batsonjay

Book rating rules

I read quite a lot. And I provide reviews on most of them. Most are posted at my Goodreads profile page (and Goodreads then cross-posts them to Amazon). You can see my latest reads in the block on the side of this page. (I’m a bit ashamed my reviews aren’t more extensive; I’m not a good keeper-of-notesContinue reading “Book rating rules”

Should the interest on convertible notes be paid in cash in some cases?

When startups raise capital from outside investors, one financial structure commonly used is called a convertible (promissory) note. There are several motivations for startups & investors to use this arrangement. One thing is coming back to bite me, though, and makes me wonder if the terms of it ought to change in common use: conversion of the interest intoContinue reading “Should the interest on convertible notes be paid in cash in some cases?”

Beyond Internet Gaga

For a time in the mid-1990’s I was an analyst at Forrester Research, in its Network Strategy Service. Last week’s Distributed Denial of Service attack waged against Dyn recalls a report I wrote that I still consider groundbreaking. I asked George Colony, CEO/Founder of Forrester, if I could reproduce it here because I believe the technique I used — called scenarioContinue reading “Beyond Internet Gaga”

Viewpoint follows role: 2013 in review

I left Acquia in the capable hands of its current management team last December after I had the fortunate experience to be tightly connected to TechStars during the Fall 2012 class. That involvement made me wonder whether there might be a business opportunity in building an accelerator for companies using Drupal as a technology platform, and I left Acquia to follow that idea. FortunatelyContinue reading “Viewpoint follows role: 2013 in review”

Why zero-revenue companies can be worth billions

In a recent blog post, Fred Destin of Atlas Ventures (again) added sanity into the discussions about why zero-revenue companies can receive valuations of many billions of dollars. I agree with everything he said. There’s one more point I’d add: Large scale audiences have a valuation-per-engaged-user. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all started out as zero-revenue companies. ButContinue reading “Why zero-revenue companies can be worth billions”