The insightful Tyler Cowen has studied the way technology can radically change a wide variety of industries — how smart machines might displace human beings.  But rather than focus on the typical piece predicting the future of work, Cowen penned an intriguing Op-Ed which tries to imagine…

In entrepreneurial culture, success dominates the airwaves. A brand new company can succeed in many ways: attracting press, landing influential seed investors, winning contests, and through stories of individual users. This culture is so strong, that the second act of an entrepreneur…

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…

One of the potential revolutions that has most captivated the public — especially since we are still waiting for our jetpacks — are cars without drivers.   From the Batmobile, to Christine, to Das Hoff, the days when a self-driving vehicle answers our call are soon coming.  Indeed, Google’s driverless cars have already traveled over a quarter million miles,…

In this month’s five best blogs we saunter through Bill Gurley on transitioning to a mobile centric world, the WSJ’s survey of how entrepreneurs come up with great ideas, some amusing stereotypes of venture capitalists,…

As social media and communications technologies proliferate, everyone seems to have more friends, but in different places. High-school friends, professional friends, virtual friends, and friends both with and without benefits…

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,…

Finance is rarely entertaining.  But when it is, it’s a doozy.  Last year the activist hedge fund titan Bill Ackerman bet that Herbalife — a company with 33 years of history and $3.5 billion in annual revenue — was a souped-up pyramid scheme…

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..

We’ve all been there.  The conference call is starting, but the dial-in information is in an email. Or several emails. Or back on your desk. Or your phone dropped the call after you  entered all the data. Or none of that matters because you are driving and can’t press more than one button anyway…

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;…