Dan Shapiro blog
Visit danshapiro.com → RSS feedOn Hacker News Jun 2010 – Sep 2013
Tech Industry & Business 8Startups 6Career & Management 3Society, Policy & Culture 2Life, Learning & Writing 1
Last week I was speaking on what would have otherwise been a terrific panel. It was Frank Artale from Ignition, Tom Duterme from Groupon M&A, Andy Sack from Lighter Capital & Founder’s Co-op, and me talking about funding & exiting. The only thing that spoiled it was yet another guy in the tech scene putting forth yet…
I was reading Hacker News a few weeks ago and I stumbled on a story: Amit Gupta needs you. It turns out that Amit is the thoroughly likeable founder of Photojojo. Amit had the double misfortune to: a) have acute leukemia, and b) be South Asian. The problem with the first one is obvious. The problem with the second one…
The Tacocopters are coming. Sure, the original pitch was a clever troll aimed at credulous and impatient fast-food junkies. But the numbers don’t lie – a typical taco weighs less than a pound, and aircraft that can autonomously fly a few dozen ounces of payload to your doorstep are already available for around a…
Shortly after the sale closed, John Cook interviewed me about the experience. He did a great job of transcribing all of my verbal gems, like “Maybe that is an economic way of looking at it, or something that I am unfamiliar with.” I’m not even sure what that means. It was the best I could muster in the middle of a…
Startup pay kind of sucks. This is not a well-kept secret. A great startup with a dozen or so people will typically pay its employees about a third less than a big company. Some will argue that that’s because of the value of the equity that startups give you. I argue that that’s the price of doing something that’s…
I want to buy some clothes. From From Holden (not a typo). And I can’t. Because they’re full of Kickstoppers. More and more, I’m seeing exciting, fun projects on Kickstarter that make me think they’re being run by the cast of Community. Clever, well meaning, adorable, and more clueless than a general with a gmail…
In this envelope, I have your Company Culture. We work hard, but value work/life balance. We’re a team culture and we believe in individual empowerment. We give back to the community, and have strong ethics. We hire only the best people, support diversity, and promote growth and leadership in our employee ranks. And…
Hi Mike, I’m one of your customers. We don’t really know each other. We’ve chatted at a few events, you’ve covered some of my antics, but I’m mostly just a guy who reads TechCrunch a lot. I find it’s a pretty good place to see what’s important in the industry. And you and your team do some damn fine reporting on…
…or, why VCs do what they do (Note: this post also appeared as a guest post on Techflash) VC behavior sometimes looks insane, but generally it’s just sound economics. It’s crazy but true: if you know how a VC gets paid, you can pretty much read their mind. Here’s a few examples: VCs don’t actually seem to want to take…
Robot Turtles has been an amazing ride. From a goofy idea in the shower, to some clipart, to a print on demand game for my family… to a $250,000 wild ride that doesn’t seem to be done yet! As of this writing I’ve just crossed the halfway point (12 days down, 11 to go) and wanted to catch my breath and write up some…