Brad Feld's Comments

Feld Thoughts : Take Responsibility For Your Actions

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:01:15 +0000

Yeah – this one seems to be a polarizing issue, especially among the people who think Ayn Rand writes philosophy!

I think “bankruptcy” is misunderstood. There’s a huge difference between a liquidation (Chapter 7) and a controlled Chapter 11 where the US government provides the DIP financing, wipes out the value of the common stock, provides capital for a real restructuring, and preserves the appropriate pension liabilities. I’d never suggest that we should liquidate these companies. Nor do I really think I know the answer. However, I do believe that “just giving them $10 billion per company” isn’t likely to solve much of anything the way things have played out in the past.

That was what really prompted my “Take Responsibility For Your Actions” comment. I’ve been an investor and an entrepreneur in a number of companies that have failed. Whenever they failed, there was pain and I lost all the money I had invested in them. I recognize this is on a smaller scale, but I take every failure personally and try to learn from it. It doesn’t seem like any of the current leadership of these companies really understand this, especially when they are – in the words of someone I heard today – totally “tone deaf” about things like flying from Detroit to DC on private planes. It’s a picky detail, but a symbolic one.

Feld Thoughts : Take Responsibility For Your Actions

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:49:12 +0000

I disagree with the whole thread on “national security.” I accept that the complete failure of the auto industry has deep negative implications for the US economy, but I’m not suggesting that the US auto industry should liquidate. It’s quite easy – assuming our leadership has real courage – to effect a “controlled restructuring” (call it pre-packaged Chapter 11, call it bankruptcy, call it whatever you want) of each of the major auto companies if desired. This is effectively what the government structured with AIG by taking control of 80% of the equity. Same drill here – if GM gets $10 billion from the US government, the common shares in GM should be diluted dramatically (or eliminated completely.) The union contracts, which appear to help support the non-competitive aspect of these companies – also need to be restructured. I’m sure there are lots of other unsecured creditor relationships that need to change. All of this can be done in a controlled way. And – done very quickly if the leaders really want that to happen.

The only real argument against this that I’ve heard is that people will stop buying GM (or Ford, or Chrysler) cars because they will be afraid they won’t have warranty service. This seems like an straightforward thing for the government to “underwrite” (or guarantee) for new cars that are bought during the restructuring process.

I’m no expert on this so I’m likely completely wrong on the specific solutions. However, my main point holds firm – the leaders of these companies (and the unions) need to take responsibility for their actions. Watching some of the coverage on TV tonight from the Congressional Hearing was remarkable (in a negative sense.) Separate private planes from Detroit to Washington (I would have symbolically flown coach.) Complete inability (or unwillingness) by Waggoner to answer the direct question “how much money – worst case – do you need to stay in business through March 31, 2009.”

Feld Thoughts : Take Responsibility For Your Actions

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:37:05 +0000

I guess I’m not sure what I mean by “government involvement and financial support in the broad business ecosystem.” When I wrote it, I was thinking about the function of the Fed in dealing with monetary policy and some of the Treasury’s activities. I’m not a hardcore Objectivist either; I’m fundamentally an optimist about the long term resilience / behavior / opportunity of the American Democratic System, including the part that has all the extra “non-rational, non-benevolent, pandering individuals.” But, after spending a little time watching the completely irrational and emotional interchange between Barney Frank and Larry Kudlow on TV while I ate dinner, I start thinking that make I should quickly head to Galt’s Gulch and make sure the x-ray screen is still working.

Feld Thoughts : Ian Rogers Speaks on The Future of the Music Industry

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:35:03 +0000

They have offices in LA and San Francisco.

Feld Thoughts : Oblong - Seeing Is Believing

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:30:04 +0000

Steve – I could give you piles of examples, but I’ll give you one. Imagine trying to do a 3d walkthrough using a mouse and keyboard. The experience basically sucks. I’m good with a mouse and keyboard but I’m a disaster trying to navigate 3-space effectively using just a mouse and keyboard (or a trackball, or a joystick). However, within 5 minutes, with g-speak, I am able to do 3-space navigations as effectively as I can move a mouse around in 2d.

Feld Thoughts : Oblong - Seeing Is Believing

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:04:16 +0000

Rick – I completely agree with you that the evolution of HCI will take a number of different paths. See http://www.foundrygroup.com/blog/archives/2008/03... We’ve already made several HCI investments; Oblong is only one of them.

It’s also important to recognize that g-speak is a “spatial operating environment” (see http://oblong.com/article/086E19gPvDcktAf9.html).... There are several key components to g-speak, including free-hand, three-space gestural input. Recognize that this is a superset of virtually all existing gestural input approaches, especially everything in the touch computing domain (e.g. it’s trivial to apply g-speak’s toolkit to a 2d device.) In addition, g-speak includes something the Oblong guys refer to as “recombinant networking” - this is a unique way of dealing with large real-time multi-person data sets. Recombinant networking is required to be able to do something interesting in 3-space with large amounts of data as well as multiple users simultaneously.

