Disqus - Latest Comments for jsinclair

Re: What VC Can Learn From Private Equity

Jack Sinclair — Fri, 15 May 2015 16:22:45 -0000

Really interesting comparison and post. Makes me ponder that as companies scale, the PE tactics around measurement requirements and strategy can become more useful. But early on, not so much as the problems are so unique to the company. I suspect that every company has a different inflection point when a PE-type assistance can become helpful.

Re: - Thisisgoingtobebig.com - Don't Read the Manual, Write the Manual

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 10:32:50 -0000

+1 on making the manual a living one. Easiest time to change it is as you mention, on exit from a role, but I think as roles evolve and people are promoted within a current role that is also a good time to update.

Re: Taking To Dos and Moving Up The Y Axis

Jack Sinclair — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 07:31:47 -0000

Really like his framework. A little of "Who's got the Monkey" from HBR we reference all the time where I work. But I know one of the biggest challenges of meetings is did the person/people truly take away the message you intended. Plus I am drawn to any framework with axes.

Re: Learning A City By Running Around In It

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:46:12 -0000

I had the exact same experience with Paris and London. One of my favorite things about traveling is the morning runs in new places. I never understand how my esteemed coworkers insist on the treadmills in the hotel.

Re: Burn Rate

Jack Sinclair — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:09:34 -0000

I believe this goes back to the discussion importance and value of transparency in a company. I am a huge fan of the long term benefits of transparency. If you are sharing your financials with employees you will want to address items like burn rate, especially if there is a single digit number of months of burn left. You will be able to give everyone a clear picture of what the burn rate means for the organization and how they should think about it.

Re: VP Finance vs CFO

Jack Sinclair — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:29:49 -0000

That was actually a big help. It is a hard transition so diving in for awhile in a much more strategic role really made a difference.

Re: VP Finance vs CFO

Jack Sinclair — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:22:05 -0000

All senior executive roles evolve as a company grows from startup to a profitable, successful business. But the senior financial one may change the most. A startup can have a good VP finance as the most senior financial exec for quite awhile. As Fred describes, it is a very operational role. While the CFO role is more strategic, public and more about leadership than about getting into the weeds every day. The skill set and experience that a true CFO brings is needed as the business complexity, exposure to public markets, and general size (revenue, people, countries, etc) requires someone who can think proactively year or two ahead, communicate to bankers, research analysts, and be a real partner to the CEO and Board. I have done both and for me, they are really two different jobs.

Re: What is the Most Challenging Ball Sport? The Least?

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:41:44 -0000

If you think of physically challenging as requiring the most athletic performances I always thought Basketball has the best athletes. You can count Golf as a sport. That would be the least. If you just mean how hard it is on the body, probably Football is the most, Golf again the least.

And come on. Baseball is a sport. CC may be fat, but the man is a serious athlete. And I am a Red Sox fan.

Re: Why Do Soccer Players Dive So Much

Jack Sinclair — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:33:01 -0000

What is "Norma Soccer Stuff"? Is that like old lady soccer moves?

Re: Bashing The Collective Wisdom On IPOs

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:13:37 -0000

I don't think you need to be $1B on day one to go public, just be able to show the path to $1B. The sweet spot right now for IPOs is probably in the $400MM valuation range.

Re: Accounting

Jack Sinclair — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:59:08 -0000

Spreadsheets actually sounds more complicated to me. And I love Excel.Trying to replicate even the most basic chart of accounts and reporting in Excel is probably a mistake for even the smallest of businesses. Something simple like Quickbooks does not cost that much, and enables entrepreneurs to have accurate books that will scale (to a point) rather than getting dragged into an accounting quagmire in Excel.

Re: A New Android Phone Every Month

Jack Sinclair — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:07:46 -0000

I was also going to say it is very similar to Windows PCs vs Apple computers. You buy a Mac Mini on release, it is unlikely the HW running that OS is going to change materially for a year or so. But if you buy a Dell running Windows 7, chances are you are going to have better HW and form factor choices from other vendors, or even Dell, the next month. Personally I don't think one is better than the other, although maybe I have come to grips with the fact you buy your computer, TV whatever and accept the HW obsolescence the next day.

Re: - Guest Login

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:42:29 -0000

Congrats Charlie and Backupify. Great startup story

Re: In The Data Decade, There Should Be Data-Driven Acquisitions

Jack Sinclair — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:58:48 -0000

This will be THE driving force on any social media acquisition. Your examples are good because they are the less obvious ones. Stating the obvious, Google trying to buy Yelp was data driven. Companies like Foursquare I think also have some really interesting data that is unique.

On your fantasy sports example, perhaps it may be more interesting to go into the next level for the analysis. For example. rather than just looking at ownership %, look to see if auction values or draft position successes have any patterns. "Hey, a high % of people that pay between $10 and $20 in the first half of an auction for an AL 3B that is in his second year after having an OPS+ over over 100 end up making a great buy". Maybe that would just be fun, rather than useful.

Re: Thinking about the alleged Apple Tablet

Jack Sinclair — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:09:30 -0000

Can't wait, but lack of details driving me crazy (relatively). Waiting to hear the details before I decided on an ebook reader, assuming the tablet will be a replacement for the Kindle. But I am sure that is part of Apple's plan on keeping it secret. Other than the fun of course.

Re: Board Effectiveness Tip #3: Board Meeting

Jack Sinclair — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:52:51 -0000

Good list! On the official business, we find it really helpful to start the meeting getting the official business out of the way. Items like option grants, prior minute approvals, board resolutions etc.

Re: Soup

Jack Sinclair — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:18:39 -0000

I agree, I think that is an Apple II. Brings back memories.

Re: whitneymcn on tumblr's Tumblelog

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:04:43 -0000

Good use of the midlife crisis card! Good luck. So I will ask, what is that picture from?

Re: The Fall - Paranoia Man in Cheap Shit Room, from a... - machine text

Jack Sinclair — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:43:40 -0000

The Fall is one of those bands I never got around to listening too, even though a lot of the bands I like consider them an influence. I will have to check out so more

Re: "I had a talented wine" - Picking up the new car (bus?truck? it carries a...

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:44:06 -0000

Ford Flex

Re: Will Robert Kraft Purchase Gillett’s Share of Liverpool?

Jack Sinclair — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:32:53 -0000

As a Liverpool and NE Patriot fan, I would be VERY happy if Kraft would gain control of the club. Not sure how it would work out if Hicks is still there.

Re: The Valuation Blues (aka How FAS157 Is Tortuous)

Jack Sinclair — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:20:39 -0000

Speaking from a portfolio company perspective we have not felt any of the FAS157 pain as the info required from us are things we are already providing.

With regards to your silver lining, I think the FAS157 valuations will be much more useful showing an interesting trend than 409a valuations. Although with all of these valuation requirements for private equity (common and preferred shares) you wonder if there will be some normalization of methods by FASB. But I seriously doubt it.

Re: Kaizen for Developers: No Inventory

Jack Sinclair — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:29:52 -0000

The inventory as feature/requirements/unreleased code analogy definitely resonates with me. I also wonder as more and more software companies use cloud computing for their storage and processing that they will naturally need to focus much more on nailing the requirements/coding/testing efficiencies rather than hardware.

Re: Kaizen and Software Development

Jack Sinclair — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:56:17 -0000

I have not heard of Kaizen before. We have used agile for about 4 years now and some of what you are hinting at the surface seems familiar. Looking forward to comparing the approaches!

Re: whitneymcn on tumblr's Tumblelog

Jack Sinclair — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:07:56 -0000

How is it? Did you see them live?