From the Investors
Emily Demarest of AgFunder releases AgFunder’s report on the state of AgTech startups and investments – ‘from precision agriculture to biotech to drones’ in “AgTech Investing Report – 2014”
Ben Einstein of Bolt compares Keurig’s business model to Gillette’s ‘razors and blades’ business model and finds Keurig’s model to be a ‘paradigm shift’ in “Keurig Accidentally Created the Perfect Business Model for Hardware Startups”
Hunter Walk of Homebrew interviews Joe Fernandez of Klout to surface his thoughts on the emotional challenge of startups, staying focused, and more in “Klout Founder Joe Fernandez on Hype Cycles, Lessons Learned & Rapping to His Dog”
Michael Copeland and Benedict Evans of Andreessen Horowitz discuss a shift in technology, noting an increase in ‘the importance of delight rather than speeds and feeds’ in “a16z Podcast: What the Apple Watch Is — and Isn’t”
Brad Feld of Foundry Group praises Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy’s company Harmonix, leaders in the music gaming space and pioneers of music VR in “The First Real Intersection of Music and Virtual Reality”
Christian Hernandez of White Star Capital believes the next phase of technology will be the ‘Age of Context’ – a result of ‘accelerating technology trends coming together’ in “Into the Age of Context”
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From the Operators
Joel Popoff of Serelo shares his entrepreneurial journey from childhood until now, and dives into how and why he’s building his latest startup in “If You’re Crazy, Start a Startup” (longread)
Mark H. of TigerTiger breaks down – in lengthy detail – the metrics and strategies of customer acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue with examples, resources, and insights in “The Ultimate Growth Hacking Sourcebook”
Nathaniel Disston of EquityZen guides employees and founders in understanding how an equity package is determined and what it might be worth in “Considerations for Your Startup Equity Compensation (Part 2)”
Michael Karnjanaprakorn of Skillshare advises founders that, ‘no amount of over-communicating [the company vision] is too much when alignment is at stake’ in “Golden Rule of Managing Up”
Kevin Abosch of KwikDesk proposes an ethical framework for ‘expert systems’ and ways to implement safeguards against the ‘threats intelligent machines pose’ in “Responsible Artificial Intelligence”
Dan Zambonini of Bipsync argues that ‘data shouldn’t guide [a startup’s] strategic decisions, but should be assisted by data’ in “The Joyless World of Data-Driven Startups”