StockTwits announced two great new features in the last week that are worth checking out. The first is a partnership with SecondMarket to expand the StockTwits platform to include private company streams. So just as you’d tag a post with $AAPL you can now tag private companies (think $ZYNGA,$4SQ, etc). Just as it is for public equitites, tagging your posts (tweets, blogs, etc.) with private company symbols is a much more efficient way to identify the company you’re talking about and become a part of the broader conversation about a company. StockTwits has put together an impressive database of private company symbols and is adding to this list daily. The second feature was launched with less fanfare – a WordPress…
Archives / August, 2010
Has convertible debt won? And if it has, is that a good thing?
Paul Graham, founder of Y-Combinator, sent out a tweet on Friday saying: “Convertible notes have won. Every investment so far in this YC batch (and there have been a lot) has been done on a convertible note.” It’s an interesting data point on Y-Combinator companies, but is this truly a macro trend? Have convertible notes really won? And if so is that good for start-ups? Good for investors? I think the answer to these questions are that 1) it’s not at all clear that this trend is as definitive as Graham suggests; 2) it’s a mixed bag for entrepreneurs (more positive in the short run, potentially negative in the long term); and 3) it’s clearly not a positive trend for…
Say it ain’t so Paul
As if the world didn’t already have enough patent trolls, Paul Allen has sullied his name and jumped into the fray suing Google, Facebook, Apple and a bunch of other high profile companies alleging infringement of a number of patents held by his company, Interval Research Corp (now defunct). It’s a travesty that Allen has stooped to this level. Patent trolls are in my view the lowest of the low. And while our current – completely messed up – patent system erroneously rewards this behavior, most trolling takes place by firms and individuals you and I have never heard of (and frankly don’t want to know). Why Allen – worth an estimated $14Bn – feels the need to stoop to…
The Freemium Myth – more data
My last post with some thoughts on product pricing has received a ton of traffic, comments and email. Clearly this topic is one that a lot of entrepreneurs care about (and struggle with). A few people pointed me to a great post by Ruben Gamez of Bidsketch on the Software by Rob blog that talks about freemium plans and why, in Ruben’s view, they aren’t always drive the results companies are looking for. It maps well to my thinking (I directly called the freemium model into question in my pricing post). There’s some great data in the post – definitely read the full thing. Here’s a few that caught my eye: Bidsketch started out with a freemium model. Ruben carefully…
Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product
I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). I thought it would be helpful to put some of my thoughts into a blog post and hopefully spur some conversation in the comments and over email. With any broad topic, there are always exceptions to the general rules. There are also few absolutes and much of this advice varies depending on your specific product and market. And keep in mind here that I’m dealing generally with web services of some kind in the advice below (not consumer apps and not enterprise software). With those caveats, here are some ideas on pricing models: – Beware of too…
How not to pitch your business
I had an exchange with an entrepreneur last night that I couldn’t resist posting (I did resist including the guy’s name, however). It started with a relatively typical email. One which I wonder why I still receive but still get regularly. The entrepreneur writes: Seth…..I’d like to pitch you on a start up. I need the help of someone like you. I haven’t filed any patents yet and I need a nda signed. can we do it? I respond as I do for all requests like this by saying: Hi [name redacted]. Like most VCs I don’t sign NDAs (see: https://www.sethlevine.com/wp/2008/01/why-i-dont-sign-ndas). Let me know if you’d still like to show me what you’re up to (totally understand if you feel…
Trada – from the beginning
Brad has a lengthy post up describing how we think about seed investing at Foundry Group. In it, he describes our philosophy around seed investing and differentiates it from what others (but not everyone) in the market is doing. Importantly, he notes that: our seed investments are not “options on the next round.” We price our seed rounds as equity investments, always lead or co-lead … and treat them the same way we would a $10m investment… when we make a seed investment, it gets everyone’s attention. We try hard not to smother it with love, but we recognize that we usually each have something unique to add to a seed investment and try to help accordingly. As a result,…
Head in the clouds
I spent the month of July up at our place in Granby, CO (just outside of Winter Park). My partner Brad has been a longtime fan of taking a month to work somewhere else, not travel and clear your head, but I’d never given it a try. And while I understand that not all jobs allow for this, I suspect that more people could do it (at least for a week or two) if they really wanted to. Let me be clear that this wasn’t vacation. While I didn’t get on a plane for a month (which in and of itself felt like vacation), I was working full time – completely connected via email and phone. I actually intended to…