In the afternoon today, I went to Future Forward, the conference that Scott Kirsner puts on every year. He had a line-up of speakers, each of whom were given 10 minutes to talk about a weighty topic. A bit like TED Talks. There were a lot of great speakers. I enjoyed all of them and wanted
Category: Entrepreneurship
‘Unpitch’ VCs (and, Thank You Scott Kirsner)
Many good things happened at the MassTLC unConference. One was that Scott Kirsner asked people in the crowd whether they would support a meet-the-VCs event that was free to entrepreneurs. You see, there are some conferences put up where VCs are invited to speak and entrepreneurs get to pitch them. The former aren’t charged while the
How to Be Happy?
Friday was a great day, as I spent it at the MassTLC unConference. It was a fun time to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and learn about some cool stuff. Also, Anne C. Mitchell and I helped direct a conversation called “Brains & Bliss.” We covered two agenda items: what does the latest neuroscience research
‘Brains & Bliss’: My Talk at the MassTLC unConference
As a VC, one of my jobs is to answer this question: which entrepreneurs will succeed and who will not? The answers are not obvious, IMO. I don’t find that success is linked to race, gender, education level or family background. I do think, however, that success is linked to grit and the ability to
On AngelList, Transparency Cuts Both Ways
I’m a big fan of AngelList, the crowd-funding platform. Great UI/UX, awesome cutting-edge philosophy and it is helping entrepreneurs overall. I don’t know Naval and Nivi, the founders, but I’ve only heard great things about them. As you may have read, the SEC has relaxed its rules on solicitation, and it is making for some
Jack Dorsey, A Young Billionaire
There’s a very good profile of Jack Dorsey in the recent New Yorker. If you use Twitter as a social media channel or use Square as a form of payment, you may know that he co-founded both. Forbes thinks he is America’s sixth-youngest billionaire. The writer does a really good job of chronicling his pre-fame