Blocking and Tackling vs. The Spread Offense

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Ty Danco

blocking tackling

Football fans will recognize the title as talking about the difference between fundamentals and creative razzle dazzle. Both styles, properly mastered, win games. Which brings me to my two new favorite reads.

Bill Payne’s blog discusses the fundamentals of angel investing, with the wisdom gained from a grind-it-out veteran. In contrast, Tom Eisenmann’s HBS class blog “Launching Tech Ventures,” frequently dazzles,  scoring often based on the surprise factor. I’ve already noted my admiration for Professor Eisenmann’s posting of the readings for his class, and I’m dutifully working my way through the homework. (more…)

Filed under: Angel, Boston, startup, Web Favorites | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcasts–a smorgasbord

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Ty Danco

Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

Wanted to make sure that these treasures don’t just get lost in the links:

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html

65% great entrepreneurs (most recently Jack Dorsey of Square and Twitter);

20% great investors (Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate, Mark Suster of GRP, etc.)

15% great teachers (like Steve Blank, who doubles as great entrepreneur)

Some are video, all available via audios…for when you want to make that long drive from Vermont to Boston. Enjoy and learn!

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Changing from No to Yes

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Ty Danco

Changing investment decisionsI recently changed course and invested in a (unnamed for the time being) green energy-related company.  I see all sorts of startups related to green energy, all of whom previously got a thumbs down. Most often the no is on the team or on capital inefficiency questions, just as in any other sector.

I had seen “X Company” present at angel meetings or conferences three times before, and I never regretted passing on them. So what changed my mind and got me to invest? In this instance, there were four things: personnel, a recommendation, addressable market opportunity, and traction.

Let’s take them in order. (more…)

Filed under: Angel, Entrepreneur, Vermont | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Top 4, err, 5, make that 7 Web Analytics sites? Help!

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Ty Danco

website analytics chart

I need to do a post (or one of these days just update the Topics Page) on Web Analytics and Social Media.  More importantly, I have to learn more about these things myself, so for now I’m just going to quickly pass along this great link here by @Avinash.

Avinash is my favorite read to date,  including lots of beginner guides as well as more advanced stuff I haven’t tackled yet. This website already links to posts with Dave McClure on his pirate analytics, Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot,  and David Cancel of Performable, but I’ll need to include others, like Hiten Shah‘s Kissmetrics, Compete.com, and the big freebie, Google Analytics.  And of course, almost all of these guys are interviewed somewhere on Mixergy.

I’m guessing I can do a better job of crowdsourcing this via this post and a question on Quora. If you post some suggestions below, I’ll check them out and try to repost in a month or two after digesting the answers. Thanks–this is super relevant for several of my angel investments. And this old dog needs several new tricks.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Web Favorites | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Why I Passed on Investing in (a real but unnamed) Hot Startup

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Ty Danco

Just say no

Yesterday I video-skyped with the CEO of an intriguing Startup.  They were recommended to me by one of their investors on AngelList.  They had going for them a) a big addressable market; b) an area which clearly will break out, but with no clear leader; c) two vocal and well-known angel backers, both of who screen more potential deals than anyone else I know, but both only investing in maybe 10 a year; d) other influential investors; e) an advisory board featuring a world-expert (who advises the Obama administration on a closely-related topic and is also investing in the company); and a seed round which already has $300k of commitments for a $500k round.­­­  And a ton of excellent press coverage for a company that just started selling in November. You can’t get much more social proof than this. (more…)

Filed under: Angel, Entrepreneur, MassChallenge, startup | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 15 Comments »

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