Disqus - Latest Comments for danielharan

Re: Feature Friday: Trust

danielharan — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 10:46:55 -0000

VC principals often confuse the spelling of principles ;)

Re: Employee Equity: Too Little?

danielharan — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 11:20:12 -0000

If I gave 4 employees 5% each instead of raising a seed round, would you be more or less likely to invest in a series A?

Re: Founder’s Syndrome and Origin Stories

danielharan — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 09:59:38 -0000

Starting companies to hand them off is rather fascinating. Do you have any advice for doing this well?

Re: Open Source and Our Government

danielharan — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:21:43 -0000

Part of what makes open source successful isn't just cost: it's that the projects can start with a small scope. Big, useful systems never start big; they evolve from small, successful ones.

Comparisons with Facebook and other big sites fail at understanding that crucial point. None of these had to support 100 million people on day 1.

So while open-sourcing the components is a useful idea, the way that will work is politically unpalatable. Take a random state, a selection of a few cities or counties, and roll out the site there first.

Re: Is Growth Hacking the Future of Marketing? — Ecommerce Blog by Shopify

danielharan — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:20:14 -0000

I can't speak of any growth hacks I've used or implemented, but promise to review the book on my blog if I get a copy :)

Re: The Sharing Econonmy

danielharan — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 11:16:39 -0000

It still doesn't capture the trust metrics that the facilitators are accumulating. Lyft and Airbnb know a whole lot more about you, which makes it easier for 2 unknown people to trust each other.

Many assets are also underused, yet we only realize they are once technology makes sharing easier. Short-term rental of private parking garages due to RFID, or Breather renting rooms by the hour because your phone can unlock it.

"Excess capacity utilization markets created by technology and enabled by trust brokers" is a bit of a mouthful :)

Re: The Sharing Econonmy

danielharan — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 11:12:13 -0000

The sharing economy has impacts on consumption, production and investment in those assets.

Consumption: Airbnb has changed the way I go looking for an apartment. It's easier for me to consider adding an extra bedroom if I think it will more than pay for itself, just as it's easier for me to buy a car if it pays for 80% of its costs when I'm not using it.

Production: If enough people think like me, smart landlords may be able to consider sharing-friendly infrastructure. Your phone should be able to open my front door; the camera should go to my phone even if I'm not home.

Competition: Self-driving cars also put Zipcar in competition with Lyft and Uber.

Re: Decoupling Advisory From Custody

danielharan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:53:11 -0000

Doesn't this open things up for momentum investors and front-running? If a message goes to a large number of investors all holding the same equity, slippage should start affecting returns?

Re: The Incredible Waste of Food at Events

danielharan — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:46:16 -0000

Bingo: "makes any food in advance". Batch work creates waste.

The opportunity isn't to find a way to donate all this food or better plan amounts; it's in replacing a batch process with on-demand preparation.

Re: SF things

danielharan — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:50:24 -0000

Like medallions, the function of credentialing MD and lawyers should be separated from the power to set how many people can enter the field.

(Also: happy to see more people discuss zoning and density. That's absolutely key if SF is to keep growing)

Re: In the long run, we’re all still exposed to risk

danielharan — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:14:09 -0000

So, we're measuring risk by variance in stock prices, while recognizing that the real risk is in things like "war[s], government interference, and financial collapse, some stock markets disappear[ing] altogether"

Before making further conclusions about portfolio management, wouldn't it make sense to take a second look at our definition risk?

Related: has anyone done for finance what psychologists did for economics? That issue of risk sounds as dicey as homo economicus.

Re: Would you take money from a 28 year old?

danielharan — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:28:04 -0000

Depends on how you qualify old. You originally wrote "I think 28 is just too young to be a partner in a venture fund".

When you accepted an entrepreneur's request to meet over coffee, most did not know of your experience. Your visibility and accessibility had much more impact than any experience. Fliesler certainly has more visibility; let's see how he handles accessibility.

Where experience should help is in advising companies, it's not clear that Fliesler's two successes are much worse than a mixed record, especially if he focuses on only the early growth stages as he's pledged.

I'd submit that gender bias is a relevant comparison (not sure where you get the politician part), even if gender bias is now less OK than age discrimination. Confronting such biases helps us understand exactly what we think is necessary for success.

