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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

2001–2007: THE BUILDING YEARS The dot com bubble had burst. We had nascent revenues, ridiculous cost structures and unrealistic valuations. Within 5 years I was on the board of real businesses with meaningful revenue, strong balance sheets, no debt and on the path to a few interesting exits. Until we weren’t.

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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits.

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Why GE’s Jeff Immelt Lost His Job – Disruption and Activist Investors

Steve Blank

After the dot.com crash in 2001 and the financial crisis of 2008, traditional investors who previously held their shares for the long-term — public pension funds, institutional investors and money managers — are now more interested in short-term gains. Large public companies like Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, etc.

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Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

Steve Blank

If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. Between 2001 to 2008, Jobs reinvented the company three times. When visionary founders depart (death, firing, etc.), The parallel between Gates and Ballmer and Jobs and Cook is eerie.

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Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

Steve Blank

If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. Between 2001 to 2008, Jobs reinvented the company three times. When visionary founders depart (death, firing, etc.), The parallel between Gates and Ballmer and Jobs and Cook is eerie.

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Startup Funeral: Honoring The Lessons Of Failure [Video]

ReadWriteStart

The dead startups honored were mobile social-networking company Addieu, mobile game and activity locator Get-a-Game and the late, seldom-lamented but often-derided Kozmo.com, which failed way back in 2001 but to this day is held up as the embodiment of dotcom-era foolhardiness. Max Delivery charges a fee and makes a profit.

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My story and support for the Founders Visa

K9 Ventures

In the past few days there has been a lot of discussion on the topic of a Founders Visa. The credit for starting this fire goes to Paul Graham from Y Combinator , who wrote a great essay titled The Founders Visa in April 2009. As an immigrant founder, this is a topic that I can relate to and care about.