From the Investors

Benedict Evans of Andreessen Horowitz likens the proliferation of mobile video and images to what vinyl and transistor radio did for music in “Imaging”

Steve Blank of I-Corps invites entrepreneurs to take their ideas off the drawing board and into the drawing room in “Validation: Be Sure Your Vision Isn’t a Hallucination”

From the Operators

Naithan Jones of AgLocal pays tribute to a mentor, a friend, and a team in “Be Naive and Crazy Courageous: Lessons of a Great Man”

Shri Bhashyam of EquityZen anticipates the SEC’s review of what constitutes an accredited investor in “Will Angels Lose Their Wings?”

Alex Taub of Social Rank details how he obtained an elusive piece of internet real estate in “How We Got the .com for Our Startup”

Featured Founder

Mattermark: How did you come up with your startup?
Alex: I was building a startup in the social discover space, At The Pool, that made more than three million introductions across hundreds of countries. Our users commandeered the platform to ask questions, make recommendations, and start conversations. Yeti focuses on this use case.

Mattermark: What is the most interesting trend in your marketplace, and how are you navigating that change?
Alex: A fun challenge has been the global nature of our user base. It took almost a year to reach 100 countries on the web and only two weeks to get there on mobile.

Mattermark: What is a piece of advice you wish you could give yourself one year ago today?
Alex: Drive towards engagement, not growth. Engagement begets growth but growth doesn’t necessarily beget engagement.