Disqus - Latest Comments for danvers

Re: What the Elgin Marbles row is really about

danvers — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:10:35 -0000

The point about the Elgin marbles is that they are part of a set of marbles that used to adorn the temple on the Acropolis and are now (mostly) displayed in the Acropolis Museum. Restoring the integrity of the collection - and displaying them in a museum within touching distance of where they were originally sited, seems like a good thing. The Kohinoor diamond was stolen/traded/looted many times before it came to Britain and so there is not such a strong argument that one place is its "home" (there are multiple claimants).

Re: What the Elgin Marbles row is really about

danvers — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:05:37 -0000

The Acropolis Museum in Athens is a truly remarkable bit of architecture and a world class museum - of ancient Greek history. It is true that the British Museum has done a splendid job of preserving the marbles when they would have been at risk of damage over the years, but that argument does not work any longer, and we should recognise that they should be returned to where they came from and stood for 1000s of years before Elgin "borrowed" them.

Re: The routine and horrific anti-Semitism in Labour

danvers — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 09:55:40 -0000

It's clear to me that the root of the problem is that there are a lot of people on the fringes on politics (on both sides) who are essentially conspiracy theorists. To understand the mindset, I'd recommend Netflix's "Behind the Curve" on the flat earth community - in essence, a group of people who are a mixture of poorly and self-educated with a passion for finding solutions, and suffering from massive doses of confirmation bias and group-think (within their own group) as well as an inability to change their mind, lest it affects their status within the group.

Now, the more interesting question is whether the people at the top of Labour actually agree with the anti-Semites or whether they just don't care about the fact they are all loons, because they are politically useful in other ways (e.g. keeping them in power). Personally, I think it is a mixture of the two, and potentially incredibly dangerous.

Re: Game of Thrones returns with more whimper than bang

danvers — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 05:39:42 -0000

Jon and Sansa are half brother and sister, not cousins.

Re: Top tech stats: GDPR, painful commutes and pulling sickies

danvers — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 04:26:48 -0000

Given GDPR comes into force in May 2018 it is very poor reporting to claim that firms have been fined for not complying with it.

Re: How the EU is throttling online business with idiotic VAT reform

danvers — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:19:28 -0000

It was agreed in 2006/7 when Labour were in power.

Re: How to lose MailChimp accounts and alienate people.

danvers — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 11:09:49 -0000

Alternatively, don't use Mailchimp. There are email providers out there who are less, erm, sensitive.

Re: Non Exec (NED) Compensation at a Startup

danvers — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:53 -0000

Scott, the compensation chimes with what I saw when in private practice, but generally the equity % was a bit higher - up to 5% sometimes more in early stage companies, although a high equity option probably equalled less or zero fees. Always struck me as a bit daft for an investor to put money in, sit on the board and then take £10-15k p.a. in fees - why not just build it into the investment deal, as it is horribly tax inefficient, especially when you are generally talking about higher rate income tax payers.

Re: The Blonde Biker / One down, eighteen to go

danvers — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:21:53 -0000

Keep going and I want to see plenty of updates on here! It's what we've paid for!

Re: Police incident on Tottenham Court Road - UK news - Blottr

danvers — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:42:51 -0000

There seems to be something going on - @hullstephen is live tweeting it

Re: Police incident on Tottenham Court Road - UK news - Blottr

danvers — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:40:59 -0000

See;
https://twitter.com/#!/hull...

Re: Optimizing your law firm

danvers — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 05:25:10 -0000

Speaking as a soon-to-be-ex-lawyer, I agree with (and practice/advocate) most of this, although the warranty point (2) is a little more subtle than appreciated here. It is never the case that warranties are all supposed to be "true" simply that they drive disclosure of "stuff" - so the warranty quoted drives disclosure of OSS, which to my mind is something an investor should want to know about (even if the use of OSS is ultimately fine).

Re: Tesco not obliged to honour £50 iPads due to strong small print - ComputerworldUK.com

danvers — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:11:16 -0000

@selinasays - I gave the comment to Anh based on my understanding on ecommerce law and the story in general. To be crystal clear, I have personally never done any work for Tesco and do not have any interest in defending them here. If you think I have mis-stated the law, I suggest you take your own advice.

