Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital and Brad Feld of Foundry Group announce the Global EIR Coalition, a non-profit to help states implement a model for companies to partner with universities to overcome the H1-B visa cap in “Hacking Immigration – The Global EIR Coalition”

FLAG Capital visualizes Venture Capital performance over the past twenty years and says, ‘a growing backlog of unicorns suggests a bright future ahead for distributions’ in “Venture Portfolio Management …in the Age of the Unicorn” (PDF)

Josh Breinlinger of Sigma West advises founders to ‘plot out the expected frequency and price to see where the use case falls’, before building a marketplace business in “Vertical or Horizontal”

Bernard Moon of SparkLabs Global Ventures presents the summary of their first fund’s investment activity in “Our First 16 Months” (presentation)

Hunter Walk of Homebrew describes why ‘every on-demand app generates a substantial volume from their referral program’ in “Referral Programs Power the On-Demand Economy”

Jeff Thermond of XSeed Capital guides first-time CEOs in how to avoid mistakes in their first board meeting and to ‘never surprise board members’ in “How to Run Your First Board of Directors Meeting”

Alex Iskold of Techstars showcases the ‘breakthrough innovations’, tradeoffs, and difficult pieces of technology for seven Techstars companies in “The Real Tech Behind 7 Techstars Grads”

From the Operators

Alan Schaaf of Imgur reflects on Imgur’s rapid team growth over the last year and maps out their new goal to ‘focus on the basics’ in “Startup Growth, at Imgur”

Rebecca Ussai of R/GA recaps her collaboration with Disney and why learning how to draw Mickey Mouse changed her approach to design in “The Principles of UX Choreography”

Nathan Kontny of Highrise dives into the journey of the Banana Republic founders to build a company despite the odds against them in “Constrained”

Liam Campbell of Mule Design Studio declares that ‘design is not an exclusive club’ and believes it’s an acquired skill with time and effort in “Work Is better Than Talent”

Dane Lyons of Knowtify shares the story of his team going through Techstars and his perspective as the CTO in “The Techstars Experience”

Shane Mac of Assist says, ‘how you leave a company matters’, and outlines the steps he’s given his employees in “How To Quit”