Annual Meeting 2013
We discussed Investing in a Brave New World at our 2013 Annual Meeting. View the presentation here.
Apple Versus Google, Not Samsung
According to common wisdom, Apple and Samsung are in a death fight to lead the world in smartphone market share. But that’s the problem with common wisdom; it’s usually wrong. I was really looking forward to using the Samsung Galaxy S4 to get back into the Android ecosystem after more than…
Entrepreneurship Through The Lens Of Venture Capital
Ernestine Fu created a course at Stanford that examines entrepreneurship through the experiences of venture capitalists. During the first year of the course, Gilman Louie presented on the importance of paying attention to details for startups. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHM9uYjUCzc In the second year, Bill Coleman discussed his experiences as an entrepreneur…
A Tale Of Four Founders – And Four Companies
This is the tale of how a group of four founders morphed over the last five years into four distinct companies. We were the only VC firm crazy enough in 2007 to invest in four kids (age ~22) with a really crazy business – promoting video broadcast 24 hours and…
Virtual Data: The Next Enterprise Battleground
As early investors in technology companies, we’re interested in the next battleground, not the last one. Why the heck did VMware pay $1B for Nicira, a company that was just starting to generate revenue? You can (and many have) asked why did Facebook pay $1B for Instagram or Microsoft $1B…
For Mobile Operators, LTE Might Be The Kiss Of Death
Over the past five years, the way people communicate has drastically changed – from phone based voice calls to computer-based data, even for voice. Five years ago, everyone used what are still known as “feature phones”, mobile phones optimized in their design for better call quality and longer battery life.…
Apple’s Secret Handshake: iCloud
This is a thought piece speculating on Apple's plan with Messages and iCloud. Are you an iPhone user who uses the Messages app (what Apple calls its built-in text messaging app)? Have you noticed that some of the texts you send are blue and some are green? Some of you may have figured out…
The Cyber State Of The Nation
Our cyber defense is in a state of crisis. That’s right: The United States of America is vulnerable in cyberspace in a way that should not be acceptable to any of us, Republican or Democrat, young or old, rich or poor. The emergence of the Internet and the World Wide…
Real-time Bidding For Display Ads
Early on, the web embraced advertising as a fundamental piece of the business model for the internet. Every successful consumer property, from the newest location-aware mobile services to now-staid web portals, displays multiple ads. That business — displaying advertisements on the web — has transformed from a slightly modified version…
How Long Will Macintosh Be With Us?
Speculation on the future of Apple's product lines. I’m not the first one to say this: it seems logical that Apple will eventually end-of-life the Macintosh. Erik Sherman does a deep dive here that outlines the logic for de-emphasizing the Macintosh and eventually turning it off. And Dan Lyons (AKA…
