Startup One Stop

Good morning, All,

Apologies if your’e receiving this twice this week. Mailchimp seems to have had a glitch and we’ve heard from a number of you that you hadn’t received the newsletter today.

Said Michael Crichton back in September of 2005 in his remarks to the Commonwealth Club, “I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge to mankind, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the disinformation age) it takes on a special urgency and importance.” Read More...

Good morning, All,

We took a food handling safety class – as is required by law in New York, in order to work in the food business, and we are preparing to launch Sweet Freedom (coming soon). While the class was both informative and enlightening, in light of the bigger picture – what’s happening with our food supply/food itself, and various companies’ attempts to disrupt food – that was two plus days of our life that we’ll never get back again.

California, that part of the world that has attempted to reinvent or disrupt everything from ride-hailing (Uber and Here Are the Internal Documents that Prove Uber Is a Money Loser) to house cleaning (Homejoy) has spent quite a bit of time and money of late taking aim at food itself (Funding To Food Tech Startups Reaches New Peak – someone please fund another food delivery service soon!). Between Soylent, described in Crunchbase as having been developed “from a need for a simpler food source. Creator Robert Rhinehart and team developed Soylent after recognizing the disproportionate amount of time and money they spent creating nutritionally complete meals.” Just add water and voila: $22.3 Million from investors, mostly to disrupt programmers from having to take time away from their work to forage for food/feed themselves. As Soylent investor Chris Dixon also pointed out, it only costs about $10/day for the regimen. Part of the reason for having developed Soylent was to help feed the Third World, where food is sparser and note to self and Silicon Valley investors who might not be aware of how the lower 99% lives: $10/day per person for food is First World pricing. Read More...

Good morning, All,

Ok, it’s not, but anyone who knows Dave McClure (500 Startups) and/or has heard him speak, knows that he will invoke the ‘f’’ word at least a dozen times into any given three minutes of conversation. His TV show, Bazillion Dollar Club, (with Brady Forrest, who runs the Highway 1 hardware accelerator) premieres on Scyfy next month, and here’s a preview. Dave is nothing if not strongly opinionated, and he recently posted a series of tweets aimed at startup investors. While we rarely do this, they were too good for us not to share, and founders, there are takeaways here for you, too:

1/ Dear Startup Investors: STOP PARTICIPATING IN BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITIONS. You are propping up a HORRIBLE practice in the industry. Read More...

Good morning, All,

Earning were reported last week, which made it an odd week for Apple, which reported a 35% increase in iPhone sales over last year, but the sales were well under the expected numbers. Still, Apple shares plummet(ed) after lower than expected iPhone sales. But remember: stock prices are based on predicted future earnings, and iPhones sales are expected to ‘go even softer:’ no new versions of the iPhone are going to be released in the near future.

According to the article, the iPhone did draw a number of ‘switcher’ – people who crossed over from other platforms - and Mac sales were up (iOS device sales outpace Windows PC sales for first time). Hard numbers on Watch sales were not released, although according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, June sales surpassed the sales of the previous two month, whatever that means in hard numbers, but ok. And while the press has pretty much bashed Apple’s latest platform, primarily non-tech consumers don’t necessarily agree: Apple Watch Satisfaction. It seems that the farther removed you are from the tech industry, the more you like the watch. For more user feedback, check out wristly. Read More...

Good morning, All,

In case you missed it, the subject line is a reference to a song by Prince. A lot of attention is being given to the number of tech companies that have hit unicorns status (Total Number of Unicorn Companies: 119. Total Cumulative Valuation: $448B) and the number of angel investors/the fact that there’s too much money out there right now. The reason why the first bubble burst – and we’ve said it before – was that there was too much money/stupidity chasing too much youth and inexperience. What to speak of the number of newly minted and thoroughly clueless investors in the field, suffering from FOMO Syndrome. Brian Cohen almost never fails to mention this lately – and for good reason.

We've seen this before Read More...

Good morning, All,

There’s an expression that the many in the tech community have glommed onto as if it’s part of the startup manifesto: Ask forgiveness, not permission. We’ve covered this in the past, in other forms, but factoring in that tech is very much and has long been the domain of the alpha male, let’s face it: the concept of forgiveness is not really part of their lexicon. So while it’s a nice idea, honestly: it’s more a ‘whatever’ attitude. Asking permission is not what they’ll do and as for the consequences, it’s left to the world at large to deal with it.

Which is never a good idea. This arrogance is inviting regulation, and it’s never a good idea to catch the attention of the regulators. Read More...

Good morning, All,

This week’s newsletter is on a more personal note, as we have several announcements.

At the last June breakfast, we announced that we had launched SiliconAlleyCats, a new consultancy with long-time SOS member Marc Prosser. Part of the inspiration for it came out of the breakfasts, where each month, we bring in a top investor to meet with a small group of entrepreneurs, address an aspect of investing, answer your questions, and give you a chance to pitch to them. Despite the fact that many of you have great ideas, we did notice that you don’t know how to present them, or yourselves: you tend to bury the lead. That’s what SiliconAlleyCats is here for: to provide help in three core areas - introductions to angel investors and venture capitalists, media strategy, and online marketing guidance. And you know the charge of SOS – we’re here to help. We can help you to refine your presentation, and we certainly know the investors. Read More...

Good morning, All,

We often come across companies who outsource development. It always looks attractive – and it’s so much more affordable, right?  If that’s your decision, Godspeed - but quite recently, someone we know did just this and the experience was far from a good one. Or a successful one. If you are one of those intrepid souls who decides to go the outsourced route and work with a team outside of the US, some advice from what we have both heard and observed first-hand over the years:

Good morning, All,

Of course, the subject line is a reference to Atlas Shrugged, a novel by Ayn Rand.

Steve Jobs was a blatant and unapologetic thief – in the name of innovation, of course. He wasn’t the only one. Both he and Bill Gates walked out of Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) with IP that would changed both their companies forever – for the better, and hey, Xerox, so long and thanks for all the fish. Seems to have set the tone for Silicon Valley in general, if necessary: when it’s in the name of innovation, all is forgiven. Read More...

Good morning, All,

It’s June and a good time to take a look back at the year so far. There’s a lot of chatter about diversity, but of course, it’s all just talk and all more or less superseded by Cultural Fit, which is nothing short of a kinder, gentler, more acceptable way to discriminate against anyone and everyone, without having to justify it. It’s one of those terms that is so pliable that it can pretty much cover anything and everything – and no one walks away with hurt feelings.

Right? Read More...