2012 Planning / Working Together
It’s been way too long since my last post. I was going to jump in with a post on not blogging, but thought better of it. Better to actually do than write about whether to do or not do. So much for my resolution to write/blog more this year… Hopefully this was just a January hiccup with too much travel and work to fit in regular blogging. If you’ve read this blog you know I’m a pretty deliberate guy. I like to know where I’m headed and I like to be explicit about where that is, what’s working and what’s not. To that end, towards the end of last year I went through an exercise with each of the companies I work with to lay out both top level goals for this year as well as get some feedback on the interaction pattern between the company and me. I’ve always done some version of this, but this was the first year I was this explicit about it (and the first time I included a request for specific feedback on my working relationship with the CEOs that I work with). The email looked like this: …
February 9, 2012· 3 min read
Me on w3w3
I was recently interviewed by Larry Nelson from w2w3.com. That piece is now up on the w3w3 site, and is (in my humble opinion) worth a few minutes to check out. I talk about what it’s like to work at Foundry Group with Brad, Ryan, Jason and Chris as well as about the role of company advisors (inspired by recent posts from this blog on that topic – here and here). Enjoy!
June 16, 2008· 1 min read
Guest Post: The role of company advisors (Part I)
One of the things I enjoy the most about writing this blog is the discussion I engage in with readers – both through blog comments and in direct emails. Over the past month I’ve had a particularly enjoyable exchange with Gerald Joseph. One of the topics we’ve discussed is the role of advisors in the life of a start-up. I generally think of advisors as non-paid “friends of the company” and as you’d probably guess, advocate a pretty deliberate organization and use of advisors. Gerald’s view is a little more expansive as he thinks of “advisors” as the larger ecosystem that surrounds (or should surround) a start up company – one that includes people you pay (attorneys, CPAs, etc) and the people who pay you (your angel investors) in addition to the business and industry experts that are the typical “advisors” to young companies. I like this line of thinking and offered Gerald the chance to put his thoughts into a post. He took me up on that idea and came up with a four part series on the topic that I’ll put up over the next few weeks. After the final post I’ll summarize some of my thoughts as well as comments from readers (and please – comment away!). …
May 22, 2008· 5 min read