Archives / April, 2005

Promiscuity

Promiscuity I figure the title will entice someone new to read this (although he or she might be sorely disappointed with the actual content).  Fred’s posting today about VCs’ conflicts of interest, besides giving me fodder for my weekly counter-cliche posting, brings up another interesting point, one about entrepreneurs and their levels of confidentiality or secrecy about their business plans. I heard a quote once from Vinod Khosla of Kleiner Perkins that has stayed with me for years:  that “to be successful in the new economy you must be open to the point of promiscuity.”  I think Khosla is right.  As Fred says, VCs are notorious for meeting lots of companies before making an investment, and as an entrepreneur on…

Counter Cliche: No Conflict, No Interest

Counter Cliche:  No Conflict, No Interest The entrepreneur’s take on Fred’s VC cliche of the week — "No conflict, No interest" is that it applies equally but differently to management teams.  Our nation’s first president, George Washington, is often said to have brilliantly placed political enemies Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton on his first cabinet so he would have differing points of view from which to choose when deciding some of the complex and delicate issues that faced our nation in its infancy.  And many of those early decisions of the Washington administration — things like how to pay down the debt from the Revolution, or whether and how to put down the Whiskey Rebellion — were critical in forming…

Book Short: Are You Topgraded?

Book Short:  Are You Topgraded? I read a decent volume of business books (some of my favorites and more recent ones are listed in the left hand column of the blog).  I have two main pet peeves with business books as a rule:  the first is is that most business books have one central idea and a few good case examples and take way too many pages to get where they’re going; the other is that far too many of them are geared towards middle and upper management of 5,000+ person companies and are either not applicable or need to be adapted for startups. Anyway, I thought I’d occasionally post quick synopses of some good ones I’ve read recently.  Topgrading,…

Gmail, I Don’t Get It, Part III

Gmail, I Don’t Get It, Part III This is the third in a somewhat drawn-out series of postings on Gmail featuring some interesting data from Return Path’s Email Change of Address service, which captures self-reported address change data from nearly 1 million consumers every month. The first posting, back when Gmail launched nearly a year ago, was that I didn’t understand the fuss.  This is even more true now that Yahoo is in a “free storage” war with Google. The second, in November, had some change of address stats reporting that the numbers of people joining Gmail was tiny relative to other ISPs…and also that Gmail was starting to have people switch away from it, but only at the rate…

Go Ahead…Make My Day

Go Ahead…Make My Day I’ve taken to smiling and giving a simple wave to fellow joggers out in Hudson River Park on Manhattan’s lower west side, especially at off times like early mornings and late nights.  Call it the fellowship of the urban exerciser, blame it on the endorphines, whatever.  I’ve also noticed that very few people respond, even when they clearly notice.  So I tried a little experiment this morning and kept a running count (yes, pun intended). Of the roughly 30 people I passed this morning, I’d say 15 made no acknowledgment whatsoever of my friendliness, although they clearly noticed it.  Another 7 gave me a weird look like I was nuts (perhaps not wholly incorrect).  5 were…

You Heard It Here First, Part II

You Heard It Here First, Part II Tomorrow, Return Path is going to announce that we have acquired the Bonded Sender Program from IronPort Systems (the release is here).  As usual, I’m happy to pre-announce M&A activity on my blog in exchange for a moment of self-promotion. Bonded Sender is the industry’s oldest, best known, and most effective whitelist/accreditation program.  In a nutshell, it’s a bitch for mailers to qualify for it — they have to demonstrate that they’re a super high quality mailer and get certified by our partner TrustE — but once they do, they have relatively guaranteed safe passage and default images into the inbox at Microsoft (Hotmail and MSN), Roadrunner, and a number of smaller ISPs…

Counter Cliche: Good Choices Are Made From Good Options

Counter Cliche:  Good Choices Are Made From Good Options The Counter Cliche to Fred’s VC Cliche of the Week this week, the Walk Away,  is that Good Choices Are Made From Good Options.  Fred’s right — sometimes you do have to walk away from a deal where you’ve invested a lot of time, energy, and emotion.  But as an entrepreneur, you can mitigate the number of times you have to Walk Away by developing good alternative options to a particular deal.  That way, if one option doesn’t pan out as you’d hoped, another very good option is waiting in the wings. There’s a very business school-sounding term called the BATNA, which stands for the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. …

But Hopefully More Fun Than Insurance

But Hopefully More Fun Than Insurance Return Path’s Chief Privacy Officer, Tom Bartel, has a great posting about the importance of focusing on privacy and data security within your organization, however large or small.  The lessons of the past quarter — ChoicePoint, B of A, etc., certainly lend a lot of credence to his argument.