Some of the best memories of my time at Cisco are of the people. I was fortunate enough to be at Cisco at a time when the company was truly on fire and experiencing hyper-growth. The atmosphere was all "can...

There's a wonderful Op-Ed piece by Tom Perkins, one of the founder of Kleiner-Perkins, Caufield & Byers, in the WSJ today. Tom highlights the key differences between venture capitalist and investment bankers in a piece titled "Silicon Valley is not...

Apropos the iPad, complete the following sentence… "iDunno…" Here are my first thoughts… iDunno that I'd carry this AND my laptop The iPad just seems "in between" – it's too big to be a convenience device like the iPhone but...

Over the years I've worked with a lot of CEOs – I've helped hire them, mentored them and watched them in action. It's a lonely job – even with a supportive board of directors, you have to be the chief...

Fred Wilson has an interesting post today – The Founder Factor where he shares some thoughts about the role of the founder as a company grows. He ends with the comment: "The founder factor is a huge intangible force in...

The utility of the mobile phone is amazing ? despite holes in wireless coverage that lead to blocked calls. Some of the holes are 100% predictable ? there should be white lines painted across the road with a warning sign...

Brad Stone has a post on yesterday's NY Times Blog ? "Falling Valuations: Poison for Venture Capital" in which he suggests that down rounds are poison to venture capital returns. His article summarizes Fenwick & West's quarterly survey of venture...

It's impossible to escape the debate of whether Venture Capital is "broken" “ tech blogs, national newspapers, even the overheard conversations in my favorite coffee shop (Café Del Doge in Palo Alto and no, I'm not an investor, just a...

Startup ideas tend to come in waves. Generally (but not always! the ultimate winner tends to be one of the early entrants so I'm always alert for emerging trends. One of the latest trends I see is of tighter coupling...

I wrote the original draft of this post over a month ago? and decided to sit on it and see how the first quarter finished off. While there are some signs that the economy is no longer plummeting downwards like...

Ever wonder what comes next? We've seen two decades of strong growth in technology fueled by semiconductors and the Internet. The list of game changing innovations is long but the pace of additions has slowed considerably over the last few...

It's time to remember the King ? no, not Elvis! YOUR CUSTOMER!!!! In good times when demand is strong and the rising tide raises all ships, it's too easy to become complacent and think that you know best and simply...

Imagine the following scenario: A commercial airline flight takes off for its specified destination. Unfortunately, the weather at the destination is so bad that the pilot is unable to land. As they execute the missed approach, the plane runs out...

As 2008 ends, two different points about the IPO market in 2009 struck me as noteworthy. Both of these appeared as I began to catch up on my reading from a hectic December. The first arrived late last week in...

Like me, you've probably had enough with comments from VCs on how to cut costs/plan to weather the deepening recession. For sure, there has been much well-meant advice on the cost-cutting front. Inevitably, people focus on the cost-cutting front first...