Erica Dhawan is a digital collaboration and communication maven. This means she helps people build connections and trust even if their interaction is via email, texts, and virtual meetings. Her latest book is called Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Communication No Matter the Distance. She has an MPA from Harvard Kennedy The post Eric...

It would be easy to get depressed reading the morning news. Climate change is happening more quickly. The Covid pandemic shows no signs of abating. And there are all sorts of other things that are challenging our way of life. But on days like today, I find it helpful to remember that science and technology […]

Great healthcare is ultimately provided by exceptional human-to-human interactions. Analysts estimate that 80% of all healthcare is delivered by people. Workforce intelligence tools have never been more important, made even more so in the shadow of the surging Delta variant. … Continue reading →

PartyBid is a fun way to collect NFTs with others. Here are some live parties you can join and bid with others: Funding Friday has always been about the idea that others might want to fund things that I am funding. Party Bid takes that idea a step further and makes funding things more social […]

Managing a business is about having a plan, sticking with it, and not panicking or looking for hail mary passes. There are no silver bullets or shortcuts to success in life. You need to have a five to ten-year plan and you need to stick with it and execute against it day after day, week […]

Cody Keenan was President Barack Obamas director of speechwriting from 2013 to 2016. He has a degree in political science from Northwestern University. After graduation, he worked as an unpaid intern in Ted Kennedys office. Then he got a masters in public policy from Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2008, he The post Co...

I mentioned the infrastructure bill here last week. I continue to be impressed by the way Senators and the White House are working across the aisle to get a very big piece of legislation across the finish line. It is not done, but it sure looks like it will get done. As I mentioned in […]

I have watched countless companies and leadership teams manage transitions over the years and I have come to believe that companies and leaders should do everything they can to promote "leaving well." What I mean by "leaving well" is a smooth transition of a leader out of a role/company. This typically means that a departing […]...

I backed a documentary project this morning about two 80-year-olds pursuing their lifelong dreams to be stand-up comedians. I think people of any age should chase their dreams and I can't wait to watch this film.

I am heartened to see both sides of the political aisle in the US came together yesterday to agree to move forward on a $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill. There are parts of the bill that I don't like (asking blockchain smart contracts to send 1099s to the IRS seems nuts to me) and parts that […]

Hugh Howey is a very successful science-fiction author. He says he had two dreams: to write a novel and to sail around the world. To put it mildly, he has realized his dreams. His first published work, Wool, was a dystopian novella that he wrote while working as a bookstore clerk at Appalachian State University. The post Hugh Howey appeared first ...

The two most used measures of a venture fund's performance are the "cash on cash" return and the "internal rate of return" (IRR). One measures how much an investor got back divided by how much they put in (cash/cash). The other measures what the effective rate of return is on the investor's money. You might […]...

Rocky Mountain Power emailed me last week and offered us a "100% Solar Match" which means that we can "match" all of our energy consumption in our home in Utah with power from their 20 megawatt solar plant in Holden Utah. This doesn't mean our home will be now be operating with energy from that […]

I'm going with something a bit different today on Funding Friday. Longtime AVC reader KirstenLambertsen has created an email newsletter featuring creators and their projects across many different creator platforms. It is called Patron Hunt. It looks like this: I just signed up and you can do that too right here.

I have written about stablecoins in the past. I think they are a very important part of the crypto asset landscape. Two of the top ten crypto assets by market cap are stablecoins, Tether ($62bn) and USDC ($27bn). You don't buy these assets to generate gains because they are price stabilized. You hold them like […]

Jodi Kantor is a reporter at the New York Times. She and Megan Twohey broke the story about the sexual abuse allegations of Harvey Weinstein in 2017. This story catalyzed the current use of the term #MeToo and ignited the #MeToo activist movement. She and the team, which includes Megan Twohey and Ronan Farrow, The post Jodi Kantor appeared first o...

This morning I was sitting outside of my coffee shop, sipping on a cortado and reading the news on my phone while the NY Times, which I buy for The Gotham Gal every morning, sat folded up next to me. I gave up on mainstream news media two decades ago and have been relying on […]

Over the last 18 months, the early-stage financing market has seen dramatic changes characterized by these three things: A shift from in-person fundraising to virtual fundraising A reduction in financing process timelines from months to weeks A continued increase in the amount of capital available for early stage companies I believe that for the mo...

Good golly. The mid-year funding data were released this week and the numbers are nearly off the charts – literally. In 2Q21, $75.0 billion of venture capital was invested in 3,296 companies across all sectors, bringing the total through June … Continue reading →

ETHEREUM: THE INFINITE GARDEN is a "feature-length documentary film that explores the innovative real-world applications of the Ethereum blockchain, the die-hard community of enthusiasts and developers, and its creator, Vitalik Buterin, whose vision for the internet has the potential to change the world." The film is being crowdfunded on the Ethere...

