Pinterest today is adding another executive to its upper c-suite with the hire of Francoise Brougher, who was most recently business lead at Square and prior to that VP of SMB global sales and operations at Google, as its first chief operating officer. Both of those previous positions are probably going to be of particular interest to Pinterest, as someone with Brougher’s experience… Read More
If an engineer ends up leaving a company, on their own, or for any other reason, the company work is going to have to quickly work to change all of their keys for their credentials and keys application components. That’s a huge hassle, because often times it’s hard to know where they are stored, who can access what, and how to change everything at a massive scale — especially… Read More
Cat Hokeâs book A Second Chance: For You, For Me, And For The Rest Of Us is out.
I wrote a long post about it in October when I read a draft of it. Cat is remarkable and she lucked out by partnering with the amazing Seth Godin on this book (Seth is the publisher).
Iâm sending a copy to every CEO in our portfolio. Weâve got a pretty regular Foundry Group book club thing going at this point, as I know Rajat Bhargava and Will Hermanâs book The Startup Playbook is also going out to a bunch of the CEOs. And each of my partners is getting a copy of Lee McIntyreâs Post-Truth this week.
I read a lot and encourage everyone around me to join in on the good stuff. Catâs book is definitely good stuff. She mixes her own life journey with the mission of Defy Ventures along with the impact that Defy has had on so many people â both âentrepreneurs-in-trainingâ and the volunteers who work with the EITs.
Iâve talked about Defy Ventures a lot on this blog and Amy and I have become significant supporters through both The Anchor Point Foundation and my volunteer engagement. Iâm particularly proud, however, of my partner Jason and his wife Jenn who have picked up the mantle as co-chairs of Defy Ventures Colorado and launched the Colorado program. I was in prison with them, 50 volunteers, 50 EITs, ten people from the Defy team (including Cat), and Governor Hickenlooper two weeks ago.
All of this has been inspired, and led, by Cat. I didnât know much about the US prison system prior to meeting Cat several years ago. My own journey with this has been incredibly powerful. Being able to experience it with other entrepreneurs and investors, including Jason and Jenn, a number of the Techstars team, and many others who I know has been wonderful.
If you want a pre-book taste, the Reboot podcast that I did with Jerry Colonna and Cat is a good start.
But, do yourself a favor. Buy Catâs book A Second Chance. Read it, let it into your life, and ponder what a second chance really means.
P.S. I have several people in my life who I need to give a second chance to. Iâm not ready yet, but I hope I will be at some point. And yes, the book will help you go deep on what this means for you.
Also published on Medium.
Industrious, the WeWork competitor that launched in 2013, is today announcing the close of an $80 million Series C funding round. The financing was co-led by Riverwood Capital and Fifth Wall Ventures. Industrious thinks of itself as a more premium version of WeWork, offering coworking space and workplace services to some 35 locations across 25 cities nationwide. “Industrious is high… Read More
Carnegie Mellon grad Luke Skurman built the first version of Niche in 2002. Originally called College Prowler, it was an online store selling physical college guidebooks. Times changed and the site changed with it, first taking on over a $1 million in investment to ramp up with a new name and then hitting a $6.6 million series B from Allen & Company and Grit Capital. Skurman, a San… Read More
Peanut, the app referred to as “Tinder for moms” because it connects mothers by letting them swipe each other’s profiles, is launching a new community discussion feature. Called Peanut Pages, it’s meant to give mothers a better alternative to Facebook Groups, Quora and other social platforms. Read More
A reminder that I’m going to have Paul Vigna and Michael Casey, authors of The Truth Machine, onstage with me next week at Knotel, a co-working and event space in Manhattan. I’d love for you to come. You can RSVP here and space is limited. It’s happening Tomorrow, February 28, at 7pm and will feature a 35-minute talk with two of the top writers in crypto. These guys… Read More
JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce companies, is launching a new Beijing-based accelerator program for artificial intelligence and blockchain startups. Called AI Catapult, its first batch includes six companies: Bankorus, CanYa, Bluezelle, Nuggets, Republic Protocol and Devery. Read More
This report from Gartner looks at the worldwide smartphone sales. For the first time, smartphone sales during the fourth quarter declined by 5.6% due to a lack of quality “ultra-low-cost”...
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Amy and I have learned that I need a Q1 vacation earlier in Q1 (vs. waiting until the end of March). We were apart for ten days because of a trip she took to Africa, so we went to San Diego for a week.
I played tennis every day for 90 minutes. I took a nap almost every afternoon. I got a couple of massages. We went and saw Black Panther, which we loved.
I interrupted vacation on Wednesday for some work stuff but stayed off email completely. I played a lot of chess online but realized after losing a bunch of games that I thought I was winning that it was a bad idea to play 10 minutes games while watching the Olympics in the background.
I didnât read much. I didnât feel like it for some reason. While unusual for me, I just rolled with it.
We had two friends visit. Ben Casnocha came down for two days of stimulating conversation. David Cohen took a tennis vacation, which he had planned for a more exotic locale that fell apart at the last minute. The friendships were warm, mellow, and enjoyable.
The month of December continues to be a huge struggle for me. I reflected on why and Amy and I came up with a plan for trying something completely different in December 2018 that we are contemplating trying.
Iâm back home alone in Boulder for a few days, while Amy spends the weekend with her sisters. I decided to have an isolated, minimal human contact weekend. Yesterday was a digital sabbath that included meditation, running, a float, dinner by myself at Kasa Sushi, Lee McIntyreâs Post-Truth, Radius, and Lo and Behold.
Today is more of the same, except online plus a massage. Maybe Iâll drop the heavy and serious tonight and start working my way through Fast and Furious.
Iâll be back at it for reals on Monday â¦
Also published on Medium.
Sramana Mitra: Tell us about the types of ideas your investors are looking for. Swati Chaturvedi: There is a big trend of combining hardware with software. Robotics is another trend. What is specific...
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Sramana Mitra: Talk to us a little bit about geography. You mentioned you’re operating at about five geographies. What are the dynamics of these geographies? I know WebPT is in Arizona. What are the...
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Sramana Mitra: I’m in agreement with you, by and large. Let me then parse what you said. You’re talking about $1 million to $3 million investment in a company that is doing $1 million ARR. What is...
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Sramana Mitra: How about some examples of companies that you have funded within the IT sector? Swati Chaturvedi: One company was including a software in chips sent to OEMs like the Samsungs of the...
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Sramana Mitra: It’s not going in a constructive direction. It really is going to be a net loss in the process if we don’t do something about it. I’d like to know about what’s going to happen. The...
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Long gone are the days when Africa was disparagingly regarded as the White Man’s Burden. Today, Africa is the continent with the youngest demographic in the world, on the brink of a technical renaissance — yet the world’s tech titans are floundering to understand and gain a foothold in this market. Read More
Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Todd Belfer was recorded in October 2017. Todd...
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Eden, the office management and tech support platform, has today announced the acquisition of OrgOrg, a social network for office managers to recommend, discuss, and review vendors and products. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eden founder and CEO Joe DuBey explained to TechCrunch that a growing number of on-boarding clients said that they had originally heard about Eden from… Read More
Tesla expects to sell 100,000 electric vehicles in 2018. But electric vehicles don’t make much sense unless chargers are easily accessible and convenient. That’s why Tesla is introducing the Workplace Charging program. It will allow offices and business to apply for a Wall Connector to be installed in the company garage or parking lot. And, except for the actual electricity used… Read More
For entrepreneurs interested to meet and chat with Sramana Mitra in person, please join us for our weekly informal group meetups. If you are living in the San Francisco Bay Area or are just in town...
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