Disqus - Friends of awarms

Re: Hacking Education

davidblerner — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:49:52 -0000

Thanks for the video Brad- definitely hits the mark. Taylor was way out ahead of his time on this same mission no doubt born of the same frustrations back in '99 I believe. He was still a professor at Williams then and helped launch the Global Education Network with Herb Allen's backing. Here's a great NY Times article about the beginning of the whole rollicking and ill-fated saga: http://bit.ly/2WMpOt
Dave

Re: 10 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Be Reading

davidblerner — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:31:17 -0000

Jon- Someone needed to do this and you finally did. We now have one singular post to which to refer on this topic. Your final point about 'you reading you' is highly orginal and makes sense. In putting your thoughts to paper you are forced to organize your disparate musings into a more cohesive framework. Thank a lot!
Dave

Re: Best Thing I Saw Today

davidblerner — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:30:22 -0000

That last girl was clearly headed towards being a tech investor!

Here's an idea- why doesn't USV or some group of us put together an experimental venture program run by kids and see how they do?

Names anyone? I vote to call it Young People Ventures.

Re: Heyzap

davidblerner — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:49:09 -0000

Count me as a beta-tester of the chess program. I could see this getting addictive but might put it up on my blog anyway. For the chessplayers in this community, here's my miniature with White against the advanced level in the Scandanavian Defense:
e2-e4 d7-d5
002. e4xd5 Qd8xd5
003. Nb1-c3 Qd5-e5
004. Bf1-e2 e7-e6
005. Ng1-f3 Qe5-f6
006. d2-d4 Bf8-b4
007. Bc1-g5 Bb4xc3
008. b2xc3 Qf6-f5
009. Be2-d3 Qf5-d5
010. 0-0 Qd5-c6
011. c3-c4 f7-f6
012. d4-d5 Qc6-d7
013. d5xe6 Qd7-d6
014. Bg5-h4 Bc8xe6
015. Bh4-g3 Qd6-d7
016. Rf1-e1 g7-g5
017. Nf3xg5 f6xg5
018. Qd1-h5 Ke8-f8
019. Bg3-e5 Be6-g4
020. Qh5xg5 h7-h6
021. Qg5-f4 Kf8-e7
022. Be5-d6 Ke7-d8
023. Qf4-f8 Qd7-e8
024. Qf8xe8
checkmate

Re: Heyzap

davidblerner — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:26:16 -0000

I'll keep you posted. You always have to start with chess- the king of all games....

Re: Gary Vaynerchuk - Scaling Caring, my #140conf talk This is a quick...

davidblerner — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:30:31 -0000

Gary- You're one of the guardians of our entrepreneurial ecosystem- putting yourself out there and looking out for other people along the way. It is about caring.
I actually wrote about this today: http://bit.ly/bbA9j .... told the story of the legendary Dersu Uzala... you and others might get a kick out of it, enjoy... my twitter is here: @davidblerner
Dave

Re: Angel Investors' Blogs - Angel Investor Bloggers | Angel Capital Blogs

davidblerner — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:24:35 -0000

Basil- thanks for this post... I'm also one of these hybrids I guess, but blog about entrepreneurship, angel investing and university spin-offs...
dave

Re: Directory of Blogs by Entrepreneurs

davidblerner — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:18:06 -0000

Furquan- I'm a serial entrepreneur now spinning off 10-12 companies a year from the university space... www.davidblerner.com .. I write about entrepreneurship, angel & vc investing and university spin-offs primarily...
Regards,
Dave

Re: Angel Investors' Blogs - Angel Investor Bloggers | Angel Capital Blogs

davidblerner — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:15:46 -0000

Many thanks Basil.
dave

Re: Witnessing the Hudson River Crash Live from a Kayak Just Across the River

davidblerner — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:44:12 -0000

Charlie- thanks for sharing this.... just a terrible loss of life

dave

Re: The NYC Web Startup Sector

davidblerner — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:55:52 -0000

Fred- hope this is not coming in too late but perhaps we can mention something about how the university spin-off activity in NYC has really been picking up as well? I run the Venture Lab at Columbia and can tell you that we just spun-out 13 companies in FY 2009 and as a school have just surpassed 100 spinoffs historically... Granted many of them have been life sciences- but IT and consumer internet plays are on the rise at the b-school and from the undergrad ranks... I've been posting about this lately here: www.davidblerner.com
All the best for your talk.
Regards,
Dave

Re: The NYC Web Startup Sector

davidblerner — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:44:42 -0000

It's definitely getting going... we've now spun-off 100 companies: http://bit.ly/4bkwRV
and here are a bunch of our historical exits: http://bit.ly/3RvQKr
(Albert's been helping us with one we're about to spin-off)
All the best,
dave

Re: Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers

davidblerner — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:58:01 -0000

Bravo Mark. Yes- can't agree with you more... spent seven years in my first company doing exactly this... everything and anything. It's the only way.
Loving your blog by the way- just put it on my BlogRoll. A real pleasure.
Dave

Re: A VC: The Double Opt-In Introduction

davidblerner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:12:15 -0000

Bravo Fred. I think this is a common courtesy folks should observe. Otherwise it can often be a significant imposition.

