gdp's Comments

Texas Startup Blog : Lots of money for startups that don\'t need it...

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:20:02 +0000

Oh man - you callin' me out? Come on - I just posted that comment b/c it was topical. I didn't post it maliciously or so that you would write a whole post about it!! :)

Texas Startup Blog : Entrepreneurs need to stop 'partying like its 1999'

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:14:59 +0000

Fred Wilson says "There's plenty of oxygen [cash] to go around": http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/12/theres-plenty-o.h...

Texas Startup Blog : Startup Happy Hour NEXT Monday!

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:27:59 +0000

I was going to show up tonight with gift in hand :) (Nov 24, 2008)

Texas Startup Blog : Its over, now what? Ten tips for entrepreneurs!

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:51:35 +0000

There's Alex, stirring the pot ;)

Texas Startup Blog : Save the date: Pitch Camp Oct. 18th, 2008

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:22:25 +0000

I need to talk with Scott but we might be interested in being a test case (LearnItFirst.com). Ping me offline (my name, my company address) and let's talk.

Texas Startup Blog : Anywhere but Silicon Valley?

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:52:50 +0000

#1 on your list is confusing since it makes it seem like Howard said to leave the Valley because "the weather sucks" implies that Howard said/implied that the weather in the Valley sucked - but that's completely not what he said. From the article: "The weather sucks in some of these towns... so your people will actually work instead of bugging out at 5:15 to train for a marathon, triathlon or Ultimate Frisbee." There's a big difference in the interpretation of "the weather sucks" and "the weather sucks in some of these towns... so your people will actually work"! Also, this is sort of the "Should I go to Harvard or SMU for law school?" debate, isn't it? It's the same arguments: 1. the weather sucks (in Cambridge) 2. you can intern better outside the fishbowl 3. you won’t get lost in the talented-people maze 4. in my experience, other college communities aren’t as pre-occupied with the “Big Six” as Cambridge 5. Academics make great references

Texas Startup Blog : Careerbuilder, wonderfully exasperating!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:01:08 +0000

If I had to guess, it's a marketing ploy. They want someone to get your name/phone so that they can later call you with follow-ons. I can see them in the meeting, "If someone is willing to spend $1000+, we want to make sure we can call them later. I know what we can do - we can tell them that they have to call *us* to complete the order!"

Texas Startup Blog : Should you pay your VC to ______ ?

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 09:47:45 +0000

I see that as a big barrier to raising another round since other investors will look at that deal closely and think (1) mgmt was not smart to sign the deal, and (2) the new investor won't want their investment to go towards paying investor A's fees. Perhaps an easy way to ensure a down round...

Texas Startup Blog : Startups and Trust ~ a complex combination. . .

Wed, 6 Aug 2008 06:58:20 +0000

I totally agree. I was talking with someone last week about a nightmare situation. Acme Corporation hired Joe Blow as a salesperson and the comp package was like a hockey stick - slow rolling for slow sales but, if you hit this magic number, you could earn over $3mm for helping the company sell something like $25mm over projections. Acme Corp's execs never expected anyone to hit the magic number and thought it was a great carrot... Of course, Joe Blow hits the number. Acme Corp holds an emergency meeting. "We'll give him $300,000 and change the comp plan. If he doesn't like it, he can leave." This story doesn't have a happy ending either lol. Joe Blow did accept the number and stayed on. He ran into the exact same situation the following year and Acme Corp again did the exact same thing.

Texas Startup Blog : Understanding early stage VC returns

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 03:12:24 +0000

Link to Fred's post: http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/08/venture-fund--1...

Texas Startup Blog : eCommerce is confusing; why Chris Pirillo is wrong about PayPal.

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 15:08:16 +0000

I'm with you on this.

Texas Startup Blog : SEC kills the press release!

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 15:06:51 +0000

Does that mean I should stop Telexing everyone?

