From the Investors
Mahesh Vellanki of Redpoint Ventures identifies and discusses the key problems and trends of the education industry and what the future of education might look like in “How Startups Are Shaping the Future of the $2 Trillion Education Industry”
Theresia Gouw of Aspect Ventures explains why she believes we’re in a private market valuation bubble and sees a slow, yet significant downturn coming in “Signs of a Bubble?” (CNBC video)
Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz gives his thoughts on startups, tech markets and hip hop legend Nas in an interview on ProductHunt Live in “Ben Horowitz’s Best Startup Advice”
Alida Miranda-Wolff of Hyde Park Angels puts together a shorthand guide to help entrepreneurs understand a cap table in “How to Read and Understand a Cap Table”
Samir Kaji of First Republic Bank advises entrepreneurs to be strategic when asking a mutual contact for an investor intro and provides examples of what to and not to do in “Nailing Your Investor Intros”
Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners announces a new class he’ll be teaching with John Lilly, Allen Blue, and Chris Yeh at Stanford on how founders can scale up great products into great companies in “CS183C: Technology-enabled Blitzscaling: The Visible Secret of Silicon Valley’s Success”
From the Operators
Gabe Rivera at Techmeme celebrates the 10th anniversary of running Techmeme with an outline of surprising facts in “Ten Years Later, This Is How Techmeme Has Avoided Click-Bait, Auto-Play Ads, and More”
Brendan Mulligan of LaunchKit in the First Round Review shares his five rules for startups releasing new products in “The Simple Rule That Could Transform How You Launch Your Product”
Jason Fried of Basecamp reflects on how easy it can be to dismiss someone’s idea and why you should think about it a little before pushing back in “Give It Five Minutes”
Kristi Zuhlke of KnowledgeHound offers a solution, rather than just identifying an obvious problem, based on her experience raising angel funding in “The Real Unicorns are Female Angel Investors”
J.T. Trollman of Facebook details how to navigate the polarizing world of critique in product design — and make better decisions doing it in “Two Lessons for Using Feedback”
Hsin-Ju Chuang of Responsiblr breaks out hiring interviews into main themes with individual questions to surface more information from candidates in “[Useful] 50 Best Interview Questions for 1st Time Hiring Managers”
Ellen Choi formerly of Booyah provides product feature suggestions for Airbnb, based on her recent trip to southern Italy in “Dear AirBnB: Product Thoughts from an International Traveler”
Join Mattermark at the Pioneer Summit in Silicon Valley, October 7-9
Our co-founder Andy Sparks will be leading a discussion on the current venture capital and investment landscape with leading investors including Mike Maples (Floodgate), Jules Maltz (IVP), James Joaquin (Obvious Ventures).
To learn more and register, please visit pioneersummit.com.