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”
Category Archives: startups
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”
The Boston Tech Line
I’ve recently been struck by the the office locations at which I’ve found Boston area startups taking root. And a pattern emerged for me: the center of gravity is along the MBTA Red Line. And there are so many companies it now significantly outweighs the historically-named “128 Corridor.” This shift in the Boston tech scene is so significant that IContinue reading “The Boston Tech Line”
Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages
I’m about 10 months into helping a bunch of startups through organizations like TechStars, MassChallenge, and others. And I’ve seen an emerging trend among startups that I want to discourage: The over – and inappropriate – use of “Chief (fill-in-the-blank)” titles. “What’s the problem,” you ask? “Why not give people CxO roles?” There are a bunch ofContinue reading “Minimize use of CxO titles at early company stages”
Families – not age – affects startups
On February 17, 2013, Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe wrote an article Exploring the Age Divide in Boston Start-Ups. It infuritated me for two reasons: 1) It’s probably true, but 2) for different reasons than Scott asserted. Scott’s premise is that start-ups are only the domain of young, 20-somethings. He concludes “older people” (over 30?)Continue reading “Families – not age – affects startups”
JAB Ventures 