to code in Ruby on Rails by building a site called WhatIsFresh.com. WhatIsFresh is a guide to local food and farmers markets in New York City.
Open-Source It?
Some folks have floated me the idea of open-sourcing at least some elements (but maybe all) of the WhatIsFresh code, so that a larger community could make it a more robust (and possibly, national)...
March 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Die Faxes Die
My legal clients face endless hassles around both scanning and faxing documents. From signature pages to state filing requirements, faxes (and/or scanning issues) just won’t seem to die. I’m hard pressed to think of any legitimate reason why anybody should need to fax a document in 2011.
I’ve recently come across two solutions that aim to fight this pain. Note that I have not...
1 tag
“Do you ever wonder why we …
Need to be so far away?
Just the little...”
– A song I wrote in 2006
2 tags
Where Have You Had Issues with Convertible Notes?
I’m putting together an outline for my blog series on convertible note financings in early stage Internet investments.
If you’ve raised money with a convertible note in the past, I’d love to hear about issues that you had in communicating the concept to investors. Better yet, if you have tried to raise money with a convertible note in the past, but your potential investors...
3 tags
Convertible Notes (a series)
As a founder, I’ve raised money for startups a couple times over the last few years. I’m also an experienced business lawyer, so I see early stage financings from two sides of the equation.
This post is about convertible note financings in very early stage Internet companies. There are plenty of resources online explaining the basics of equity vs. convertible note transactions,...
February 2011
1 post
5 tags
Furious Creativity
For me, web development work tends to happen in intense periods of productivity. I might sit around for hours before the productive patch hits and then I’m off to the races, sometimes coding through the early hours of the morning.
On occasion, as the hours tick by into the a.m. and the sky starts to lighten, I fall into a groove. In my experience, this happens with most creative...
January 2011
1 post
2 tags
WatchThis is an inspiring and insightful interview with a guy who started with so little and made so much out of it.
brycedotvc:
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jay Z as both an artist and an entrepreneur. He’s built a genere defining career around reflecting on his life and teasing out stories that frighten, warn and inspire others on their own journey. This Oprah Master Class is Jay Z at...
December 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Phish - New Years Eve (12/31/99)
This afternoon Andy Weissman mentioned on Twitter that he got his Phish ticket in the mail for New Years Eve this year at MSG. This got me daydreaming about a lot of fun times I used to have at Phish concerts on big holidays. I was at Halloween ‘95 in Chicago, ‘98 in Vegas, New Years ‘96 in Boston and New Years ‘98 in New York.
But the biggest one of all was December...
November 2010
6 posts
2 tags
Custom Blend
After the last round of photo shoots for CraftCoffee.
4 tags
In my neighborhood we have ...
Marques Toliver on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg Brooklyn.
He’s amazing. http://www.myspace.com/marquestoliver
1 tag
Thanksgiving
1 tag
Pistachios
I spent some time de-shelling pistachios this Thanksgiving.
1 tag
Green Tea
4 tags
In my neighborhood we have ...
March 2010
2 posts
Farm Humor
I run a website called WhatIsFresh.com, so for a city guy I talk to a lot of farmers. Recently, one of our farmer friends forwarded me this joke…
A Montana rancher got in his pickup and drove to a neighboring ranch and knocked at the door. A young boy, about 9, opened the door. “Is your Dad home?” the rancher asked. “No sir, he isn’t,” the boy replied....
“Babies at birth until 6 mos old are citizens of the world. They can discriminate...”
– Dr. Patricia Kuhl on Charlie Rose, Brain Series (http://bit.ly/cq8JWu)
February 2010
1 post
“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact...”
– Read the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/politics/03military.html
December 2009
2 posts
“Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in.
Are you aware the shape I’m in?
My hands...”
– http://myplay.com/audio_player/avettbros/341693/492534/492546?allowBrowsing=0
““You can almost hear the music – an algorithm and blues soundtrack –...”
– A poetic rant against free by Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton. Read the whole thing: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-world-newspaper-congress-dow-jones-ceo-beware-of-geeks-bearing-gifts/
September 2009
1 post
August 2009
3 posts
1 tag
WatchFascinating stuff.
IE 6 No More ... →
More power to you!
July 2009
2 posts
1 tag
One Step Closer to Skinny Pill! →