There are already a number of real world implementations of Oblong’s spatial operating environment – both in production and prototype stage. Look for more tangible examples coming soon to a video stream near you.

Feld Thoughts : A Few Requests for President-elect Obama

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:48:38 +0000

I completely agree that the team has to be unified. I’d love to see Obama break down the wall the prevents R’s and D’s from working closely together. Price of admission for this is respect for different opinions and a top down leadership imperative that the goal is to be successful as a team. I recognize that it’s really difficult, especially given the current tone in government, but it’s one I hope can be fixed (or at least improved).

Feld Thoughts : NewsGator's Star Shines Bright

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:55:07 +0000

You can indeed select which feeds you want on your iPhone...there are details here: http://forum.newsgator.com/Topic43965-71-1.aspx Unfortunately you can't select an entire folder at once to select feeds, but you're not the first one to ask for that feature. :-)

Feld Thoughts : A Few Requests for President-elect Obama

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:53:55 +0000

(via email) There was ONE major difference between the bill that failed n the house and the one that the Senate and later the house passed. At the last minute someone (I’ve never seen an account tracking it down to who) added the provision that they have been using for the capital injection stuff. At the time about 99% of prominent economists were saying that the “buying toxic assets” plan was a bad one and that capital investments in banks would be a more fair and overall better plan. Somehow it got in there and so far the treasury has pretty much ignored their initial proposal and just done the better plan. Totally agree with the suggestion that Obama should veto the first pork laden bill and your main point (and the others too). But it turns out that in addition to all that disgusting stuff, there was one mysterious and critical addition slipped in by the Senate.

Feld Thoughts : Tom Evslin for FCC Chairman

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:26:19 +0000

I don’t at this point – I’m waiting for Om to put one together!

Ask the VC : Choice of Entity - C Corps, S Corps, LLCs?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:25:03 +0000

It’s almost always a C Corp.

Feld Thoughts : Google Contacts Data API

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:24:55 +0000

Sorry – nope.

Feld Thoughts : Crash Course - Growing a Startup Amid Uncertain Economic Times

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:21:02 +0000

Hopefully there will be some in the audience that can ask them hard questions!

Feld Thoughts : Mailing List Spam

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 17:17:14 +0000

I checked. While it turns out that this doesn't violate CAN-SPAM, it falls in the bucket of "bad email practice." I'll update the post.

Feld Thoughts : Connecting Stuff, Widget Stats, iPhone Apps, and Entrepreneurship

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 16:03:03 +0000

Thanks – I’ll correct the post.

Feld Thoughts : Mailing List Spam

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 14:20:44 +0000

I might be wrong on my assertion about whether or not this violates CAN-SPAM. I thought it did, but I'm double checking. If it doesn't, I guess I'll have to stop giving out business cards!

Feld Thoughts : Mailing List Spam

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 14:19:30 +0000

My Postini experience is very different. As a user since 2001, it's been a transformational experience for me. As an investor, we were extremely happy with their performance and the business outcome. And - as someone who has listened to and heard all sides of the spam / anti-spam argument - I've always offered my constructive feedback to the guys at Postini about their various policies and have always found them to have a clear point of view behind their decisions to engage at different levels with the "anti-spam" world (which in my experience has a wide range of philosophies, agendas, and sub-agendas that go well beyond simply providing "email security").

Feld Thoughts : Mailing List Spam

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 14:15:05 +0000

(via email) I have to take exception with your objection to receiving email as a result of giving someone your business card. I have to assume you willingly *gave* the person your card. The card has contact information on it for the purpose of future communication, right? If it has your email address on it, then that implies an invitation to follow up with you by email, doesn't it? So, you opted in to receive at least one email from that person/organization. It's not spam! Now, if their email doesn't comply with CAN-SPAM guidelines requiring an easy and obvious way to remove yourself from receiving future emails, that's a different story. I take issue with using the word "spam" for unwelcome email, particularly by professionals who know the difference. It's not like pornography, it's very clear what is and isn't spam. If you've opted to receive the email, if your Great-aunt Sally sends you yet another joke and you're feeling cranky, that doesn't make it spam! By using "spam" to describe unwelcome email, I think it confuses the issues for the general public, results in a lot of false spam complaints, and makes email marketers' jobs much more difficult. There's lots more to write about this, but I'm out of time!

Feld Thoughts : Zynga Texas Holdem Poker on MySpace

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 12:28:04 +0000

Justin – I’m forwarding this on to the right folks at Zynga.

Feld Thoughts : Substance vs. Appearance

Sat, 8 Nov 2008 18:40:03 +0000

Ah – examples. I’ll try to weave on in the next time I post about this.