Re: How to select your angel investors

davidblerner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:21:53 -0000

Agree entirely. In my experience, the higher the profile, the less engaged the investor. I like the "varied model"... mixing it up works so long as there are no outrageously massive egos on the celeb side.

Re: Good Judgment Comes with Experience, But Experience Comes from Bad Judgment

davidblerner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:32:28 -0000

keep it coming Mark- great stuff. (the pattern recognition thing has been stunning to me as well in my own life as an investor). basically, i think it boils down to this: you were a lot better at entrepreneurship your second time around as compared to the first. kind of a no-brainer....

Re: Save Your Spin for Someone Who Cares

davidblerner — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:42:48 -0000

Thanks for another great post Mark- you've really become my favorite blog. This kind of real-world wisdom is very helpful and this last post definitely resonated with me. Keep it coming please!

Re: What Makes an Entrepreneur (2/11) – Street Smarts

davidblerner — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:29:42 -0000

Another fantastic post.... This particular line grabbed me:
"The CEO was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Went to the right schools / worked at the right strategic consultancies."
Over the years I've met many of these intelligent, well-groomed, well-intentioned folks of this "pedigree" and yet not surprisingly they are consistently over-matched by street-smart competitors, customers, circumstances, you name it. As an investor, I've almost exclusively gravitated towards the scrappy street-fighter who enters the arena with some mud and grime on his uniform already.

Re: What Makes an Entrepreneur (3/11) – Ability to Pivot

davidblerner — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:15:10 -0000

I've learned this lesson (as I assume most investors do) the hard way. (Is there any other way?) We backed a guy who was so determined and tenacious that we knew he would almost "die trying". What we didn't realize is that he lacked flexibility and would never budge from trying to make a failing model work somehow. Needless to say the result was not a good one. So I guess what I'm trying to say in the wake of these two excellent posts is that tenacity without the flexibility ("ability to pivot") is not enough. You really need to have both of these qualities. Wow this is a tough business!

Re: So what does an EIR (at First Round… in New York City…) do?

davidblerner — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:20:05 -0000

great post Charlie and wish you lots of success.... you are perfect for this role. hopefully the Ace Hotel obliges...

Re: What Makes an Entrepreneur (4/11) – Resiliency

davidblerner — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:55:14 -0000

Mark- you should change the name of this blog to "Suster's EIA": (Entrepreneurs/Investors Anonymous), or simply to "RocknRolla for Entrepreneurs".... If you saw that movie, (Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla), there's a hilarious scene where the two Russian veteran mobsters are in the car heading to an "assignment" and keep showing each other these brutal knife scars and bullet wounds and laughing about each one, (each of which has its own story).... that's what I feel like when I read your blog.... keep the stories coming- great stuff! -Dave

Re: How To Get Me To Hang Up On You

davidblerner — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:31:25 -0000

In my early days as an entrepreneur in the healthcare space (working with a lot of physicians) this type of behavior was par for the course. Though I come from a family with a lot of physicians, I must say that I have never again encountered a class of professional that feels so privileged and behaves so imperiously. How many times did I receive a call like this... "Hello, I've got Dr. So and So on the line for you....". I think I've enjoyed the transition to tech a great deal in part because for the most part people in the tech community are so much more down to earth.

Re: How To Get Me To Hang Up On You

davidblerner — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:37:04 -0000

hilarious...

Re: What Makes an Entrepreneur (5/11) – Inspiration

davidblerner — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:42:36 -0000

That's it, I now have zero excuse. As a former scrum-half and wing-forward, I will be trudging through the snow to see Invictus today. You also mention the certain "X Factor"... I couldn't agree more and posted on just this element in the "start-up equation" some months ago here: http://bit.ly/HZg75

Re: What Makes an Entrepreneur (5/11) – Inspiration

davidblerner — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:46:32 -0000

Rugby is alive and well in the small colleges on the coasts in the US.... mine was Williams College RFC..... I remember one year we had a South African student show up and he was also a junior world-class sprinter.... he was leaving a trail of destruction on the pitch.... it was astonishing.... sadly, the berkshire mountains were too tame a place for him and he promptly left for places with more of a night life, etc....