An Investor Wanted to Give Me $50,000. Here’s Why I Said No
It was money they needed, but it came with strings attached.
Stupid Apps and Changing the World
An article came out today in Businessweek about arrogance and Silicon Valley. I thought it was good, but there was one more point I wanted to make. People often accuse people in Silicon Valley...
Losing 80% of mobile users is normal
Exclusive data on retention curves for mobile apps In a recent essay covering the Next Feature Fallacy , I explained why shipping “just one more feature” doesn’t fix your product. The root cause is that the average app has pretty bad retention metrics . Today, I’m excited to share some real numbers on mobile…
Fear of Failure and Lack of Speed in a Large Corporation
I just spent a day working with Bob, the Chief Innovation Officer of a very smart large company I’ll call Acme Widgets. Bob summarized Acme’s impediments to innovation. “At our company we have a cu…
Lessons from Airbnb's Rejections
I am so happy Brian Chesky shared these rejection emails from Airbnb's early days. I am constantly reminded how most every successful startup began small and faced various types of rejection early...
Standard Treasury Acquired by Silicon Valley Bank
We're proud to say that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has acquired the assets and team of Standard Treasury. More information can be found in the press release. Dan and I started Standard Treasury...
What Did Billion Dollar Companies Look Like at the Series A?
Five key traits of unicorns at the Series A. Some may surprise you.