With all these considerations, I recommend the following steps and considerations for investors newly interested in startups: Build a balanced investment portfolio. But it’s always a risky proposition, probably well beyond the risk of the commodities market, since there are so many unknowns and few controls. Think long-term. MORE >>

The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). call this “marketing futures.&# That’s fine if entrepreneurs are your target market. MORE >>

While mobile innovation is occurring across the typical web categories of e-commerce, gaming and display/search advertising, the unique capabilities of phones/tablets are also enabling innovation across new areas such as payments, in-store shopping, personal healthcare, social collaboration, and marketing. Marketing. Applications. MORE >>

In late July, my Partners and I at Meritage announced that our portfolio company Masergy Communications had agreed to be acquired by ABRY Partners. He’s supported by a fantastic team, including Rob Bodnar, the Chief Financial Officer, who helped navigate the Company through some pretty choppy financial markets over the past six years. MORE >>

Part of the reason for this is due to competitive market dynamics.  They are bypassing a bloated, antiquated industry supply chain to offer high quality, high fashion eyeglasses that they design and source themselves at a fraction of the typical market cost (the mark-up on glasses sold at physical retailer in the U.S. commerce 1.0 MORE >>