I’m currently running at about 300 emails a day, not including the spam that gets caught by Cloudmark and Outlook. I try, very hard, to respond to every mail as soon as possible. Here are a few (random) items that I thought might be of interest to you.
“AJAX. Can you tell me the 101 version of this, why I should care, etc?” From a biz dev guy in Dallas.
There are a number of smarter people then me who have done a better job on this. In particular, for the quick semi-tech, fast answer, Don Dodge did a good job in the one pager explanation here. From my perspective, you should ‘care’ to the extent that lots of people are coding web apps that look lots like desktop apps and when they hit you with all the new tech/geek words, you won’t think about stuff used to scrub toilets. More seriously, it is just more technology, not to worry.
“Brad Feld trashes companies in blog postings. As a VC, do you think this is fair/right?” Start up women in Munich.
The link that was referred to is here, where Brad gave details of a conference held in the Rockies. At this conference, a number of start up companies presented in the hopes of getting funded. The list of those companies are here. So, a couple of comments on this. First, the companies that presented are presenting in a public environment. That, in and of itself, makes anybody’s comments fair game. The quote sent to me was this:
“I remember looking at Creekpath in 2000 when it was originally spun off from Exabyte. I was pretty excited about funding it until one of my partners vomited all over the floor after meeting with the team. As a result I passed – am I’m glad I did.”
Heh. A couple of comments. I’ve met Brad a couple of times and can safely say that he is poking fun at a situation. If you read the full post, you’ll see that using the term “trash” is a little harsh. This points to an interesting lesson, that being the excitement of writing for a worldwide audience. You never know how people are going to react to what you think is funny. All bloggers should probably take note. The second point is more geared toward the VC world. Personally, I checked out the list of companies that presented and, because of Brad’s blog entry, was able to find some interesting companies that my portfolion companies should know about. As a result, a couple of my portfolio companies are talking with a few of these guys.
Net net, it is generally a positive for people/VCs to report on these conferences and honest feedback is always useful.
“VCs generally suck I don’t believe anything will get disrupted, you really can’t believe you can change anything?” Another satisfied VC customer.
I think the best way to keep the dialog going on this topic is to refer people to Shel Israel’s write up of our dinner. I think I did a better job of explaining my thinking on VC 2.0 to him and Shel did a great job of documenting it. So, if you are interested in my opinion on what I’ve been talking about, read Shel’s write up and feel free to send me any questions you might have. Even the “you suck” stuff is welcome.
“Why are you sucking up to Dave Winer?” CEO of blogging software product.
I wasn’t sure what this was all about until I realized that Dave had written up our lunch where he talked about OPML, etc. He reflects, accurately, the conversation that took place. Ten years ago, Dave mapped out the world that has unfolded today. As a VC, smart people that stay ahead of the rest of the crowd, well, they are like gold and I always have time for them. Dave has some good points and great insights into how people, a number of years from now, will want to ‘share thoughts.’ If you read his Blog or Doc Searl’s Blog(s), you will note an almost streaming consciousness type of entries. Dave and I talked about the next level on two fronts. One, how you easily get those thoughts into ‘a system’ and two, what happens when all these streams become available to everybody. Figuring out noise issues, zooming in on ideas, relating my one line entry about X with Joe’s full entry on the same topic and presenting all of this to the average person is an interesting opportunity. These kinds of talks are fascinating with endless opportunities. What’s next after “blogging” is a good topic because things always chance, always improve, etc and talking about what’s next is what I do for a living.
“What’s your favorite blog?” Terry from Iowa
My daughter Rachel’s blog. There is no greater joy then being a proud parent watching your children grow and blossom into a wonderful adult, ready to take on the world. Fortunately, takes after her genius mom.
Keep the cards and letters coming.
Thanks for the link to Rachel's blog... that was a very entertaining writeup.
Like, totally.
Posted by: J. Shirley | March 01, 2006 at 10:01
Rick, I wish you'd tell people like the blogging CEO that he should make statements like that publicly, on his blog, and not offer him the cover of anonymity. Hey at least you told the story publicly so I could respond to it. Another thing, I'd like to know if that guy is a competitor of mine. I bet you $10 he (or she) is.
Posted by: Dave Winer | March 01, 2006 at 11:33
Umm.. yeah, so from now on every opinion expressed in a private email concerning Dave should be mirrored on a blog just so he gets a satisfaction of responding to it. Did I get that correct? Great stuff, keep it coming.
Posted by: Slava | March 01, 2006 at 22:19
I don't know what it is about Dave, but I've been accused of sleeping with him simply because I use his software. Similarly, when I use a Mac, I'm doing it in order to sleep with Steve Jobs...
Posted by: Tom Morris | March 02, 2006 at 02:58
Tom,
I think you've just found the next greatest Switch advert!
"If you use a Mac, you're one step closer to sleeping with Steve... I mean, Mr. Jobs...
... Call me..."
:)
-J
Posted by: J. Shirley | March 02, 2006 at 06:33
Yes, and it's a Unique Selling Point. Nobody is going to buy Vista to sleep with BillG. Perhaps Robert Scoble might tempt a few though.
Posted by: Tom Morris | March 02, 2006 at 15:14