For some reason I’ve been paying attention lately to how people sign their e-mails and thought I’d throw out a few thoughts. I’d be particularly interested to hear from people on the strangest sign-offs they’ve received.

Below is a list of some of the more common sign-offs along with my take on what they really mean.

• Cheers! – I’m cool! Best – I don’t want to be locked into a specific sign-off – please interpret as you wish (best wishes, best regards, best cheers, etc.)
• All the best – When “Best” simply isn’t good enough
• Ciao! – I’m cool! and trying to act foreign
• Sincerely – I took this really great business writing class in high school
• Thanks – I really do mean thanks (when used correctly) / I can’t think of anything else to say (when used incorrectly, for example at the bottom of a flame e-mail)
• Hope all is well – Please DO NOT write back with details of whether you are well or not – I’m just trying to be polite
• Warm regards – I’ve just returned from my latest analyst session and am feeling pretty centered
• [nothing but your name] – Sometimes less is more
• [not even your name – just your full signature] – I’m so efficient/important/etc. that I don’t
  have time to even type in my name

With my very cheeriest and best thanks and regards.  Here’s hoping all is well

Sincerely,

seth j. levine

mobius venture capital

I hit a critical point on the vacation curve and last week took off to Mexico with my family for a respite. This one was a real break – no phone, no e-mail, no business contact of any kind. Along with relaxing on the beach and building sand castles with my daughter (mostly for the purpose of knocking them down right away), I was able to get quite a bit of reading time in. With that in mind I wanted to pass along two of these titles in case you’re looking to add to your reading list. The first is Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty. Sachs is an economist who has advised a number of developing nations on macroeconomic policy. He’s now the director of theEarth Institute at Columbia and a special advisor to the UN (advising on the UN’s Millennium Project). The book is extremely accessible – written for non-academics. For me, it challenged some of the notions I hold of Africa as a ‘lost continent’ and laid out Sachs’ version of how to Africa may be lifted out of poverty. I love macroeconomics (my college major) and in particular issues related to the relationships between economies. This book is very interesting reading. One word of warning – the last 1/5^th of the book is essentially an advertisement for Sachs’ version of how to achieve the Millennium Development goals and got a bit tedious. The first 80% of the book was outstanding. The other recommendation is Captain Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone around the World. The book is, as you might guess, about Slocum’s journey around the world. He was the first to accomplish this feat solo – leaving Boston in 1895 in a 30’ wooden sloop and returning to Rhode Island more than 3 years later in mid-1898. The book is great – starting with the title (you can imagine that if this book was titled today it would be called “A historic voyage” or “Voyage of a lifetime” or something cheesy like that). Slocom’s style of prose is also reflected in the title – he’s to the point and comically matter-of-fact.

Enjoy!

NewsGator jumped deeper into the mobile app world with its recent purchase of mobile podcatcher smartfeed along with its companion mobile reader, smartread. They also hired the smartfeed/read creator, Kevin Crawley, to head NewsGator’s mobile product development. It’s a great move by NewsGator to extend their vision of ‘any time, any place, any device’. Greg Reinacker covered the key points about why we did this on his blog, and Kevin added some more background color in his, so I won’t repeat it here. The thing I like most about this story is how Kevin came to be hooked up with NewsGator – particularly relevant to a series of side-bar conversations I’ve been having recently on the value of VC blogs (thoughts on that topic from last year are here).  Kevin apparently read something interesting in one of my blog posts and, since we were both Boulder locals, reached out to me. We met about 9 months ago for coffee and to talk about technology in general and RSS and podcasting specifically. It turned out that we knew a bunch of people in common, had common interests, etc (this being Boulder, it was pretty much a certainty that we’d have at least a dozen ‘one degree’ connections). Nothing specific came of the meeting, but we agreed to stay in touch, which we did over the months. Long story short, voila!, Kevin is working with NewsGator who now owns the IP from the project that we originally got together to talk about. Not where I thought that cup of coffee was headed, but a great blogging success story.

Let’s face it – disco is a universally loved form of music (well . . . almost). This is certainly true of the under-6 demographic.  I witnessed this phenomenon first hand last weekend as several hundred kids and their parents descended on the Boulder Theatre to rock out to the sweet beats and floating falsetto of the Bee Gees, Diana Ross and other 70’s greats.  I can promise you that you have not experienced disco until you’ve seen a mass of kids rocking out, complete with bubble machine, lights and disco ball.

