An interview of some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalists by TechCrunch’s founder Michael Arrington.
Not surprisingly, there was little mention of the work “revenue” or even “profit.” Yet, they kept dropping the big “V” word… Valuation.
Valuation without accounting for profit is rather silly, if you ask me.
April 05, 2010, 8:52pm Comments
One of the best Mixergy episodes I’ve watched so far…Loved it! David Cohen sits down with Andrew Warner to talk about his experience finding, funding & mentoring the best startup talent as Co-Founder and Executive Director of TechStars.
“So you have lots of people who, you know, have great ideas, who talk about the model and…business plans, but I think real entrepreneurs do stuff. They get it out there, they can’t wait to get it out of the brain and onto the web. And that’s really evident in successful entrepreneurs. I think it’s something we look for very directly.” - David Cohen
March 23, 2010, 11:29pm Comments
» Formspring.me Leaves the Midwest for Silicon Valley
This latest startup departure does nothing but continue to validate the need for a greater focus on technology innovation and funding across the entire Midwest. Until this happens, more companies like Formspring.me will continue fleeing our cities for “more thriving” startup regions. A quick byte from the post:
“…opportunities in the Midwest do not yet compare to those available in other booming startup cities.
Had Formspring.me been founded in a city like Austin, Boulder, New York or Boston, they would have likely remained there upon receiving funding…While the Midwest is growing its startup culture, there are far fewer VC firms, and far smaller talent pools when compared to other locations…”
March 19, 2010, 3:32pm Comments
» Some CorkShare Love from Jake Lodwick, Co-Founder of Vimeo
Thanks to my cousin Brendan for the heads up on this blog post.
“It seems to be a labor of love of three young entrepreneurs and for some reason I have a good feeling about it.” - Jake Lodwick, Co-Founder of Vimeo
Cleveland’s own CorkShare has been feeling a lot of love lately, as well they should. Here’s a recent story about them with more background info about CorkShare, their founders, and their recent launch.
March 16, 2010, 11:31am Comments
Spent a few hours yesterday afternoon with members of Cleveland’s own Makers Alliance down at Goldstein Caldwell & Associates. GCA is the temporary home to the Alliance’s Hackerspace, where they spent a majority of the day yesterday building a Makerbot. What is the Makers Alliance? What is a Hackerspace? What is a Makerbot? You’ll find answers to all these questions and more throughout the video. You can follow the interviewees on Twitter @gsvitak, @rickpollack & @makersalliance.
I enhanced the video a bit with some minor iMovie “tweaks” and I’m still working on my “OK”s. But overall I’m really happy with the direction these videos are headed. What do you think?
March 14, 2010, 2:06pm Comments
» CorkShare the Love: CWRU Students Create New Content-Sharing Web Site
March 12, 2010, 1:49pm Comments
Sometimes all it takes is a small spark to ignite something big. The concept of microfunding has its share of supporters and opponents. At the end of the day, I strongly believe the people at ScaleWell, etc are on to something. And there’s no reason why we can’t replicate a similar concept in Northeast Ohio. As a matter of fact, we’re well on our way towards completing our first round of fundraising for the initial $1,000 spark.
Coming soon SprkFnd will begin its search for its first startup recipient. We’re working on the criteria but it will go something like this:
If you are interested in being a part of SprkFnd, please contact us today. We are eager to have smart, passionate, dedicated & energetic people on our team.
More to follow…
March 11, 2010, 10:32pm Comments
» Where’s Your Google? Your Amgen? [Jumpstart Blog]
An interesting blog post by Jumpstart’s Becca Braun highlighting Ohio’s ascent into the nation’s top states for venture capital deals.
“Ohio is Top 10 nationwide in investment activity and…is among the leaders on consistently starting strong, high growth businesses that pragmatically solve a certain problem in the world, grow quickly, and generate solid returns…The entrepreneurs who led these businesses are adept at growing more of these types of businesses as CEOs, serial entrepreneurs, angel investors, and board members.” - Becca Braun
March 11, 2010, 4:56pm Comments
» Cleveland.com: Can Drew Carey Save Cleveland?
I’m looking forward to watching this web series and give Drew a lot of credit for taking action…while keeping his sense of humor intact.
March 08, 2010, 12:39pm Comments
ChicagoBusiness.com: Startup Support on the Rise? ”[ScaleWell has] recruited 42 trustees, entrepreneurs and business people, who pledge $100 a piece toward $1,000 grants that ScaleWell will award to the winners of quarterly business plan competitions. The winners also get free office space in the Loop.” BRILLIANT! Thanks @jimengland for the heads up on this story.
February 26, 2010, 6:04pm Comments
