Feld Thoughts

MARCH 10, 2021

My first full day in isolation was one year ago. My last dinner out was on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, with Mike Platt. I remember driving home that night pondering when I’d be back in the office. On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, I had a full schedule at home, starting at 9 am and ending at 5:45 pm. Little did I know that would be the pattern for at least a year.

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Restful 133

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 5, 2021

The Techstars Foundation recently announced a new program called Accelerate Equity. We created the Techstars Foundation in 2015 to help make innovation and entrepreneurship more accessible and inclusive. Since then, the Techstars Foundation has been investing in and accelerating nonprofits that deliver scalable impact for underestimated entrepreneurs.

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Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 28, 2021

I expect we’ll be exploring, unscrambling, pontificating, and dealing with what is happening with GameStop (GME) for a while. If you are reading this in the future and want some historical context for the rest of this post, this chart from the last 30 days of trading is instructive. At the end of 2020, we start at $20 / share. 30 days later, it’s at $238 / share with a high of $482 / share.

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Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 8, 2021

For the past nine months, Amy and I have started our morning together. I get up, pee, weigh myself, brush my teeth, meditate for 20 to 30 minutes, and then we have “morning coffee” together. Morning coffee lasts for two cups of coffee (one regular, one decaf). This ends up being between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on what we are talking about.

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Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

I’ve personally been in a liminal space for most of 2020. Today, most of America is in a liminal space. The word liminal comes from the Latin word ‘limen’, meaning threshold – any point or place of entering or beginning. A liminal space is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next.’ It is a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing.

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Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Historically, almost everything I do uses a network model. Foundry Group runs as a network. If you take a look at the Foundry Group partner funds or talk to us about our investment strategy, you’ll immediately see the texture of a network. Techstars is a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. All of my ideas around Startup Communities incorporate network theory.

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Feld Thoughts

JULY 21, 2020

We are in the midst of the most dramatic phrase transition I’ve experienced so far in my 54 years on this particular planet. Ian Hathaway and I talk about phase transitions (also known as a phase shift) in several parts of The Startup Community Way. P rogress is uneven, slow, and surprising. Complex systems exhibit nonlinear behavior, phase transitions (large shifts that materialize quickly), and fat-tailed distributions, where extremely high-impact events are more common than a normal sta

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Feld Thoughts

JULY 20, 2020

I recently was in an email thread where a Black founder had a powerful and clear response to the question from one of her corporate partners. The question was: How can our (the corporate partner’s) team better support diversity in our work, particularly in our sourcing, diligence, and onboarding efforts? The entrepreneur responded with a long explanation that was a brilliant and extremely helpful perspective for me.

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Feld Thoughts

JULY 1, 2020

My new book The Startup Community Way: Evolving and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is coming out this month ( pre-order it here.). At the same time, the 2nd edition of my book Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City is also coming out ( pre-order it here.). Ever since I started thinking, writing, and talking about startup communities, I’ve always wished there was a global virtual community for anyone interested or involved in startup communities.

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Feld Thoughts

JUNE 17, 2020

I have a few minutes each morning between when I wake up and when I go downstairs to meditate. I do two things during this time: (1) basic hygiene stuff and (2) let whatever thoughts are in my head roll around. This morning I had the following thought. It would be nice to just fast forward to 2025. During some of my recent public talks, I’ve described how the Covid crisis has accelerated work and technology change in a dramatic way.

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Feld Thoughts

JUNE 12, 2020

My digital sabbaths are often running, reading, and napping days. That’s tomorrow for me as I’m feeling fried from another week. I’ve ordered (and received) most of the books from the NY Times Antiracist reading list along with a number of other recommendations. Most are physical books and will be my digital sabbath reading this summer.

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Feld Thoughts

MAY 4, 2020

At Foundry Group, we’ve decided to voluntarily extend our Work from Home policy until at least the end of May 2020. Until then, our office is closed. We will re-evaluate this on May 25th and decide whether to let our Work from Home policy expire, or extend it further. We encourage all Colorado-based software and professional services businesses to consider this policy.

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Feld Thoughts

MAY 3, 2020

I took a digital sabbath yesterday. I ended up doing three things. Read The End of October by Lawrence Wright Took a nap Watched three episodes of Breaking Bad. I feel so much better than I did at the end of the day Friday. After I finish this blog post, I’m going to participate in the Emerge Family Virtual 5k. The End of October was intense. It’s the story of a modern day pandemic.

