For my second vaccine shot, I went to a large facility where the workers were cheery and friendly. I was in and out in 20 minutes. The process was very smooth from entry to exit. It struck me that I take government for granted. When roads are paved, street lights work, and schools function, I
Category: Books
Book Review: Tom Eisenmann’s ‘Why Startups Fail’
Tom Eisenmann’s Why Startups Fail is a gem of a book. As I’ve blogged before (here), the success rate in venture capital is only about 33%: a super-majority of investments made by people who supposedly know what they’re doing comprises of flops. Some mainstream-media articles extol and chronicle successes that, truthfully, are few in number;
‘Why We Sleep’
I’ve been reading a lot of physical books from our town library since the holidays. Reading has been a healthy way to escape from the news of the day. And, now that the HBS semester has ended, I have more time. On the VC front, I also have more time: the companies on whose boards
Tony Hsieh
I never met Tony Hsieh (pronounced “shay”). But we were in an investment together decades ago, before there was a Zappos, before he was famous, and during the Dot-Com Bubble. When I was working on an investment (Ask Jeeves, which went IPO), I saw “Venture Frogs” listed on the cap table. I asked Rob Wrubel,
‘Just Mercy,’ the Movie
For a thoughtful and poignant movie, look no further than Just Mercy, which is based on Bryan Stevenson’s book of the same name. A sub-group of our family saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it. This is a “real life” story about a man was framed for a murder and put on death row and
D-Day: 75
It is hard to imagine a time when Europe was imprisoned and enslaved, when millions perished in camps, and when democracy was on the verge of being throttled. And, it was just seven decades ago. For my generation, we grew up in the Cold War, practicing “duck and cover” drills at school in case of