Startup One Stop

Good morning, All,

We hear a lot about Investor Exhaustion, Investor Fatigue, and let’s face it: in NYC, there’s at least one pitch event a week. How often do you hear about something that’s truly original? Or something that’s more a feature than a company? As to Startup Exhaustion, we all hear about the upside of starting your own company, but the fact that most businesses fail, even when the entrepreneurs did have a great idea and worked hard. Remember: according to New York Angels Chairman Brian Cohen, angels invest in only one out of 40 companies; VCs in one out of 400.

Still, we would never discourage a potential entrepreneur. Although, we do want to throw something out there that we haven’t seen mentioned discussed anywhere and that’s the idea of Startup Consolidation. How many times have you met someone with a company similar to yours – okay, there are a few key differentiators – who is also struggling for traction? Ever thought of working together? Just a suggestion, which occurred to us, after having met with a very successful entrepreneur/investor recently, and pitched one of our startups (bonniefoods). He liked the product, he is interested in pursuing it, and when he asked how we planned on building it out, we answered honestly: we don't want to run the business, but rather, license the recipes/partner with a company/or come on board as the food scientist/subject matter expert (in this case, type 2 diabetes). We don’t know the food business – but we do know a hell of a lot more about food for Type 2 diabetes than even most nutritionists and dietitians. Nothing wrong with symbiosis. Read More...

Good morning, All,

We all know what happened after the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon. It disrupted, all right. First there was Titstare, an app that lets you stare at tits, then show your reaction. Followed soon on the heels by  Circle(Jerk)Shake, a game app where you see how many times you can shake your phone in 10 seconds, demonstrated by simulated masturbation. Audio/visuals were made for the teams. Someone knew what was being presented, but, let’s face it: a name like TItstare is just sooo open to interpretation.

Disrupt is a world stage, and even though the founders said that their creation was a joke, it wasn’t a funny one, although people did laugh. Ok, there was a hue and cry in the press for a hot minute. Nothing like the backlash Peter Shih suffered when he posted his 10 Things I Hate About You – San Francisco Edition. As someone who has spent a fair amount of time in San Francisco, he’s pretty accurate, although he said he wrote it as a joke. A friend in SF informed us that signs were posted on street corners, urging him, in no uncertain terms, to go back to NYC. Just a reminder, SF: you pride yourself on your tolerance. Being able to take criticism, and allowing for difference of opinion – these two concepts fall under ‘tolerance,’ just for the record. Many people took deference to Shih’s comparing the SF weather to a woman who’s always PMSing. We found this response to Shih’s post in ValleyWag (Douchebags Like You Are Ruining San Francisco), and if nothing else, catch the visual. Entrepreneurship as a young woman in bunny ears. Read More...