Re: http://danieljmaxwell.tumblr.com/post/14061324387

danvers — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:55:27 -0000

Hi Daniel - as a lawyer I would love to see more standardised documents. They would make our lives easier as well. However, if you want to use the analogy with open source code, just because there is open source code, does not mean that you can build software without developers neither does it mean it is always bug free.

Re: A series of blog posts – fifty questions you should ask before raising venture capital

danvers — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:26:21 -0000

[driver error - comment deleted]

Re: A series of blog posts – fifty questions you should ask before raising venture capital

danvers — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:25:11 -0000

Hi Nic, we're running a Bootlaw session tonight entitled "Everything you wanted to know about VC Investment but were afraid to ask". We'd love it if you could make it along, although realise it is very short notice. We'll be addressing the things that companies should be aware of when they enter negotiations with VCs in the UK. I'd be delighted to contribute to this project - particularly by turning tonight's talk into a blogpost (which I may do anyway) - or on any other VC/investment/legal related matter.

Re: A series of blog posts – fifty questions you should ask before raising venture capital

danvers — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:22:37 -0000

Hi Nic - we're running a Bootlaw session tonight

Re: Employee Equity: The Liquidation Overhang

danvers — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:27:40 -0000

Interesting - over here in the UK the good early stage VCs are definitely going to a 1x preference (i.e. money back or share of proceeds - rather than both) but are generally insisting on a low dividend (around 4-6%) which only serves to raise the exit hurdle (or the liquidation overhang, as you call it), to guard against a poor exit after several years eroding the preference.

I've also recently written about some of the metrics we've seen in early stage deals in the UK here in case you're interested: http://bootlaw.com/2010/10/...

Re: The London startup scene: Too much funding, boozing and not enough collaboration and execution

danvers — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 08:27:41 -0000

Thanks for the name check, Pete.

I wouldn't say we get nothing out of running Bootlaw - we've built a reputation and met far more people - and many of them are now our clients - than we could hope to meet just by attending other people's events. However, we are in the business of providing a service to companies so our motivation for networking is slightly different (i.e. it is all about the sales mentioned by Ben).

On the flip side, we set up Bootlaw because we thought there might be a need for an event where useful content (in our case legal help) is given away for free and the networking can be done in a more civilised and relaxed environment than a bar or nightclub (not that I have anything against those which are). Turns out we were right.

On the whole it is a good thing that the "scene" exists - it is a resource that entrepreneurs can plug into if they want to do so - and if you think events should be organised differently, then it is a free world and you should just get on with it!

Re: Vodafone’s femtocell pricing is wrong

danvers — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:30:12 -0000

Or you could move house...

Re: Does the iPad need a toddler mode?

danvers — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:51:05 -0000

Good idea. My 3 year olds love playing with my iPod touch and my wife's iPhone - although she has to switch off the 3G when they are playing with it in case they call someone (or start downloading apps).

Top apps for them include Animatch, CupCakes, Angry Birds, Balloonimals and a phonics game. They also love watching Postman Pat on it (made for some very peaceful flights recently).

I think the iPad has the potential to be huge in this market - am planning on getting them some second hand wifi versions when the price comes down.

Re: Guest post: Will the new UK government be good to entrepreneurs?

danvers — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:49:40 -0000

Juliana - thank you for your comment. I thought my criticisms of the Labour government were pretty muted. But in terms of guess work, yes, I have said it is just that but have also directly quoted the only meaningful (or official) statement we are likely to get prior to the budget, from the coalition agreement. We'll soon find out what is happening to CGT, but this was simply an effort to give it more context.

In terms of the government encouraging the private sector, taking measures to cut the deficit this year and thus restoring investor confidence is a pretty good start.

Re: Guest post: Will the new UK government be good to entrepreneurs?

danvers — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:14:19 -0000

Hi moo - we'll just have to wait and see what happens!

Re: Betaworks Leads $3 Million Series B In Highflyer TweetDeck, New Desktop Goes Live

danvers — Thu, 20 May 2010 11:52:40 -0000

That's quite a northern "buzz" as it happens. You would not catch a Londoner saying it like that.

Re: Should UK based startups vote LibDem? Probably not.

danvers — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:15:36 -0000

Heh, would your budget stretch that far? ;-)