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An Archive of the SOS Email Lists.

The Seed Funding Conundrum

The Seed Funding Conundrum

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Image by skeeze from Pixabay

We work with entrepreneurs all the time, and while there may be no lack of interest in the startup, it still may take time to close the round. Why is that?

As Anne Lee Skates @anneleeskates noted: 1/ There are now 1000+ micro VC firms, >4x more than 10 years ago, most of these seed funds. Despite this trend, it can still be hard to raise a seed round. Why? Few firms lead rounds, and many wait for a lead investor to commit before investing.

Said Rob Go from NextView Ventures (The Seed Funding Market Is Less Crowded Than You Think), leading a round involves a lot of heavy lifting: “Part of it is the mechanics of putting together the actual financing. This includes working with founders to determine the right valuation, negotiating the other substantive terms of a round, and typically writing one of the largest checks.  But more important than the check or term sheet is the moral authority and responsibility of building independent conviction for catalyzing the rest of the round. Read More...

Will “creepy” be the new norm for the 2020’s?

Will “creepy” be the new norm for the 2020’s?

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Since it’s the beginning of a new decade, as a starting point, we thought we’d take a look at 2010 and see what the sentiment was then. Eric Schmidt set the tone when he famously said, “There is what I call the creepy line. The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”

Said Business Insider, “If you don’t cross the creepy line, we suppose by definition you aren’t creepy. But making it a policy to go right up to that line “on a lot of things” is, well, something a lot like creepy.” So, where do we stand now and as for the creepy line crossed – how often and in how many ways was it breached, if not completely ignored? Some instances from the past year and the past decade:

The Digital Arms Race Read More...

The 20-Teens Were the Decade of the Unicorn. Let’s Look at the Ugly.

The 20-Teens Were the Decade of the Unicorn. Let’s Look at the Ugly.

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Real unicorns were pretty ugly, too

The final few weeks of any year – what to speak of a decade – tend to give us pause to reflect on, in the words of Alexander Graham Bell, “What hath God wrought?”

We realize that, in terms of historic industries and major industrial transitions, tech is relatively new to the planet. Every major industrial shift prior to tech has done precisely what tech has done: basically, created efficiencies. But given the breadth, scope and speed at which tech has engulfed the global landscape, forgiving founders for their youthful business missteps has tended to create those efficiencies at great expense to some, and in many cases, quite a few members of the planet’s population.

Uber entered the ride-hailing space without consideration to local regulations (Ask forgiveness, not permission) and scaled quickly, following yet another tenet of technology: move fast and break things. Uber did make ride-hailing more convenient and, surge pricing aside, less expensive. However, their drivers were not all properly vetted, which led to, in several cases, criminal allegations. But Uber skated a fine line, insisting that it is an ‘app,’ and that their drivers were not employees – the same argument they made in order to avoid paying drivers employee benefits. Job creation? Uber did contribute to the swelling underclass: the money mostly went in one direction. The Next Web summed it up pretty well back in 2017: Uber: The good, the bad, and the really, really ugly. Given Uber’s (current) legal challenges around the world, it seems to be going to the lawyers. Read More...

The Data Collector’s Holiday Gift Guide

The Data Collector’s Holiday Gift Guide

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Let’s face it: privacy is gone. Still, there are a few people out there in the wild who don’t use electronic payments, still shop at actual brick and mortars – where they may even pay in cash – and feel that they have no use for social media, with the possible exception of a Facebook profile, and only because they were missing too many of their friends’ and family’s social gatherings and announcements.

Since we’re nearly 20% of the way into the 21st Century, it may be time to change all of that and what better time than the holiday season?  So we’ve compiled a short list of gifts that you may want to consider giving those on your list who are still living in the past:

23 & me or some other DNA-tracking/sharing genetic testing service. Who knows? They may discover long-lost relatives. Or an ethnic background that they never knew they had. Or you may discover that your friend is a criminal and you’ve given the police the break they had been looking for, since there are no rules or oversight when it comes to law enforcement collecting that information. Win-win! Read More...

