From the Investors
Steven Sinofsky of Andreessen Horowitz built or oversaw everything from the development of C++ to Microsoft Office 95 through Windows 7 while he rose through the ranks of Microsoft. He oversaw the first failed tablets, back when they little more than a clamshell with a rotating screen. In “Tablets v. the World,” Steven considers the conversation surrounding tablets akin to “when people said cars were too expensive for the masses and would not be mainstream.” Steven contextualizes the problems of the present before imagining the future: “New hardware and new software will surface new capabilities and scenarios not previously possible (or imagined). It won’t be smooth and it won’t please everyone immediately, but it is happening… It really is about the software.”
Mike Collett of Promus Ventures puts valuation in context in “You’re Not Any Prettier at a Cheaper Valuation”
Aaron Harris of Y Combinator sees far too many founders make the same negotiating mistakes and warns against them in “How to Create Good Outcomes When Negotiating”
Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital builds on his analysis of SaaS churn in “Three More Ways to Look at Cohort Data”
Semil Shah of Haystack Fund examines location-based software and the “commingling” of data in “Unfolding the Map Between Uber and Google”
Eliot Peper of T2 Venture Capital teaches founders how to access early capital in “How to Raise Money from Angel Investors”
Mike Abbott of Kleiner Perkins discusses ephemeral content, Twitter, and the recent changes at KPCB in “Snapchat, Box, and the Inherent Danger of High Valuations” (via StrictlyVC)
From the Operators
Ash Huang (formerly of Pinterest and Twitter) considers Britney, baboon butts, and blobfish to be remarkably fine examples of “Creative Burnout” before proposing some solutions and fail-safe measures (Burning Man, anyone?)
Chris Perret of Nacho Cove notices a trend in founders being hung out to dry in “Asset Sales”
Simon Mathieu of Rainforest holds web developers and desktop developers to different shipping standards, then gives his own definition of complete, in “When Is It Done?”
Steli Efti of Close.io navigates your sales team from individual consumers to enterprise sales in “How Do You Sell Your SaaS Product to Enterprise Customers?”
People Are Talking About: Net Neutrality
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures kicked off the morning with a Q&A post titled “Safe Harbors,” analogizing the future of startups to the present state of music startups, which face practically-insurmountable royalty fees.
Brad Feld of Foundry Group proposed demoing the “slow lane” for a day, just to give consumers a taste of what’s in store if the FCC rule passes.
Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz discusses the pros and cons of net neutrality.
MIT’sTechnology Review says talk of an internet fast lane is already hurting some startups.
Fight For The Future, which comes recommended from Fred Wilson, looks like it’s the next OWS (OFCC?).
Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter, and more penned a letter to the FCC to take a stand against the proposed measure.
Featured Founder
Lucas Matheson (pictured right) is the CEO and co-founder of pinshape, a 3D printing community that makes exploring, sharing, selling, downloading, and ordering 3D prints simple and fun.
Mattermark: How did you come up with your startup?
Lucas: We just love what 3D printing is doing for people, and want to help creative minds share and explore the magic of this technology. Soon, they’ll be 10’s of millions of 3D shapes online, and we wanted to build a community where people can explore interesting and relevant shapes to print!
Mattermark: What is a recent milestone that your team celebrated?
Lucas: We’ve just started with Batch 9 at 500Startups, moved to Silicon Valley, and launched pinshape.com.
Mattermark: If someone thanked you in a restaurant for creating your startup, what would you hope they say?
Lucas: pinshape helps me find awesome products and turn my ideas into 3D prints
Mattermark: Tell us about your team.
Lucas: We’re a team of 3! Andre is 21, brilliant, and lucky for us… Dropped out of University to join pinshape. Andre’s mantra is “The quieter I am… the more I can hear.” Yesterday he sat down at his computer and said…”I’m going back to the Matrix” – we believe him. Nick is an electrical engineer who loves hockey and dancing at weddings! Nick’s focused on reaching customers and figuring what people love/not love about pinshape (email him if you love/not love something on pinshape – nick@pinshape.com). Myself, I’m the dad of two beautiful boys, a trying husband, and I work on building awesome partnerships with interesting 3D tech companies for pinshape’s community. I’m also working hard to find exceptional 3D designers to help them upload, share, and sell models on pinshape.