Dave is a programmer, entrepreneur, writer, and to some, a gadfly. The word gadfly, by the way, means an annoying person, especially one who provoke others into action by criticism. Thats Dave all rightand I mean that in a positive way. We first met when I was a software evangelist for the Macintosh Division, The post David Winer appeared first on...

My family has a history of irregular heartbeats, from PVCs to AFIBs. So when I saw my cardiologist recently, I asked him how I could track my beats. I have worn a Holter Monitor a few times and did not want to do that again unless it was absolutely necessary. He pointed me to this […]

The Gotham Gal and I are watching Succession after being told by so many friends and family members that we had to see it. We are in season two and last night we watched an episode where Logan Roy tries to acquire a family-owned media business. The selling family, led by the mother, tells him […]

Potas Radiohead – I Promise I Promise, Radiohead

A credit card is simply a payment card issued by a bank to consumers to allow the card holder to pay for goods and services via the cardholder's accrued balance. A credit card works similar to a debit card, which allows a consumer to make…

Today's remarkable guest is Haben Girma. Haben was born in Oakland, California to an immigrant Eritrean family. In her early childhood, she began to lose her eyesight and hearing. She graduated from Skyline High School in Oakland and went on to graduate magna cum laude from Lewis and Clark. After college, she obtained The post Haben Girma appeared...

My friend Gary Ginsberg's book, First Friends, is out today. Gary gave me an advance copy a few weeks ago and I have been reading it. First Friends is a book about US Presidents and their best friends who influenced them in the office. The book starts with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and ends […]

I am a fan of wireless charging for my various devices and I am glad that there is a standard, called Qi, for wireless charging that many manufacturers support. This means you don't need to buy your wireless charging device from Apple or Google, you can buy it from any manufacturer you prefer. This nice […]

Business Insurance is an essential legal requirement for businesses of all sizes. In general, insurance is a way of protection against financial loss from any eventuality. It's a great form of risk management, mostly used to offset the risk of an uncertain or unforeseeable loss.…

The Internet was developed by the US Defense Department to create a network that was capable of surviving a military attack. They accomplished that with a design where no part of the system was central to its operation. You can take out any part of the Internet and it will still operate. When I read […]

This should be obvious to AVC readers but I am a fan of short and sweet. Why take two pages to say something you can say in one page? Why take two paragraphs to say something you can say in one paragraph? This letter to potential investors from the CEO in the Duolingo S-1, which […]

On Funding The Denominator EffectI recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio, which I called shots on goal. The thesis is that before investing in an early-stage startup it is close to impossible to know which of the deals you did will break out to the upside. Its therefore important to have en...

I've never been someone who writes in a journal But earlier this year, my therapist suggested I keep a journal and so I've been doing just that. I started keeping everything in a field notes book but I felt too vulnerable like I would lose it or someone would find it and read all […]

On Funding Shots onGoalBeing great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together:You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustainedYou need be perfect with your market timing. Being too early is the same as being wrong. Being ...

I understand that regulators and elected officials need to raise concerns about new technologies and their impact on society. It is their job or at least part of their job. But I am also dismayed regularly by how poorly many elected officials and regulators understand the technologies they are talking about. In particular, I am […]

Ronnie Lott is one of the best players in the history of the NFL. After a successful college football career at USC, he was the first-round draft pick of the SF 49ers in 1981. Over his fourteen-year career, he played for the 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, New York Jets, and Kansas City Chiefs. In The post Ronnie Lott appeared first on Guy Kawasaki.

If you are looking to expand your business, you will find that marketing can be one of the most important things you need to consider. Marketing can be defined as the activity of conveying information and ideas to people in order to encourage their response.…

It is officially summer now and with adult vaccination rates passing 70% in many parts of the US, people are out and about. I've heard the term "analog summer" used to describe this moment. If the past 15 months have been a digital lockdown, then the next three months are going to mark a return […]

Marketing refers to various activities that a business undertakes in order to advertise the sale or purchasing of a certain product, service, or even good to the general public. Marketing is a very essential part of any business, since it is responsible for increasing the…

My friend Kirk backed this project earlier this week and I got a notification and checked it out and backed it immediately. I like everything about this project. Finding opportunities for people with special needs to work productively and happily is such a great thing to do. Email readers can watch the video here.

I am a big fan of celebrating your wins. I often highlight "micro wins" with executive coaching clients as moments worth celebrating. I also love figuring out where a founder is going and what their north star metric could be, both now and in the future. In the fast paced world of startups, leveling the …