I think our two year old had almost as fun as my wife and I did <g>

Dad stopped by the other day on his way back from a meeting and we were kicking around some ideas. One of the things that he brought up that I’d been toying around with as well was the notion of enabling companies to sell their NOLs. I think this is an outstanding idea – both at the state and the federal level. I don’t really want to get into it here, but you should assume a priori that I believe that NOLs should also be more transferable in acquisitions as well. That’s a related topic for sure but here I’d just like to address the ability of companies to literally sell their NOLs to the highest bidder. Let my address this from the perspective of the three entities most affected by this idea: –The selling company. The company selling its NOLs clearly benefits. It turns an asset that it can not currently make use of (and one that has a limited lifetime) into immediate cash to fund its current operations (and perhaps to generate more NOLs). Clearly this is a way for the selling company’s investors to double down their investment, to the extent to which their money is spent on things that give rise to expenses. Depending on how the market for NOLs develops and the company’s expected near to medium term prospects for generating taxable income it can plan with some accuracy to balance the generation of near-term benefit (cash) with expected later benefit (the tax shelter their NOLs would provide). -ont-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;”> The buying company. Different companies would derive different benefits from purchasing NOLs – companies have different tax rates, tax rates vary by domicile, companies have different expected needs for sheltering income, etc. Presumably a relatively perfect market would develop for the buying and selling of NOLs and these differences would work themselves out in the form of different prices companies would be willing to pay for $1 of NOL shelter. I don’t see much downside for buying companies if this idea were implemented – they’ll be able to do similar planning as the selling companies and determin  the right balance of NOL need vs. price based on their individual outlook. -ont-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;”> The government successful because they have access to additional investment capital. This will. The government clearly ‘pays’ for all of this NOL transfer activity. In their best case scenario they’ve just lost the time value of money, if you assume that all of these NOLs would have been used anyway. In reality there will also be a real cost to a program such as this because under the current system there are lots of ways companies lose the ability to use their NOL balances (the NOLs run out; the company is purchased by another entity limiting the use of transfered NOLs; companies go out of business before they use their NOL balances; etc.). That said, there will also be some tangible benefits from businesses that stay in business longer and become more result in higher employment (and employment related taxes) and a more stable business climate (i.e., more profitable companies in a region and the resulting increased corporate tax base). I’m scaring myself because this sounds a lot like trickle down economics, but in this case I think society as a whole benefits. I’m not ready to argue that for government this will be a zero sum game (i.e., I think there will likely be a true hard dollar cost to government revenue if a plan like this were implemented), but I think there are real benefits to business that would ultimately make their way back to government coffers in the form of future business and personal tax revenue. Clearly there would need to be some limits to a program like this – limits to the total NOLs that a company could buy or sell over a certain period; limits to the total income a company could shelter with purchased NOLs; etc. I did some searching around and found a few state level initiatives that are pushing a program like the one I’m describing (and at least one – in New Jersey of all places – that was already in place, allthough in a limited form). My dad told me that there’s a group working on this idea in Colorado (I couldn’t find any reference to it on-line) and that he’s been talking this idea up on some of his recent trips to Washington. I hope the right people are listening . . .

Let me know what you think.

I was on a panel presentation about blogging and RSS at the Boulder Software Club recently along with Walker Fenton from NewsGator and Howard Kaushansky from Umbria. Very fun time (hey – what VC doesn’t enjoy an opportunity to share their opinion); plus I got two beers out of Brad for managing to say “fuck” twice – both completely in context I might add. What struck me most during the presentation is how much more power the technology which is RSS has when you explain it in terms of what it does rather than what it is. RSS is pretty meaningless beyond a relative small group of techies and frankly no one really cares about the underlying technology – they all care about what they can do with it. Those of us who spend a lot of time talking about RSS/Blogging/Feeds/Aggregators/etc do a shitty job of separating out useless  concepts to most audiences (“RSS” or “XML”) with useful ones (“this stuff helps you do xyz”). Speaking in jargon solicited blank stares; giving examples of what people were doing with RSS to further their business solicited engagement and follow up. As a community of technologists, we should be better at this.

A few links for today that you might find interesting: Here’s a great presentation by Dick Hardt, CEO of Sxip Identity from OSCON 2005. Very fun if you have a few minutes and a nice example of how not to bore people with your presentation. (thanks to Ryan for the link)

Since I was digging on MBAs the other day, I thought I should link over to a more thoughtful piece on alternatives to getting an MBA by Rajesh Setty who, other than having a great last name, also has a few relevant things to say about the topic. (from Lorne)

Have more money than time (or perhaps good sense)? Here’s the exercise machine for you.