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Feld Thoughts

MARCH 28, 2020

Governor Jared Polis had an excellent and extremely data-driven press conference yesterday to provide quantitive support for his stay at home order (among other things.) The presentation is embedded and worth paging through. Colorado Governor Polis #DoingMyPartCO Presentation – 03-27-2020 from Brad Feld. The basic message is that unless it is absolutely necessary for you, please stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus.

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Feld Thoughts

MARCH 15, 2020

Following is a poem titled Pandemic written by Lynn Ungar on 3/11/20. Thanks to Joanna Rupp at the University of Chicago for sending it to me. I like to read poetry out loud. It slows me down enough to relish the words. Lynn, I don’t know you, but you wrote a beautiful poem that hopefully helps a lot of us in this moment. Pandemic. What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times?

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Chicago 206

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 12, 2020

In the midst of a crisis like the Covid-19 one that is unfolding around the world, it’s very hard to separate the signal from the noise. In the US, we are now in the thick of the aggressive expansion of infection from the virus, and we can look to a number of other countries for what they’ve done, how things have played out, and what has been effective.

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Feld Thoughts

MARCH 2, 2020

Her first Marathon. Second place in the Olympic Trials. She’s now heading to the Olympics as part of Team USA. I don’t know Molly. I first heard about her yesterday when watching a video of the US Olympic Marathon Trials. As I watched her run, I could see both joy and grit on her face. This is what sportsmanship looks like (Aliphine Tuliamuk cheering on Molly Seidel a few moments after crossing the finish line in first place.).

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Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

While reading Kim Scott’s book Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity , I came across an anecdote from a discussion she had with Dick Costolo. One of my favorite stories about Dick and diversity was his effort to eliminate the phrase “you guys” from his vocabulary. I told him a story about my twins—one a boy and one a girl—who were in kindergarten.

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Texas 136

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

I do a lot of random podcasts and especially like to be an early guest on new ones to help get them started. 001 – Brad Feld. The first five episodes are with me, David Cohen, Susan Conover, Amos Schwartzfarb, and Charlie O’Donnell. Andrew Waine is the producer. He’s currently a senior at the University of Florida finishing his Bachelor’s degree in the Summer of 2020.

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Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 20, 2020

Amy and I didn’t feel like taking a Christmas or New Year’s vacation this year so we just hung around Boulder, worked, and did our thing. We then decamped to Mexico last week for warmth, sun, beach, and books. News flash: there are a lot fewer people at a fancy resort in Mexico in the third week of January. It was a good reading week. How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success : We don’t have kids, but a friend recommended this.

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Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 8, 2020

As you might have seen in an earlier post, Foundry Group is helping to bring the Helium Network to Boulder. Another Helium fan – James Fayal – reached out to me about his effort to do the same in his hometown of Baltimore, as well as DC and Philly. I’m hopeful that some of the readers of this blog live in Baltimore, DC, or Philadelphia and are interested in participating in the Helium rollout.

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Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 6, 2020

My post The Future Of Work Is Distributed received some good comments. More interesting was the number of direct emails I received back with detailed information about “remote-first” companies and how they did things. There was a distinction in some of these emails between “remote-first” and “multiple geographies.” It’s an important nuance, as there is a big difference between a fully distributed workforce (which the blockchain kids refer to as a “

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Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 23, 2019

I received plenty of useful feedback on my rant Budgets – There Has To Be A Better Way. Two of the links that I found particularly helpful were: Turn Your Budgeting Process Upside Down by Robert Howell How to Ruin Your Company with One Bad Process by Ben Horowitz. Robert Howell points to a longer term view than one year with his suggestion around rolling plans.

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Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 12, 2019

My partners at Foundry Group have decided to bring the Helium Network to Boulder. We’ve ordered 50 hotspots and, with your help, will set up a LongFi network throughout Boulder. If you are asking, “What’s Helium?” here’s a fun video to get you started along with a deeper explanation of the technology. As an LP in USV, we are small indirect investors.

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Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 1, 2019

Simply begin again. I turned 54 today. I’ve always marked the start of a new year on my birthday rather than January 1st. As part of my birthday tradition, I write myself a letter about my upcoming year. I started posting these publicly when I was 51 and they serve as a nice reminder of where I was at v52 (focusing on what I want to do ) and v53 (exploring what I want to be).

