From the Investors
Steven Sinofsky of Andreessen Horowitz digs into the complexities of disruption, including its duration and impact in “Disruption’s Long, Slow, Complex Journey”
Jenny Lefcourt of Freestyle chats about how startups should react to today’s funding environment and why big markets are more forgiving in “20VC” (podcast)
Lee Hower of NextView Ventures talks about how to “declutter” an unintentionally cluttered board room, which can be counter-productive to a startup’s success in “How to Avoid a Cluttered Board Room”
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures starts a conversation around hiring and firing and how to deal with evaluating an employee you have questions about in “When You Have Concerns”
David Pakman of Venrock shows how the high royalty rates required by digital music startups have resulted in the industry being controlled by internet giants in “The Music Industry Buried More Than 150 Startups”
Ben Wiener of Jumpspeed Ventures concludes that there is a compelling case for actively seeking out and backing female-led startups and recruiting females to lead startups in “My Portfolio Company CEO Had a Baby (OMG)”
Rohen Sood of Reinventure Group writes about his experience at a new early-stage venture capital firm with only one investment in “7 Things I Learned In My First Year of VC”
From the Operators
Neil Patel of Crazy Egg puts together a list to help guide you across the rocky startup landscape and avoid common mistakes that entrepreneurs make in “Top Dos and Don’ts When Running Your First Startup”
Yong Kim of Wonolo argues that the on-demand economy is here to stay because it empowers workers to earn extra income while maintaining flexibility in “The Great On-Demand Economy Debate: You’re Missing the Point”
Peter Reinhardt of Segment discusses why the company that accumulates the biggest dataset will differentiate itself from its competitors in “Driving Data as a Defensible Moat for Self-Driving Cars”
Carson Kahn of Volley explains the failure that can result from adding too many features to a product in “The Vicious Cost of Feature Creep”
Brian Park of WeTransfer summarizes why empathy is a major source of competitive advantage when building a product in “Cut the Crap and Build With Empathy”
John Saddington of Eve compares building a startup to P90X for the mind in “On Breaking Rules & Staying Positive”
Donald Trump Said Things About Tech So Let’s Have Some Fun (read more)
Being the world’s most tremendous investor doesn’t exactly mean that you have interesting things to say about all industries.
Mattermark’s Alex Wilhelm has the scoop.
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