From the Investors
Sam Altman of Y Combinator believes the impact of software on civilization is a good thing, but worries that potential future issues are not being planned for in “The Software Revolution“
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures confirms Brad Feld’s thoughts on the 40% rule for investors to use as a ‘first pass filter’ on potential investments in “The Data Behind the Rule of 40%“
Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures explains how a VC’s role may be to help founders ‘identify the framework for first principles for decision making’ in “The Chaos Theory of Startups“
Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures describes how ‘chief everything’ CEOs can lead a team to be ineffective and unfocused in “Be Careful About Being a Meddling Startup CEO“
Brad Feld of Foundry Group responds to Danielle Morrill’s post with his thoughts on board meetings he’s had and encourages founders to ‘own the meeting’ in “The First Board Meeting”
Justin Hall of Golden Gate Ventures advises founders in Southeast Asia to consolidate with competitors and investors to write bigger checks in “How Startups Can Achieve a Massive Exit – and Why They Should Be Wary”
Kanyi Maqubela of Collaborative Fund wonders if a bootstrapped product can ‘get off the ground’ if a founder doesn’t have complete focus on it in “Extending Your Runway vs. Focus”
Fred Destin of Atlas Venture provides an overview of London’s startup ecosystem metrics and his thoughts on potential new hot spots in “Developing London Tech Clusters Beyond Shoreditch: Croydon?”
Jason Lemkin of Storm Ventures details his decision-making process that led him to committing his latest investment in “Eating My Own SaaStr Dogfood: Why I Invested in RainforestQA”
From the Operators
Mattermark CEO Danielle Morrill walks through how she prepared and ran her first board meeting with the Mattermark co-founders and Brad Feld of Foundry Group in “Post Series A Life: Reflecting on Our First Board Meeting and What It’s Like Working with Brad“
Freelancer Ali Mese complies a list of tools and resources that he recommends people in the startup ecosystem use in “300 Awesome Free Things“
Terry Lee of MeUndies expands on ways to delegate, allocate resources, drive performance and more things he’s learned about leadership in the last six months in “How to Lead”
Ben Yoskovitz of VarageSale defines what he means by ‘product debt’, how to identify it, and clean it up in “Product Debt“
Amanda Linden of Asana sees a narrowing gap between consumer and enterprise design, as companies focus more on customer happiness in “Why Designing for Enterprise vs. Consumer Products Isn’t as Different as You Think”
Nina Alter of EqualTogether shares her thoughts on alcohol in startup culture and ‘Codes of Conduct’ at startup conferences in “The Piano Has Been Drinking”