The following is an article that was published in The Jewish Week.  It’s of particular interest because it came to me by way of a Pakastani-born muslim friend who currently lives in Dubai (with the subject that included “Please reprint/forward this where you can”). The Respect Of A Cousin After the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad were republished in European newspapers, riots erupted in Damascus, Gaza, Beirut and elsewhere throughout the Muslim world. The violence is an extreme manifestation of the deep hurt felt by virtually all Muslims. As we condemn the violence on the streets, perhaps we should take a moment to understand the hurt in the hearts of the great majority of Muslims who did not engage in violence. For Muslims, the mere rendering of an image of Muhammad is sacrilege. The portrayal of Muhammad in a pejorative fashion is to them an inconceivably offensive desecration, on the level of what would be for us the defilement of a Torah scroll. Because it was done in newspapers across Europe, it was a slap in the face repeated thousands of times. Perhaps it’s a question of respect, not freedom. Freedom of expression theoretically protects the right of a non-Jew to desecrate a Torah scroll. Yet we would all view freedom of expression as a hollow defense to such a vile act. Some say Muslims can’t take criticism and simply don’t understand freedom of the press. In my own limited experience, that has not been the case. For the past year I’ve written a column in a Muslim newspaper, Muslims Weekly, in which I’ve criticized suicide bombing, the treatment of Jews under Islamic rule, the anti-Jewish rantings of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and even Muslims Weekly’s own reporting about Israel. But it was all done with respect, an informed appreciation of the wonderful benefits that Islam conferred upon the Jewish people, along with a willingness to look at our own imperfections together with those of the other. Regardless of whether or not the European press was constitutionally free to publish the offensive images, the act was a blatant and vulgar act of disrespect to Islam. Such insults no doubt contribute to the frightening specter of a clash of civilizations. What can we do as Jews to lessen the hostilities? Perhaps, just perhaps, a little respect would help. Rather than ripping the wounds wider with editorial musings extolling freedom of speech and condemning violent protests, is it not time for a bit of healing? The pages of this Jewish newspaper present a place for a small start by showing Muslims right here that though we too have the freedom to say anything we like, we choose to convey respect to our Muslim cousins. Printing something positive about Muhammad best does this. There is a space between romanticizing the past and vilifying it. There is a time to focus on the dark side of history and a time to view the other in the best light. There is a time to cull from our rabbinic writings the good our sages saw in Islam and there is quite a bit of such sentiment recorded.  We Jews need to learn to be more flexible, pursuing the claims of Jews expelled from Arab countries and criticizing anti-Jewish TV programs and cartoons in the Muslim media, while at the same time displaying gratitude for all the good Islam did for us. There is a time to jump over our pain and see the humanity of the other. That time is now. Let us start: There is a Hadith (oral tradition concerning the words and works of Muhammad) recorded by Bukhari in the name of Amer Bin Rabiha that reads as follows: “A funeral procession passed us and the Prophet stood up for it. We said, ‘but Prophet of God, this is a funeral of a Jew.’ The Prophet responded, ‘rise.’ ” One can search the writings of the ancient non-Jewish world for a more powerful example of a public display of respect for the humanity of the Jew. There simply is no more powerful statement than the single word uttered by Muhammad nearly 14 centuries ago. Some readers will bombard this newspaper with reams of material showing a darker side to Islam, as if it were just too much for them to hear one good thing. But it is there, it is a sacred part of their tradition, it is good and we should hear it and respect it.

When you give respect you get it. When you take criticism, you earn the right to give it. Perhaps this article will be republished in Muslim newspapers, compete with its critical comments about the pain we feel in the face of anti-Jewish cartoons and worse in Muslim media. Muslim readers may come to understand that an article by a Jew, in a Jewish newspaper, was one of respect, telling its audience: “We know that the one mocked in newspapers in Europe is the one who had the humanity to tell his companions to rise for the funeral procession of a Jew.”

Birthday wishes to Ben Casnocha who turns 18 today.
Ben sent an e-mail out last week asking a bunch of folks for their advice about life at that age. I’m afraid my response was a little late to make it into his post with some of the material he received. Here was my 2c (extra points for the haiku): always have more fun by enjoying what you do it’s all the journey

Two things that I wish someone told me when I was 18:

• you can never travel too much – especially when you are young (I  should have taken time off to do this)
• you are never delaying living your life – you are living it every moment of every day; put another way, life isn’t actually about a series of events or hitting milestones – its about getting there; i was in way too much of a rush when i was young to get somewhere and didn’t spend enough of my time enjoying the journey

One of my most memorable experiences from when I was an investment banker in New York (and one of the things that really turned me off from banking, now that I think about it) happened one year at our team holiday party.  One of the associates I worked with was going bald . . . all except for one spot on the very front of his head, which he refused to cut off despite it looking ridiculous – a wispy clump of hair in the middle of his otherwise bald forehead. We made endless fun of this hair over the years and that night, after much drinking, the group took up a pool to try to get him to shave it off for good. As I recall the pool got up to some absurd number – $15,000 – $20,000. Amazingly he didn’t shave it off (although it did, of course, eventually fall out). Looking back, this was a silly display of ego from the heads of the group to throw around that kind of money (clearly to impress the rest of us, who were in no position to offer more than a few bucks up).I was reminded of this story when I received a note from my friend Usher saying that he was going to shave his head in support of a charity that funds childhood cancer research. I wish I could have gone back in time and taken the money on the table at the banking party to give to Usher. Not able to do that, I thought I’d blog about it in hopes that some of you might consider supporting him in his cause along with me.