frankly speaking

Bringing (Un)Sexy Back

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:26:00 -0800

When a lot of people start their business, they do it for the wrong reasons - they do it for the parties, they do it for the women (or men), they do it for the press, they do it for the stock and they do it for the money. They go out of their way to try and get a weekly mention by Mike Arrington or a tweet from Sarah Lacy. This can be an effective strategy but it’s not always a winning strategy.

When I opened up the SF office of my current company, there was no new office party where we invited top name reporters hoping that they might drop a mention in their twitter feed or check in to our party on foursquare. Even though our company was founded by a guy who is very well known to a lot of people and backed by a top tier venture capitalist and a premier private equity company, you don’t consistently see us in the headlines.

Our business isn’t sexy - we don’t gamify, pivot or provide platforms for other companies to make money. But we’re good at what we do and we provide a product that serves a lot of people well. We’re not number 1 in our industry (yet) but we are very competitive. We don’t hit a lot of homeruns, but we hit solid doubles and triples. We put points on the board.

The reality is, for all the Mark-Z’s and Dennis Crowley’s in the world, there are hundreds of Joe Businessmans, people whose businesses will never see the front page of TechCrunch or the back page of the New York Times. When you start a company, focus on a the product, market the product well (and efficiently) and everything else will take care of itself.

Crazy post courtesy of @zerohedge showing youth unemployment...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:07:00 -0800

Crazy post courtesy of @zerohedge showing youth unemployment trends in Europe..

"“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”"

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:03:43 -0800

“

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

”

- Leonardo Da Vinci

Disrupting Hollywood

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:06:00 -0800

I took my five-year old to the movies today. I spent $30 combined on tickets and two small popcorns. Here’s the problem, I really don’t have a problem paying that much for a movie, but I know a lot of people that do.

Maybe not this year, and probably not next, but at somepoint, the movie business is going to become more broken that it already is. The masses simply won’t be able to afford to pay $50 to see the next blockbuster. Something has to change.

The technology for that change is already in place. Broadband penetration reaches most rural areas these days. With a couple clicks of my mouse in fact, I could have simply avoided paying the $30 and streamed the movie right from my laptop to my big screen. But, I consider myself somewhat ethical, so I paid to go see it.

Here’s the point - Hollywood needs to realize that there’s a much bigger market potential by streaming first run movies directly into people’s homes rather than forcing them to get a babysitter for their kid, pay for parking, pay $10 per ticket, $30 for snacks and an untold amount of patience for having to sit in a dark auditorium with complete strangers.

To their credit, some movie executives have realized the value of allowing their customers from getting first run movies directly in their homes. Recently (while it was still in theaters) I was able to watch “Margin Call” from the comfort of my home. Sure, I paid my cable provider a premium for watching the movie - a cost I would happily pay for first run movies in the future.

This idea isn’t unique at all; Mark Cuban first floated it a couple years ago (and to his credit, most movies from his production company are streamed via cable companies while they’re in theaters). All someone needs to do is convince the rest of the Hollywood execs of how much they can benefit (read - profit) by taking the same approach.

Funny that Bryce would post this video this weekend. My boss and...

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:30:57 -0800

Funny that Bryce would post this video this weekend. My boss and I were discussing this exact same subject as we were driving up the 101 on Thursday and were passed by an experimental google self-driving car. The funny thing was, he seemed much more comfortable with the concept of self-driving cars than me.

Definitely makes you stop and think about what the next big thing is.

brycedotvc:

I saw this video from Matt Jones last week and I haven’t been able to shake his concept of the robot readable world.

Let the concept, it’s implications and opportunities, rattle around in your head for a bit this weekend

It’s a new year and I think it’s going to be much weirder and interesting than the last one.

Which is why Matt Jones discussing the opportunity of making the world more robot readable is required weekend viewing on BRYCE DOT VC.

Luxury Rap - let’s be honest. Kanye and to a lesser...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:25:00 -0800

Luxury Rap - let’s be honest. Kanye and to a lesser extent, Jay-Z get a bad name from a lot of people for the genre of music they are involved in. They rap about everything to women, to cars to ridiculous vacations. Most people will never be able to experience what these two guys experience. These guys are aspirational rappers - Jay transformed from a realist (well, I guess he still is a realist). He’s a guy who talked about what life was like selling dope, to a guy who now talks about decking out his bathroom with pieces of art worth millions.

Both of these guys never thought they would be where they are today. They really enjoy what they’re doing, and it shows up in everything they do, especially in their latest album ‘Watch the Throne”

The above video shows a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes in producing an aspirational form of art.

Making Goals More Manageable

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:15:59 -0800

Setting goals this time of year has become pretty cliche. That said, very few people who don’t set goals for themselves rarely do anything of significance in their lives. With that in mind, I think we can all agree that it’s important to set some sort of goal for yourself, no matter how big or small.

I set a lot of goals last year - 10 in total. I didn’t accomplish all of them, but I got to most of them. As I wrote earlier, some of them forced me to change, while others forced me to become better.

This year, I’m changing my approach a little. Thanks to my friend Dave (read his post here), I too have decided to focus narrowing the list of things I want to accomplish. Instead of focusing on 10 or even 5 things I want to do, I’m drastically cutting down the number of goals I want to accomplish.

