Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 29, 2016

This journey started for me about seven years ago on 9/10/2009 when I wrote the blog post The Founders Visa Movement. Paul Kedrosky and I wrote an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal on 12/2/2009 titled Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy. A group of us, including Dave McClure and Eric Ries went to Washington.

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Entrepreneur Startup Canada Cofounder 117

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 24, 2013

As you likely know, I’ve been advocating for something like this in the US since 2009. It includes a bunch of things I’ve advocated for since I started paying attention to this in 2009, including a Startup Visa and a STEM Visa (or – in my language – “a Visa stapled to the diploma of every college graduate.”).

Canada 156

Canada Entrepreneur Partner Startup 156

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 31, 2011

I’ve been obsessively tracking data about myself since 2009. I started doing this in 2009 – see My 2009 By The Numbers for how I was thinking about things then. In contrast in 2010 I read 52 books and in 2009 I read 78. I track plenty of other stuff, but those are the public / systematic things.

Tucson 131

Tucson San Diego Kansas City San Antonio 131

Feld Thoughts

MAY 16, 2019

I’ve been working on the Startup Visa since I first wrote about it 2009 in my post The Founders Visa Movement. After a decade, it’s clear that our federal government has broadly failed us on this front. In 2015, I announced the Global EIR initiative to try something different.

Michigan 108

Michigan Global Detroit Networking 108

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 11, 2014

In 2009, my partners and I at Foundry Group joined a coalition of VCs to try to eliminate non-competition agreements in MA. And I know my way around downtown Boston – even after the Big Dig – better than any other downtown in the world. The Massachusetts non-competition situation has always been stupid.

Massachusetts 138

Massachusetts Non-Compete Boston Colorado 138

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 5, 2012

I’ve been working on making it easy for foreign entrepreneurs to get a visa to start a company in the US since September 2009 when I wrote the post The Founders Visa Movement. It’s more of the “all or nothing” strategy around immigration I’ve been hearing from the White House since 2009. Infuriating.

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Startup Boston Green DC 165

Feld Thoughts

JULY 8, 2013

When John Allspaw and Paul Hammond gave their seminal “10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr” presentation at the 2009 Velocity Conference, people were shocked and amazed, if not outright fainting in the aisles at the audaciousness of their achievement. It wasn’t a fluke.

Phoenix 175

Phoenix Software Review Technical Review Cofounder 175

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 24, 2017

I’ve been friends with Manu since 2009 and an investor (personally) in his first two funds. My partner Lindel just put a post up on the Foundry Group website about our investment in K9 Ventures. We are proud to be an LP in Manu Kumar’s third fund.

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LP Engineer Conversion Partner 91

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 28, 2015

One day in 2009 David Cohen and I were talking. It follows two other funds, called Bullet Time Ventures, that were a $5 million fund raised in 2009 and a $25 million fund raised in 2011. Here’s what I remember the conversation being. ” David: “Do you really think I can do that? Before he knew it David had $2.5

LP 70

LP Seattle Angel Investor Partner 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 13, 2017

In 2009, I was inspired when two of the ten Techstars Boulder companies that year had international founders. We want to ensure that the world’s best and brightest founders continue to see the US as the best place to build their businesses and create jobs. As many of longtime readers know, I’ve long been supportive of the startup visa.

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Silicon Valley Matching Global Boston 187

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 28, 2014

’” I’ve worked with TA since we invested in Gist in 2009. While driving down Highway 36 from Boulder to Denver for a FullContact board meeting, TA McCann told me a wonderful phrase that I’ve been carrying around with me for the past month or so. TA was a co-founder and the CEO.

Denver 164

Denver Seattle Cofounder Management 164

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2017

A long time ago I learned how to quickly identify what I don’t want to spend time on, which I wrote about in 2009 in my post titled Saying No In Less Than 60 Seconds. I’ve always tried to at least respond to them unless they are clearly a mass email. It’s not a burden to receive the requests.

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Email Founder Product 126

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 17, 2014

We invested in a company called Gist in 2009 – it was acquired early in its life by RIM in a deal that was financially successful for everyone involved, but before Gist rolled out in a big way. It enriches each contact record automatically with new public data that is finding on a continual basis. This is a really hard problem.

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API Web Management Email 149

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2011

Only 18% of computer and information science degrees were awarded to women in 2009 (11% at major research universities), though 57% of college degrees are awarded to women (source: NCWIT By the Numbers 2009.) It is well documented that there is a significant gender imbalance in IT.

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Feld Thoughts

MAY 21, 2019

The number of women receiving undergraduate degrees in computer science has quadrupled since 2009 thanks to efforts of organizations like the National Center for Women & Information Technology, CSTA, and AnitaB.org, as well as investments by the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and many others over the past decade.

Social Media 94

Social Media Distribution Community Technology 94

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 20, 2011

In 2009 the company shut down suddenly. If you don’t know of CLEAR, it’s a biometric card that you use in the exclusive CLEARlane at airports to bypass the security line. It’s saved me from missing plenty of flights over the past few years.

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Community San Francisco Denver New York 119

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2019

Two years later (2009) there were predictions that all of capitalism would fail, every financial institution would be nationalized, and life as we know it would be over. What you see is too much exuberance, too much confidence, people taking risks that in the last 145 years wouldn’t have made sense. That obviously didn’t happen.

Private Equity 82

Private Equity Cofounder Equity Venture Capital 82

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 15, 2013

We ran the second program in 2008, expanded to Boston in 2009, and adopted a funding strategy for each local program which we continue to use to this day. That first program went great and has already returned over two times our invested capital with several of the companies still having future value.