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Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 28, 2019

Amy and I have been watching The Handmade’s Tale. Simultaneously, I’ve been listening to the book on Audible while running. Last night I said, “The Hulu adaptation of the book is really good.” And then we both grimaced, as we’ve each commented many times over the past week about how incredibly bleak the show is. A different dystopia is coming to our TVs soon.

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Software 104

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 15, 2019

For almost 30 years, I’ve shared a huge number of life experiences with Warren Katz. Yesterday, I did a breakfast AMA at Cooley’s office near La Jolla with the Techstars MDs and PMs from the western half of the US. At the end of the hour, we were presented with the above video from Warren as the final word on a question that is on everyone at Techstars’ mind.

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Video 82

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 18, 2019

One of the many great things about the Governor of Colorado is that he’s an entrepreneur, having started multiple successful technology companies, including BlueMountainArts.com (acquired by Excite for $800m) and Provide Commerce (IPO, then acquired by Liberty Media for $500m). He’s also a co-founder of Techstars with me, David Cohen, and David Brown.

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Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 4, 2019

In 2011, my now-partner Chris Moody (and then-CEO of Gnip, which I was on the board of) kicked my butt about my endless statements about hating marketing. His thoughts on recasting “marketing” as “thought leadership” appeared on this blog in a post I Don’t Hate Marketing. It remains a great example of one of the reasons I blog, which is to think out loud, get feedback, learn, and iterate.

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Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Ryan Holiday’s new book Stillness Is The Key is out. I have a copy on the top of my infinite pile of books at home along with a copy on my Kindle. I’ll be reading it this weekend. For a moment of inspiration today, take a look at his launch video. I’ve read every one of Ryan’s books. I’ve loved them all, learned from them, and gotten ideas and inspiration about how to adapt and adjust my behavior.

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Video 76

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

I’m an enormous Jim Collins fan. It’s a special bonus that he lives in Boulder. He just came out with a short monograph called Turning the Flywheel. It’s only 40 pages but stunningly good. In it, he dissects the concept of the flywheel, which he first described in his seminal book Good to Great. Every CEO in our portfolio will be receiving a copy in the next month as part of our “book of the almost every month club.” If you are a CEO trying to build an enduring comp

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Portfolio 22

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 15, 2019

Techstars and Kauffman Fellows are once again running the Venture Deals online course that Jason Mendelson and I put together several years ago. If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to raise capital and grow your business, this online course teaches you the basics you need to know for working with VCs. And, if you are starting off as a VC or a lawyer for venture capital deals and you want a refresher on the core issues in a term sheet, this online course is for you.

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Feld Thoughts

JULY 10, 2019

Over the years, I’ve written about my belief in the importance of giving back to your communities and #givefirst. In this spirit, one of the key organizations my partners at Foundry Group have helped create and nurture is Pledge 1%. In 2007, we were a founding member in the predecessor organization to Pledge 1%, called Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (or EFCO).

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Feld Thoughts

JUNE 25, 2019

This first appeared in the Boulder Community Health Foundation Summer 2019 Magazine in an article titled Taking On The Mental Health Stigma. I started the second week of 2013 in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. Within two hours of arriving, I was in my hotel room, the shade closed, the door locked, and in bed with a pillow over my head. I couldn’t deal with anything at all.

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Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2019

One of my guilty pleasures is reading biographies about financiers and their companies. On Saturday, I gobbled down King of Capital , which is the story of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone from inception through 2011. While I’ve never met Schwarzman, I’ve had a handful of experiences with Blackstone, mostly with the Blackstone Foundation and the head of it, Amy Stursberg.

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Feld Thoughts

MAY 20, 2019

I had surgery recently and a few friends, including Chris Moody and Sarah Ahn, gave me some books as gifts. They knew I’d be spending a lot of time on the couch either napping or reading, so my pile of infinite books to read became more abundant with a few good ones including The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates.

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Framework 80

Feld Thoughts

MAY 17, 2019

If you are looking for a great book to read this weekend, I recommend Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me. I read it last weekend and am still thinking about it. McEwan is a magnificent writer. When the hardcover ended up on top of my infinite pile of books to read, Amy said, “Wow, you’ll love Ian McEwan’s writing.” Whenever Amy says something like that, I know I’m in for a treat.

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