Texas Startup Blog : Startups Paul Likes

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:14:45 +0000

Okay...... But what are *yours*, Alex? I read Paul's blog already so I saw this but I'd like to see yours :)

Texas Startup Blog : Online video WILL be big?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:42:49 +0000

I dunno too much about Hulu but I would guess that we had around 50-60k videos watched last month but we only "served" about 42,000. We have about 2,000 videos online spread across 14 different niche training sites. A site like http://www.learnsqlserver.com/ has over 200 videos and tons of subscribers. The sites all have free videos too. One subscriber may watch all 200 videos in a month or only 20 videos this month, 20 next month, 30 the following month, etc. We also post all of our videos on other video sites (youtube, vimeo, etc) but I'm only counting the ones that we actually served up in my numbers.

Texas Startup Blog : Online video WILL be big?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:09:19 +0000

That's a lot of video! I just checked the stats - we served up over 42,000 videos in June alone to our members.

Texas Startup Blog : Got an idea for a web app, but you aren't a techie?

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 17:08:18 +0000

No, I assumed you only meant one of those conferences - my point was just that it's a privilege to go to those conferences and not everyone is afforded such privilege. As for the Bay Area, I suspect if you look at the number of tech conferences within driving distance from the Bay Area vs the number of tech conferences within driving distance from Dallas, you'd find a 25:1 ratio or even 100:1. And you met "many" people in Boulder that met that criteria? I would guess that you could meet people in any city that fit some of those criteria but to find someone who meets all of those criteria would almost require someone who already is working as a successful entrepreneur. There are probably less than 300 people nationwide that meet them all *who aren't already involved in a startup*. Just my guess though - nothing but anecdotal evidence :) Good post - I hope you don't take my comments as derisive in any way. I think it's better to set the bar high than low! I think what you're doing is just pure awesome so I hope my enthusiasm comes out through my comments. "My challenge is for Dallas to have 90 passionate developers within 12 months." The definition of "passionate" vs what you listed is quite different. Dallas may have 500,600, or 1000 "passionate" developers - just check the popularity of user groups here. How many of those are of the startup mindset though? And can you really take an employee and make them a startup person just by waving equity or the oppty to get rich in front of them? I don't really think so. I think what you're talking about is "passionate developers who are also (or want to be) entrepreneurs". I think those people are here, for sure, and they are doing their thing. They just don't have a support group. Again - the user groups in the community are thriving with these types of folks. If you teach people, they feel empowered. We just need to teach them how to think like entrepreneurs. "Will you help?" - happy to. I do run a training company so teaching is my passion :)

Texas Startup Blog : My NDA Policy ~ I have decided to starting signing them!

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 14:02:32 +0000

I read this yesterday and had a chuckle. I woke up laughing about it - I think this is just great. Made my day :)

Texas Startup Blog : Got an idea for a web app, but you aren't a techie?

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 14:01:10 +0000

"Someone who attends events like Barcamp, Web 2.0, RailsCon and Gnomedex." Some of those events cost $1500+ per attendance, travel costs, and a week off work . i wouldn't want to exclude someone just because they had not (a) ponied up the money themselves, or (b) their employer hasn't done so. I think it's good to have people who are passionate but that's expecting too much. It would be lagniappe IMO. I definitely agree about having someone who has already read Krug's book (and the others as well would be lagniappe). I think that your criteria for "the right person" is really, really going to be tough to follow, Alex. How many people in Dallas, for example, would fit the profile you listed? I would guess less than 10 but that's a total guess.

Texas Startup Blog : Startup Blog Jobs!

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 07:33:07 +0000

Woohoo! First job for Dallas :) http://startupblognetwork.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/job... I gotta say - that was a super easy way to post a job. Nothing messy - no wasted pages/boxes.

Texas Startup Blog : Building a better startup eco-system in Dallas

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:04:19 +0000

I thought of this post today when I read Guy Kawasaki's, "How to Be a Mensch": http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/how_to_be_a_m...(thought you might enjoy if you didn't otherwise read his blog)