We love what we do, so ClearCreek writes and publishes pieces for a somewhat irregular blog about emerging companies and the capital markets (subscribe: here). Any errors are ours exclusively while the occasional sharp insight is probably borrowed. We hope you find them of interest, and we always welcome feedback.
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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreOne 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…
Read MoreIn 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;…
Read MoreOne 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…
Read MoreThe old marketing maxim — that bad experiences get shared with many people but good experiences only with a select few — is turned on its head with startups. The success stories are spread widely, generate considerable media, and have a halo effect: almost everyone “knows someone” …
Read MoreOne of the great entrepreneurial success stories that is rarely given its due is ESPN. Explaining to today’s college students that the world once existed without 24-hour sports television is akin to the evolutionary disbelief in the fossilized existence of a tethered telephone…
Read MoreOne of the axioms of raising capital is simple: all money is green, so what is the value an entrepreneur should expect from an investor? For many early-stage companies that are growing quickly, with money safely in the bank, the primary need is talent. And one of the resources…
Read MoreThe roughly $2 billion deal between Facebook and Goldman Sachs is so chock-rich of material it will surely spawn a series of longer pieces once it has settled into historical view. To begin,..
Read MoreFunding options and pathways for early-stage companies are changing – more rapidly now than at any time in the past quarter century. We’ve detailed many of the changes individually…
Read MoreFor the vast majority of its history (as captured in this 2007 article), music service Pandora was on the brink of shutting its doors. Sheer perseverance, a tapdance in business models, the easing of regulatory and litigation risk…
Read MoreThe political commentator and writer David Books gives out annual Sidney Awards to the best magazine essays. All are wonderful, but three bear particularly interest for entrepreneurs and others with an interest in the capital markets…
Read MoreResearch from the Kaufman Foundation looks for the areas of innovation across the US while publishing abroad New Economy Index. From the 2010 edition come a number of detailed statistics…
Read MoreIt’s a little early for April Fools, and perhaps it is just my long exposure to entrepreneurs, but there is actually an argument circulating which labels entrepreneurs as tax cheats. This is because entrepreneurs…
Read MoreAs the incubator model spreads and both virtual and real communities of start-ups proliferate, entrepreneurs learning from entrepreneurs is becoming more of an every-day event. Several groups are institutionalizing these lessons…
Read MoreI’ve always been a keen believer that the lessons of failure are often more instructive than those of success. One tends to take personal credit for good outcomes regardless of their origin, and assign bad outcomes to some outside event…
Read MoreOne of the most fascinating and dynamic sectors is pure information. Technological advances now enable immense databases, which in turn provide new insights on both simple and complex correlations, and the ability to spot (or debunk) trends…
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