Pattern Recognition is a journal of thoughts and strategies on venture capital investments.
The hardest part of building a start-up is hiring good people. I realize this may not be intuitive with high unemployment nationally, but there is a shortage of talent when it comes to software development, sales leadership, marketing, web design, and finance positions that are the building blocks of Internet companies. Companies typically come through […]
Today is November 4, 2012. It has been five days since Sandy swept through New York City. Electricity is back in Manhattan, although it will be a few more days before ConEd fixes every building. The subway system has made a remarkable recovery. The parks are open. The streets are cleared of trash. From my […]
I have a confession. I still use a Blackberry. And not only do I use a Blackberry, but I recently traded in a Blackberry and… wait for it… got another Blackberry! The horror! I went to the Verizon store for a Blackberry replacement, and here is an exact transcript of my conversation with the sales associate:
I learned in business school that many companies can be analyzed with three variables: A = Monthly revenue per customer, B = Monthly customer churn, and C = Customer acquisition cost Here is a quick example to show what I mean: Verizon charges $50/month for cell service (A). 1.5% of Verizon’s users cancel their cell […]
I often get asked for stock advice, and before weighing in I give the caveat that I don’t trade public equities so you get what you pay for when it comes to my opinion. However I was recently asked why Google is more valuable than Facebook, and on that topic I have one simple point.
There is a new trend emerging, called Content Marketing, that is blending the lines between online publishers, brands, and eCommerce companies. The general idea is that people who sell things (namely brands and ecommerce companies) need to produce more than just advertising to get people to pay attention to their products. Instead of banner ads […]
For the past few years I believed that online media companies were failing due to content costs. Traditional media was accustomed to spending $100K per minute for TV programming or $200 for a newspaper story, and you couldn’t recoup that level of expense on the Internet. I also watched as companies like “The Huffington Post” […]
I haven’t written a post for the past month. Once I learned about the Salesforce acquisition of Buddy Media it was pretty much all I could do to turn off my computer and try not to think about what the acquisition would mean for me, Greycroft, and my friends at Buddy Media. I thought anything […]
I recently gave a guest lecture at Bloomberg on legal issues in the start-up world. This is my first time trying to embed video in my blog – if it doesn’t load try hitting refresh.
Earlier this year we funded a mobile gaming company called Playdek. Playdek makes a very popular iOS game called Ascension, which is sold through the App Store and has a few hundred thousand users. For the past year Ascension was priced at $4.99, but last week, without any fanfare or promotion, the company lowered the […]