This year, I’m focusing on 3 things in my personal life, and 1 thing in my professional life. The key obviously, is when I accomplish these things, I want to do them really, really well. I want to focus on the details and make sure that come this time next year, I can review the things I set out to accomplish and say to myself, “Damn, I really nailed that.”

siliconvalleyryangosling: Hey girl. I’m sorry Sean Parker...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:56:55 -0800

siliconvalleyryangosling:

Hey girl. I’m sorry Sean Parker didn’t reply to your really nice email asking him to join your advisory board. Let’s make some hot cocoa and browse AngelList.

So money, it’s not even funny…

Happy Holidays…

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:21:02 -0800

Happy Holidays…

Reflections on 2011

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:44:03 -0800

2010 was not a good year for me. I’ll spare you the details, suffice to say that the year ended with a thud. My professional life was spiraling out of control fast, so fast in fact that it was beginning to affect my personal life. I was unsure of where I wanted to be and where I wanted to go.

What a difference a year makes.

I’ve spent the last few days reflecting on 2011 and specifically reviewing all of the professional and personal goals that I set out to attain. I can’t say that I checked every one of them off the list, but I came pretty damn close. I can say that at the end of this year, I’m heading in the exact opposite direction as I was heading in at the end of 2010.

So, what changed?

During the first few months of the year, I consciously rededicated my life to living up to ethics and morals that were taught to me while growing up, regardless of what it would cost me. I made some some changes in my personal life that resulted in unexpected positive outcomes in my professional life.

I know this post is pretty cryptic and it was kind of meant to be that way. The point of it is to say that when you focus on change, and most of all changing for the right reasons, it can result in positive things that you never thought possible.

I’m also trying to say that no matter where you are in life, you can always make a decision to change. Whether things are going well for you, or your back is up against the wall. You have the power to change. The outcomes that result will not always be favorable, but the key is to learn how you got to those outcomes and adjust as necessary.

Style. (via)

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:55:18 -0800

Style. (via)

This is a little project that I put together for work. It...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:54:00 -0800

This is a little project that I put together for work. It outlines how people feel and gives a clearer idea about what #OWS is all about

"“Fuck this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be.”"

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 15:19:12 -0800

“

Fuck this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be.”

”

- Genius at work… More here

Who says my parents weren’t trendsetters..

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 15:01:23 -0800

Who says my parents weren’t trendsetters..

What Are You Afraid Of?

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:39:03 -0700

What Are You Afraid Of?:

Bryce had a really good post on fear yesterday. Definitely required reading…

My daughter dressed up as Justin Bieber for Halloween.

A few weeks ago this wasn’t a big deal.

She’s a Belieber through and through. Always has been. But when she started talking about costumes with kids at school she started to worry. All of the kids in her class and all of her friends…

I’ll be wearing these on the fresh train. New York Knick...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:00:00 -0700

I’ll be wearing these on the fresh train. New York Knick Air Jordans. (via)

The Others

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:23:00 -0700

Like a lot of my colleagues and friends, I’ve taken great interest in the #occupywallstreet movement that is taking place in many cities across the nation. Unlike some of the people involved, I don’t cleanly fit in either the 1% or the 99%, so I’ve been watching to try and really figure out what this is about and where I belong.

I don’t belong in the 1% crowd - I don’t own a yacht or a plane, nor do I make over one million dollars a year. Also, I believe I could afford to pay more taxes (as long as they didn’t go to pay for idiotic wars or pay for ‘green’ technology that has thus far proved to be useless). I do think the inequality that exists has run away with itself, but this is more of a function of capitalism rather than ignorance (or maybe it’s ignorance rather than capitalism - but that’s a blog post for another time).

Unlike some of the 99%, I’m not faced with crushing debt, chronic unemployment or general disillusionment. I don’t think banking is (in and of itself) immoral nor do I think all politicians are corrupt and self-interested (call me naive). Sure, I’ve had some bad luck in the past couple years, but I’ve managed to battle my way back and now I feel like I’m on top of the world.

I do think the country has lost its way. I don’t think we are the greatest in the world, but I do think we offer people the most opportunity and hope for success. I do hope (again, perhaps naively) that we will once again find our way and again regain our place as the country everyone in the world looks to leadership in hard times.

To be honest, I was feeling quite lost about this #occupywallstreet movement but then I came across this blog from Brendan today about how some of the others are feeling and very well articulates how I feel:

We have only one thing in common with the rest of the 99% – we hate where we are headed.

We hate that we blindly accepted finance and consulting as what all the smart grads did.
We hate that we were sold on nobility, fortune, and a brand name that our parents would love.
We hate that the 16 hour days we work make no dent in the world.

We are crew members on the 1% ship, and we want mutiny. Fortunately, we have the connections, information, money and fury to lead it.

What happens because of this movement in the next weeks and months will be very telling towards where we had as a country. We have the power to effectuate the change that was promised to us 3 years ago. The bar is not high. We, however, have to be willing to just do it.

#OccupyWallStreet (via)

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:30:56 -0700

#OccupyWallStreet (via)

I always find these start-up quotes silly, but I thought this...

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:34:37 -0700

I always find these start-up quotes silly, but I thought this one was kind of worthwhile.

Who are the Influencers? (via Bryce)

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 10:56:32 -0700

Who are the Influencers? (via Bryce)