Giving Thanks to Tech

Giving Thanks to Tech

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Thanksgiving is upon us, and how often do we all truly stop and give thanks for all that we have, sometimes whether we know it or not. Here are a few examples, with tongue held firmly in cheek:

First, here was a time when you had to read a map or ask for directions when you were driving or walking somewhere you’d never been before and weren’t quite sure where you were going. Men notoriously hated to ask for directions, and would often get lost or go in circles, from what we hear. Now, all you need do is enter the destination into that map app on your phone, and no worries. In fact, Apple or Google, depending on your map of choice, often knows precisely where you’re heading, even before you’ve finished inputting the information. Wouldn’t you be lost without them?

Google knows better than you. The Wall Street Journal reported on How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results and let’s be honest: Google has been tracking you for so long now that the company no doubt knows you better than you know yourself. Or at least, knows what’s best for you, so may gently sway you in that direction… Say amen, somebody. Read More...

The Myth of the Gig Economy

The Myth of the Gig Economy

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Image by 1820796 from Pixabay

The so-called sharing/gig economy is under fire – in California, anyway, with State Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). “Under the new “ABC” test (which is part of the new law), an individual is presumed to be an employee, unless the company can prove all of the following: A) that the worker is free from control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; B) that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and C) that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed,” The National Law Review explains.

There’s very little genuine sharing going on in the so-called sharing economy. Sharing/gig economy unicorn DoorDash had to change its tipping model after it was discovered that tips that were meant to go to the workers were being kept by the company. Even after they promised to change that, Vox reported that DoorDash was still pocketing workers’ tips, almost a month after it promised to stop. Now it’s Instacart that’s in the crosshairs for taking that page from the Bad Behavior in Tech playbook. “’You have demonstrated a pattern of behavior as CEO of eviscerating our pay and pirating our tips,’” Instacart independent contractors wrote in an open letter to CEO Apoorva Mehta, ahead of a three-day walkout, Mashable reports.

Meanwhile, according to Forbes, California Destroys $1 Trillion Gig Economy With New Law. Read More...

No Is an Acronym, Revisited

No Is an Acronym, Revisited

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When you were a kid how many times did your parents say No! N-O, NO! More than once, we’d wager. How many times did they say, Yes, Y-E-S, YES!’ Bet I can count the number of times on one hand – zero. Never happened.

We did notice this at a fairly young age – long before we knew that there was such a word – that NO is an acronym. It was parent-code for ‘keep trying’ or ‘change the talking points.’ In some cases, and we found that if we changed our approach or arguments, we could get a yes. Persistence pays. And the same can be said of investors. Investors hate to miss opportunities, so they don’t really like to say No. Investors like to hedge their bets and keep their options open. Sometimes they will give you a hard and fast No and mean it. Still, that said, things change, so one never knows if it truly is a hard No. Read More...

Facebook: The 2019 Feel-Good Tour

Facebook: The 2019 Feel-Good Tour

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Mark Zuckerberg was back on Capitol Hill last week, testifying before Congress about the proposed cryptocurrency, Libra.

“I don’t control Libra” was the central theme of the Facebook  CEO’s testimony,” according to TechCrunch. “The House of Representatives unleashed critiques of his approach to cryptocurrency, privacy, encryption and running a giant corporation during six hours of hearings. Zuckerberg tried to assuage their fears while stoking concerns that if Facebook doesn’t build Libra, the world will end up using China’s version.” Read More...

The Buck Stops Where?

The Buck Stops Where?

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Tech has always been lax about security, while the average consumer has been socialized more or less to a plug and play environment. Plug in the (non-IoT) iron, plug in the (non-IoT) fridge – they work. If there’s a problem, and the warranty is still in effect, the manufacturer or retailer steps in. The problem is generally resolved.

Just his week, a indignant father reported that the voice from our Nest camera threatened to steal our baby. Worse, he Googled ‘Nest + camera + hacked’ and found out that this happens frequently. As the Mercury News reported, “Nest, which was designed to keep intruders out of people’s homes, effectively allowed hackers to get in.” Read More...