Cause if what I need to do to increase my success is learn more humility and the best way to do that is to change diapers - sign me up. Why wait until we happen to have children (if ever) to get those useful attributes? Same for just about every other trait or knowledge that would fall under that nebulous "experience".

Re: Would you take money from a 28 year old?

danielharan — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 01:00:37 -0000

That's a great thing to say when you don't want evidence to change your biased point of view.

What would it take to actually make you believe that your argument is wrong? What is it about perspective that requires you to be old and can't be obtained any other way?

Note that you would find your argument to be completely unacceptable if it was made about women or an ethnic group. Really not sure why you think age should be any different.

Youth today are inheriting a broken economic and political system as well as catastrophic climate change. Playing the age card to further disenfranchise them isn't the least bit progressive.

Re: Healthy lifestyle working at a Startup? Yes, it’s possible

danielharan — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 02:44:52 -0000

"Himalayan salt’s unique cellular structure allows it to store vibrational energy." Hahahahaha. Did you pick that link on purpose?

It would be great too if the Himlayas wasn't all one big goiter belt. Apparently the people living there didn't get the memo about vibrational energy.

Re: Video Of The Week: Going To The Blackboard To Talk About Online Higher Education

danielharan — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:18:03 -0000

The university I attended was built as a social engineering project and has drifted into a credentialing business.

You are focusing on the how of distribution rather than the why of studying or a University's mission. Those universities that still hold to a larger mission, who want to see their impact increase, will thrive.

The dividing line will be culture rather than reputation or the size of endowments. Online classes may be the new university extension.

A week ago I was working on a project and referred back to the AI lectures I took last year. Although I remember some of my university lectures, none of them have web interfaces I can use to replay a lecture.

Such services would be awesome for students, including those not affiliated with the university. But they're only scratching the surface.

As a board member at Wharton, you'd have to ask: why do we exist? How will we stay true to those values by using new technology and distribution models?

Those universities that ask those questions stand to get a whole lot more students and donations.

Re: The things an entrepreneur will never tell you

danielharan — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:55:15 -0000

The sad thing about all those stories is few entrepreneurs will want to write a story about how they had it easy, because it would sound like bragging.

So we only get stories about how starting a company is a roller-coaster that can wreck your life.

Maybe there's an easier way?

Re: Five Courses Receive College Credit Recommendations

danielharan — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:19:16 -0000

Thanks, that's great info.

Re: Five Courses Receive College Credit Recommendations

danielharan — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:08:38 -0000

What are average prices for proctoring? The company you link to isn't really transparent in that respect.

Re: Joining FreshBooks

danielharan — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:07:57 -0000

I'm in Kathmandu right now; leaving for Bangkok on Friday. I should be back in North America by May, earlier if my latest idea takes off :)

Re: Joining FreshBooks

danielharan — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 23:27:21 -0000

Wow, what a surprise! Congrats & see you in TO sometime :)

Re: Canada increases its competitiveness in attracting Entrepreneurial talent #Startupvisa

danielharan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:25:57 -0000

What are the educational qualifications needed for the visa?

Re: Geography's the Fuck.

danielharan — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 22:34:20 -0000

Did you ever try to classify people based on willingness to move? If that's possible, you might get better CTRs from those willing to move and be able to refine the job matching with less overall noise.

Re: Life on farms may be worse than death

danielharan — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 21:44:39 -0000

There are other ways to get meat than from factory farms. Polyface is a model worth supporting.

A proper account of total suffering caused by animal farming would also have to deal with methane and CO2 equivalent emissions.

Re: Personal experiments: for the unusual?

danielharan — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:13:59 -0000

One reason for of weirdness would be having a dietary issue like gluten intolerance. If you don't have it, copying everyone else is a cheap way to get good nutrition. If you do have the intolerance, copying will make you sick and experimentation can help you live longer and happier.

If you are less jealous than others, then open relationships might be worth exploring. There's probably far more weird people than we realize, and conditions are ripe for more people being able to try new things.

Re: The Bain Capital Files

danielharan — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 19:42:34 -0000

Are you or one of your partners considering a run for office?