They cant all be ‘potential partners’: at some pt, be honest w/urself & call them competitors, or have fun in ur little sandbox
About
I'm an early-stage tech investor and co-founder of Formative Ventures in Menlo Park. I spent my whole career as a sales and marketing guy at tech start-ups, and the reason I co-founded Formative is that I've always thought that this experience would serve me and the companies I invest in well.
I'll try and post interesting things here that might serve as entertainment, education, a way to burn a few minutes of your day, whatever.
Have fun!
Clint
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They cant all be ‘potential partners’: at some pt, be honest w/urself & call them competitors, or have fun in ur little sandbox
Congrats to @geoff_yang, @sraney & the crew from Redpoint for closing their new fund! http://bit.ly/d2XvJr
Great line and great read: The iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a replacement for computing http://bit.ly/aYPiC2 (bettr link)
What was w/the back2back ‘guys with no pants’ commercials yesterday? Riffing off the Pants on the Ground bandwagon?
Remember, if asked 2 describe ur value prop in Plain English, that means no acronyms or buzzwords. Can u do it?
Imagine the business from ur top customer is an actual business. As CEO of that biz, ask urself if that biz is properly funded
I wonder how many people will be watching the Super Bowl with their PCs next to their sets to check stuff during the game
Arizona gets 2yr probation for Lute Olson antics: What’s really going on when a school puts itself in jail? http://bit.ly/9OV7Jc
RT @abbytw: MIT Tech Rvw great list of cos. 2 watch in 2010, incl Twitter, Facebook, Quantcast, Mashery & Hulu: http://bit.ly/8lr2Q3
RT @fredwilson: if ur board mtgs suck, whose fault is it? http://bit.ly/af3cRT <- every1 can make the mtgs better, but starts w/CEO
Some stats and the other charts from this 2010 Marketing Budgets article from Marketing Pilgrim:
Cal Bears and Jeff Tedford sign epic recruiting class, including a 4-for-1 package deal from North Carolina that includes the country’s #1 safety prospect Keenan Allen! Hope this nets the Bears some future New Year’s Day action!
I love innovative David-vs-Goliath ad campaigns, this time David goes for Goliath’s Jugular http://bit.ly/9ZY5TC

I love a good digital/print ad campaign, and this should be fun to watch roll out… an aggressive new ad campaign in a stodgy old industry. Method Detergent, a new entrant in the detergent (you probably have seen their cool looking bottles in Target stores) business is going directly after the 800 lb gorilla, Proctor & Gamble’s Tide. Chuckling at the unintentional double entendre jugs reference… Here’s the NY Times story… hope the Method guys are ready (and load tested!) with their specially made for the ad campaign website: http://methodlaundry.com/
Here come the textbooks (to the iPad) http://bit.ly/aCzjoC