Government 168

Government United States Global Boston 168

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 2, 2011

We’ve done lots of video that’s up on the web, including the awesome Founders Series ( 2010 and 2009 ) that our friend Megan Sweeney did with us. Several years ago we started getting approached to do a documentary, TV show, or reality series around TechStars. Rather than describe it, I encourage you to watch the trailer.

New York 135

New York Programming Web Community 135

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 31, 2013

Nicole Glaros is serving as Interim MD and will be based with Eugene in NYC during this year’s program.

Management 138

Management New York Programming Leadership 138

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 25, 2013

” It’s brilliant, well executed, and modeled after the Startup Visa movement that a number of us have been trying to get started in the US since 2009. By doing so, they are saying to the world “welcome immigrant entrepreneurs – please come start your business in Canada.”

Programming 190

Programming Canada Washington Government 190

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 18, 2010

Entrepreneurship in Boulder in 2009. If you are interested in entrepreneurship, I’d add this to your must read list. Related posts: New VC Blog – Nisan Gabbay – Startup Review. Cool thing of the day – Howtoons.

Startup 118

Startup 118

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 22, 2010

In 2009, the word that finally got on my nerves was “space&# , as in “our product is in the X space&# or “the space we are going after is X.&# It seems like the word “space&# managed to find its way into every paragraph.

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Technology Management Product 125

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 30, 2013

Mark – thank you – you’ve been an awesome supporter of this and leader of the effort since the first day we discussed it in 2009. Now I get to write about Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) re-introducing the Startup Visa Act of 2013 (good).

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United States Colorado Green Canada 151

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

an instant messaging and presence management software provider (acquired by Cisco in 2009). Durand co-founded Digital ID World, the identity industry conference (acquired by IDG in 2007). Prior to Ping Identity, Durand founded Jabber, Inc., Prior to Jabber, Inc.,

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Incubator California 120

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 5, 2011

You may be familiar with them from a well known TED Talk that co-founder David Merrill did in 2009. Today, Sifteo launched and you can preorder Siftables as part of their early access program. Or maybe the recent TEDxMonterey Talk that David did earlier this year with a more in-depth demo.

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Cofounder Portfolio Programming Media 96

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Our relationship with Troy, Sam, and team started when Troy came to TechStars Demo Day in Boulder in 2009. Its first three classes of thirty portfolio companies have raised more than a combined $30M and I had the distinct honor of keynoting at their Demo Day last August.

Chicago 154

Chicago San Antonio Seattle Portland 154

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 22, 2010

Entrepreneurship in Boulder in 2009. Related posts: MIT Entrepreneurship Review. New West Boulder Launch Party – 4/14/05 – 6pm – Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

Boston 104

Boston Community Email Media 104

Feld Thoughts

MAY 20, 2010

And – if that wasn’t enough, Localytics , a TechStars Boston 2009 company, closed a $700k round of financing led by Launchpad Venture Group and New York Angels. A quick teaser follows. "Brad "Brad Feld" The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Teaser 01 from TechStars on Vimeo.

Affiliate 122

Affiliate Seattle Boston New York 122

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

2009 sucked for me – I didn’t complete any marathons on my way to doing a marathon in every state by the time I’m 50. Out with the 2009 lameness – it’s a new year and we’ll try again. As I prepare to head out for a three hour run, I decided to finalize my 2010 calendar.

St. Louis 82

St. Louis Detroit 82

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 7, 2015

” We also had at least one case of a mess in the 2008-2009 time period with someone with one of those fancy action rate securities that froze cash for a while (they eventually got it.). And when I say “lose”, I mean the cash just vaporized.

Balance Sheet 70

Balance Sheet Startup Government Security 70

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 23, 2013

Even if you aren’t technical, you’ll enjoy this book as it borders on cyberthriller while telling a real live story that unfolded over several months in late 2008 / early 2009. I was vaguely familiar with Conficker (as in I remember the hoopla about it) but I didn’t know the backstory. And it’s terrifying. And amazing.

Internet 124

Internet Stock 124

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 22, 2010

Lest you think it’s just a VC boondoggle, one of my favorite moments of all time happened at CES in 2009 when my dad bought the very first Pogoplug. Lots of my friends and a number of our portfolio companies will be at CES this year.

Las Vegas 115

Las Vegas Portfolio Cloud Finance 115

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 26, 2011

As many of you know, I’ve been involved in advocating for the Startup Visa since the idea was first conceived in the fall of 2009.

United States 134

United States Entrepreneur DC Startup 134

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 9, 2010

I had lunch today with Nate Abbott and Natty Zola, the co-founders of Everlater , a TechStars 2009 company. Nate and Natty are two of my favorites – not only because they regularly kick my partner Seth Levine’s ass on bike rides but also because they starred in last year’s TechStars The Founders video series.

Programming 133

Programming Cofounder Video Finance 133

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 3, 2017

Amy went to Tanzania and Kenya in 2009 with TNC to increase capacity of TNC non-profit partners. Over the years, we’ve been personally involved in a number of projects, such as protecting the Anchor River in Anchor Point, Alaska (the town Amy grew up in until she was eight.)

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Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Denver Tanzania 92

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Andrew ran about 80 Startup Weekends around the world before selling Startup Weekend to Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen in 2009 who were quickly joined by a third partner Franck Nouyrigat. the food, which I recall included a lot of beer, chips, and bagels. In was a completely awesome experience.

Kansas City 120

Kansas City Kansas Startup Community 120