Brendan Baker, an MBA student at Oxford, created a phenomenal infographic (pdf) of our $1MM angel raise for AppMakr.  Here’s how to read it and what it means.  Additionally, below is a 7 minute interview I did with Brendan going over the top points gleaned from the infographic. Brendan followed our raise from before I even moved from DC to SF last summer.  I made a few trips to SF as I began the raise process, and then moved to SF...

Virgin America is running a forward-thinking social media campaign at San Francisco International Airport’s new Terminal 2 that just opened yesterday using Facebook and Foursquare checkins.  The idea is great — as you check in at various Virgin locations, you get badges, from “ground crew” for a few checkins, up to “captain” for the max number of checkins. I tried it out when I flew into T2 on Virgin...

Yesterday I moderated a panel on mobile web vs. native apps, courtesy of Digital Media Wire’s conference track at the National Association of Broadcasters NABShow conference in Las Vegas.  Here’s the session description: Mobile Apps v Mobile Web: What’s the Winning Formula? With the proliferation of the Apple iPhone and iPad, Google’s Android platform and new Blackberry services, there has been an explosion of growth of...

I recently gave a keynote and was a panelist at Potomac Tech Wire’s “Seed and Early Stage Funding Outlook:Raising Capital For Startups” event at the Ritz Carlton in McLean, VA.  You can see the handout I used during my talk at left (click to download PDF). For those who attended the event, AngelList has graciously allowed me to give away their 90 page e-book titled “Pitching Hacks,” their 1,396 page...

6/26/11 Update: Our company internal “How To Basecamp” instructions now posted by user request. We’ve been power Basecamp users for several years.  Basecamp is a minimalist-style project management system created by 37 Signals.  While Basecamp has had its shortfalls, my view has traditionally been that Basecamp is much like democracy:  It may not be perfect, but it’s the best thing out there. Recently, though,...

The recent research about epigenetics has convinced me of the importance of getting in the best shape I can before I have kids.  I used to be in pretty good shape (i.e., 11 hrs, 52 mins finishing time for the JFK 50 mile run), but 10+ years in the startup grinder and the inherent lack of balance in life has left me out of shape.  So, I recently got a trainer (who’s been kicking my butt 3 times a week) and I’m committed to...

Being embedded squarely in the middle of the fast-growing mobile revolution, our company has a unique perch which I’ve wanted to codify into a vision document for some time.  I finally found time to do it, and the resulting video is below, along with the slides below that.  I’d love your thoughts & comments on what points you agree or disagree with, and why. Here’s the video: http://www.vimeo.com/21495452 If...

It still surprises me that people send emails out like this one where they cc dozens — or in this case hundreds– of  (well known) people. The biggest risk is a complete lack of control over what a recipient will say when they ‘reply to all’. I’m writing this blog post so I can send it as my ‘reply to all’ response when I get emails like these. I may as well educate someone to the dangers of what...

There are two things I know to be true. 1.I know family is more important than anything else. I didn’t always know this. I am fortunate to have a wonderful wife who taught it to me in my 20′s, vs. learning it on my death bed, as some do. 2. I know that some of the things I think to be true, probably aren’t true. That one’s a bit of a mind bender, but it keeps me curious about the world. That’s about it for the...

There’s a great 2 page spread in Aprils Entrepreneur Magazine about AppMakr.  You can read the full story here. It’s a great article about how AppMakr enables non-developers to create apps. My favorite quote is the subtitle, “AppMakr’s do-it-yourself mobile application development platform turned Filter Publications into a mobile app developer” Also mentioned briefly in the magazine article is the fact that...