A smattering of topics this month, including Marc Andreesen on why the IPO is dying; cogent advice on why founders should get some early liquidity; analysis and context of the S&P 500’s historic close above 2,000;  our former professor Max’s advice… 

As comfortable as an Uber ride is, it sure seems to cause a lot of distress. Recently protests against Uber rolled Europe, even as the company was flexing its muscle with an $1.2 billion capital raise at a valuation in excess of $18 billion. Uber’s international expansion has been remarkable…

We are big fans of the global game, so this is a month to relish – and a tremendous start.  As enthralling as the competition is, the cultural implications of futball are equally captivating.  Some of the best writing on the game off the field — and which deserves a read no matter your sport..

We are catching up on the venture capital scene this month, with a good profile of Sequoia Capital (the VC “It Girl” of the past, oh few decades), a primer by Bill Janeway on the future of venture capital,…

We’ve all been there, perhaps. Struggling through the day to get things done — noble things, often, for good people. Things that are necessary, important even. Positive outcomes. All that.  And yet sometimes we keep hitting unnecessary obstacles:…

The ceaseless flow of information and data running through most businesses now has made it easier to spot big trends, but also threatens to wash over smaller pieces of critical information. But increasingly, it is these small snippets of data that carry important insights…

The tension of social media is its increasing influence combined with its sheer difficulty to manage. The proliferation of information makes it harder and harder to hone in on a person or topic for signals both weak and strong.  We were fans of the former Gist and, since its demise…

2013 in a word? According to at least one economist it was: Bitcoin – a secure peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency created in 2009. New Bitcoins are mined by software programmers, and although users can remain anonymous, central to the system is a public database and sequential record of all transactions,,,

While political pundits might consider 2013 the year of the “no,” biotechies might think about it as the year of the “know.”  Who can know what, what knowledge is patentable, and knowing how it can be used were all issues which found a newly devoted audience, including seven people in long robes…

Wearables — electronic devices attached to the body in some way — are generating some serious buzz, capturing imaginations with visions of science fiction coming to life.  Although wearables have been on the market in some form or another since a complex and miniature  abacus was attached to a ring in the Qing dynasty…

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…

Device by device, homes are getting smarter.  You can now unlock your doors with Kwikset, turn on the lights and get the CrockPot started with WeMo, and adjust your thermostat with Nest.  Unfortunately though, these devices aren’t so smart that they can talk to one another.

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…

Paying your friends back for spotting you with some cash just got really, really easy.  With nothing more than an email, Square Cash (from the makers of Square) allows friends and family to send small amounts of money directly to one another’s bank accounts via email…