The intersection of theoretical economics and practical reality are often akin to the collisions between the Roadrunner and ACME products. Often these two forces align over time, but the blackboard simplicity of supply and demand curves rarely work out so cleanly in real life, particularly when there is transformational change…

If blogs aren’t visual enough for you, WonkBlog has a series on the best graphs of the year, while back on the blog side, here are some thoughts from Ben Horowitz on taking the mystery out of scaling a company; Tim Harford on why there are no new ideas, only remixes…

23andMe is a high-profile startup that offers direct-to-consumer DNA testing.  Send in a little spit swab, and they provide a variety of contextual reports on inherited traits, genealogy, and possible congenital risks. Their home test – most recently priced at just $99 — received notice within Time’s Best Inventions of 2008…

Everyone loves a winner.  But what happens when the champion eventually ends up in second place? The novelty of The New means that entrepreneurs often place great belief in the first-to-market strategy — particularly in industries with large network effects.  But as with many of the myths of entrepreneurship, much of this enthusiasm may be misplaced…

Among the various images of venture capitalists, add one more: unicorn chasers. For it turns out that the billion dollar exit that most VCs obsessively stalk may not be mythical, but they are extremely rare. Seed-stage fund Cowboy Ventures went through the math for the past decade, and found 39 companies valued at over the elusive $1 billion milestone…

This month, read some very cogent reasons why an entrepreneur turned down $5 million in venture funding, or go the other direction and get Paul Graham’s advice on how to raise money, and if you have already tried, take comfort in some reasons why you can’t raise money…

As anyone who has tried to build an app knows, creating something that not only engages users, but hooks them — getting them coming back multiple times, day after day — is no simple task. When one of these apps appear, ease of use and addictive features mean they take off like wildfire…

Disruptive technology is often seen as binary: you are or you are not.  However, it’s more often a matrix: a technology can be anywhere from slightly to very disruptive to a user base that also varies in size. Even a small disruption in a large industry can ripple into a sizable wave…

Like many people, we are big fans of startup communities. We’d like to think that the benefits of these groups, and their economic and social impact, is self-evident. But we’re even bigger fans of contrarian reasoning, and having one’s beliefs challenged is thought-provoking, so this post naturally caught our eye…

In this month’s five best blogs we are going all Venture Capital: start with some great startups whose ideas seemed absurd at the time, then check out six myths about venture capital — which might help, since some people believe there are now fewer than 100 tech VCs still investing,…

Can an online microjobs market help lift up the poor?  British economist Tim Harford thinks that it is possible.  In his recent post, Harford points to an interesting new site, Slivers of Time.  Slivers is an online marketplace that aims to bring the same crowd-sourcing approach..

Most businesses experience a cycle of booms and busts.  In the investment community, there is always a lot of talk about the booms — and far less on the busts.  And for early-stage companies, there is a sector which has seen a particularly impressive and widespread crash: cleantech. Like an ill-advised victory banner…

In 1998 Netflix was formed with a simple idea: rent DVDs by mail under a subscriber model: no late fees, and you don’t have to leave your house. The company went public in 2002 with annual revenues north of $75 million.  The virtual model was one originally embraced by the marketplace…

The first rule of Fight Club is, well, you know.  So it perhaps is no surprise that the way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas.  So says no less an authority than Paul Graham in this engaging essay, and it’s pretty tough to argue with him…

Last month, we talked about the decline of mass merchant monolith, Sears, in an increasingly diverse, online retail environment.  Sears is not alone in this struggle – brick and mortar retailers around the globe are struggling to adapt and thrive in a changing marketplace…

One of the minor signs of professional accomplishment is that dreaded moment where some enterprising young person asks career advice. Often one has to balance between the practical (pursue a typical corporate gig to pay off student debt?) and the promise…

In this month’s five best blogs: advice on should you take that startup job, and if you do here’s how you should configure your startup team, and some thoughts on critical questions before you hire a startup lawyer;…

One of the most interesting developments in higher education is the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).  Starting with a course in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford taught by Sebastian Thrun that attracted 160,000 students — or over 20 separate four-year cycles of Stanford’s entire undergraduate enrollment…